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51: Matters to be considered and board of inquiry's report
or “A group of experts looks at important things and tells the government what they think about new rules for the environment.”
You could also call this:

“The Minister can stop a proposed national policy before it's approved and must tell everyone why.”

The Minister can decide to take back all or part of a proposed national policy statement before it’s approved. This can happen at any time before the statement is officially approved under section 52(2).

If the Minister does this, they need to tell everyone about it. They must make a public announcement explaining why they’re taking back the statement.

Sometimes, a special group called a board of inquiry looks into these statements. If the Minister takes back the statement before this group finishes their work, a few things can happen:

If the Minister takes back everything the board was looking into, the board stops working right away.

If the Minister only takes back some things, but not everything, the board keeps working on the parts that weren’t taken back. They ignore the parts that were taken back and just focus on what’s left.

This part of the law helps make sure that the Minister can change their mind about a national policy statement if they need to, even if people have already started working on it.

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Next up: 52: Consideration of recommendations and approval or withdrawal of statement

or “The Minister reviews suggestions, decides on changes, and gets approval for important environmental rules.”
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Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
National direction: National policy statements

51AWithdrawal of proposed national policy statement

  1. The Minister may withdraw all or part of a proposed national policy statement at any time before the statement is approved under section 52(2).

  2. The Minister must give public notice of the withdrawal, including the reasons for the withdrawal.

  3. If a board of inquiry has not reported to the Minister under section 51(2) before public notice is given—

  4. withdrawing all matters the board was appointed to inquire into, the board is discharged on and from the date of the notice; or
    1. withdrawing any, but not all, of the matters the board was appointed to inquire into, the board must inquire into and report on only the matters that have not been withdrawn, despite any other section of this Act.

      Notes
      • Section 51A: inserted, on , by section 51 of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 31).