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Resource Management Act 1991

Standards, policy statements, and plans - National direction - National planning standards

58H: Changing, replacing, or revoking national planning standards

You could also call this:

“How the government can change or cancel national planning rules in New Zealand.”

The Minister can change or replace a national planning standard by following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E. You need to know that the Minister does not have to follow this process if they are changing a standard for a reason specified in section 44(3). In this case, the Minister must comply with section 44(4).

The Minister can also change the time period for complying with some standards without following the usual process, but they must give notice of the change. You can find more information about this in section 58F(2). The Minister can revoke a national planning standard, but they must give the public and iwi authorities notice and time to comment.

If a national planning standard is revoked, it does not affect any plans that were made using the standard. A change to or revocation of a national planning standard is secondary legislation, which has its own publication requirements, as outlined in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7236204.

Topics:
Environment and resources > Town planning Government and voting > Government departments Māori affairs > Treaty of Waitangi
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58G: First set of national planning standards, or

"The first set of rules for how plans and policies should be written and organised"

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58I: Local authority recognition of national planning standards, or

"Councils must follow rules for making their planning documents match the national standards"

Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
National direction: National planning standards

58HChanging, replacing, or revoking national planning standards

  1. The Minister may change or replace a national planning standard, following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E.

  2. The Minister need not follow the process set out in sections 58D and 58E if the Minister is recommending a change to a national planning standard for a reason specified in section 44(3), in which case,—

  3. section 44(3) applies as if a reference to section 46A were a reference to sections 58D and 58E and a reference to a national environmental standard were a reference to a national planning standard; and
    1. the Minister must comply with section 44(4) (which applies as if a reference to section 46A were a reference to sections 58D and 58E and a reference to an amendment were a reference to a change).

      1. The Minister may change the period for compliance specified in standards 17.2.a and 17.8.a of the National Planning Standards 2019 from 3 years to 5 years without following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E, other than to give notice of the change in the Gazette and on the Internet site referred to in section 58F(2).

      2. Repealed

      3. The Minister may revoke a national planning standard in whole or in part, but must first give the public and iwi authorities notice, with adequate time and opportunity to comment on the proposed revocation.

      4. The revocation of the whole or part of a national planning standard does not have the effect of revoking any provision of a plan included at the direction of, or in reliance on, a revoked provision of the national planning standard.

      5. A change to or revocation of a national planning standard is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

      Notes
      • Section 58H: inserted, on , by section 50 of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).
      • Section 58H(2): replaced, on , by section 19 of the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024 (2024 No 43).
      • Section 58H(2A): inserted, on , by Schedule 3 clause 9 of the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 42).
      • Section 58H(2B): repealed, on , by section 6 of the Resource Management (Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Repeal and Interim Fast-track Consenting) Act 2023 (2023 No 68).
      • Section 58H(3): replaced, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
      • Section 58H(5): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).