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Planning Bill

Foundations - National instruments - National standards

59: Purpose of national standards

You could also call this:

"What national standards are meant to achieve"

The proposed law says national standards have some main goals. You will see national standards are used to implement national policy direction, and to keep procedures and rules consistent. They also help keep regulations consistent across New Zealand. The Minister must check that a new national standard will work as intended before it is made. You can think of regulatory consistency as making sure the same rules apply everywhere in a consistent way. This helps when regulating activities or their effects across different areas in New Zealand.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1453533.

This page was last updated on 12 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Government and voting > Government departmentsBusiness > Industry rules

58: National standards required for specified content, or

"National rules to guide planning decisions"

60: What national standards can do, or

"How National Standards Control What You Can and Can't Do"

Part 2Foundations
National instruments: National standards

59Purpose of national standards

The purpose of national standards is to do 1 or more of the following:
to implement national policy direction:
to provide procedural or administrative consistency:
to provide regulatory consistency:
to provide specific direction on how a goal is to be achieved in relation to a matter that is not covered by a national policy direction.

Before making national standards, the Minister must be satisfied that the proposed national standard achieves its purpose.
In this section, regulatory consistency means consistency in how an activity or its effects is regulated nationally or within or across districts, regions, or any specified area.