General policy statement

The Natural Environment Bill will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), working in tandem with the Planning Bill. Once passed, the Bills will be known as the Natural Environment Act and the Planning Act.

The Natural Environment Bill and the Planning Bill provide distinct, but consistent, approaches for environmental management and land use planning, respectively. The Natural Environment Bill establishes a framework for the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment. The Planning Bill establishes a framework for planning and regulating the use, development, and enjoyment of land.

The development of the new planning and environmental management system created by these Bills was guided by the following objectives:

• to make it easier to get things done by—

  • unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth:

  • enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure for the future, including doubling renewable energy:

  • enabling primary sector growth and development (including aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture, and mining).

The intention is that these objectives will be done while also—

• safeguarding the natural environment and human health:

• adapting to the effects of climate change and reducing the risks from natural hazards:

• improving regulatory quality in the planning system:

• upholding Treaty of Waitangi settlements and other arrangements.

The Bills address multiple problems with the current planning and environmental management system. Together, they are expected to help to—

• reduce the number of consents needed by narrowing the type of effects that are regulated:

• make it easier to build homes and infrastructure by enabling the establishment of a clear set of rules under each Bill to guide councils and decision makers:

• increase consistency between council plans across the country through greater standardisation:

• reduce the number of council plans by providing for 1 plan per region that implements national instruments and includes spatial, natural environment and land-use plans in 1 place:

• safeguard the natural environment and human health by introducing an environmental limits framework covering air, water, land, soils, and indigenous biodiversity, and setting out a regime to manage resource use within these limits:

• make better use of data and technology to enable faster, more consistent planning decisions and make it easier to monitor performance and outcomes.

This Bill is an omnibus Bill, as it amends more than 1 Act. It is introduced under Standing Order 267(1)(a) as the amendments deal with an interrelated topic that can be regarded as implementing a single broad policy—to establish a new framework for the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment.

Alongside the Planning Bill, this Bill creates a system that will operate like a funnel, starting with clear goals that narrow what can be considered at the top and each level of the system. The system architecture in the Bill comprises—

• a set of goals that tightly define the scope of the system:

• a set of national instruments, comprising:

  • national policy direction (NPD) that particularises the goals:

  • national standards that provide further detailed direction for implementing the NPD and clearer, more standardised direction for decision making and plans:

• a single combined plan for each region made up of 3 integrated components:

  • a regional spatial plan that implements the national instruments to support urban development and infrastructure provision within environmental limits; and

  • a natural environment plan under this Bill that implements spatial plans by applying standardised overlays, rules, and methodologies; and

  • and a land use plan under the Planning Bill that implements spatial plans by applying standardised zones, rules, and methodologies; and

  • permits under this Bill and consent under the Planning Bill.

Each instrument must implement the one above it. (The land use plans and the natural environment plans operate at the same level of the funnel under each Bill.)

Community engagement is intended to primarily occur during spatial and natural environment plan development rather than at the permitting level (as per the RMA).

This system architecture is intended to make the system simpler and more efficient, reducing relitigation of matters that have already been decided higher up in the system. The levels of the system are outlined in more detail below.

The purpose of the Bill is to establish a framework for the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment.

The goals of the Bill define the outcomes the environmental management system is trying to achieve. They will be particularised through the NPD, which directs how the goals must be achieved. Goals cannot be relitigated at lower levels of the system. All persons exercising or performing functions, duties, or powers under this Bill must seek to achieve the goals in accordance with the funnel provision. The goals of the Bill are to—

• enable the use and development of natural resources within environmental limits:

• safeguard the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems:

• protect human health from harm caused by the discharge of contaminants:

• achieve no net loss in indigenous biodiversity:

• manage the effects of natural hazards associated with the use and protection of natural resources through proportionate, risk-based planning:

• provide for Māori interests through—

  • Māori participation in the development of national instruments, spatial planning, and natural environment plans; and

  • the identification and protection of sites of significance to Māori (including wāhi tapu, water bodies, or sites in or on the coastal marine area); and

  • enabling the development and protection of identified Māori land.

The policy intention is that there is no inherent hierarchy within the goals.

The Bill sets out procedural principles to guide how decisions are made across the system. These procedural principles are intended to ensure that decisions are made in a clear, timely, proportionate, and evidence-based manner. The procedural principles also require that, when performing a function or exercising a power under the Bill, people act in an enabling manner that is consistent with other specified provisions.

Central government has a broader and more active role in shaping and overseeing the new system. The Minister is responsible for—

• recommending, making, and approving national instruments, including developing nationally standardised overlays, provisions, and methodologies, and monitoring their implementation and effect:

• setting through national standards, limits to protect human health for freshwater coastal water, land and soil, and air and methodologies for regional councils to follow when setting ecosystem health limits through natural environment plans:

• recommending issue of, and monitoring the implementation of, water conservation orders:

• monitoring:

• system performance and the effect and implementation of this Bill.

The Minister has the power to specify minimum levels for ecosystem health limits.

The Minister also has powers to intervene, including to—

• direct regional councils and territorial authorities to prepare a plan, plan change, or variation to a proposed plan to address an issue.

The Minister may also exercise some powers set out in the Planning Bill as if they applied in relation to this Bill, including to—

• investigate and make recommendations on the performance or exercise by a local authority of any of its functions, duties, or powers under this Bill:

• appoint 1 or more persons to exercise or perform all or any functions, duties, or powers in place of a local authority:

• direct a local authority to achieve an outcome specified by the Minister.

The Minister has powers to recommend the making of regulations on a range of matters where these are contemplated in the Bill, such as processes and procedures related to—

• fees and charges, including cost recovery:

• infringement offences and infringement fees:

• water permits and discharge permits:

• rules to be included in any natural environment plan or proposed natural environment plan:

• prescribing harmful substances or hazardous waste:

• criteria for the exercise of hearings:

• compliance and monitoring:

• prescribing long-lived infrastructure:

• freshwater farm plans and requirements for stock exclusion from water bodies:

• permit processing:

• emergency response and recovery:

• prescribing harmful substances or hazardous waste:

• anything this Bill says may or must be provided for by regulations.

The Minister of Conservation will have the responsibilities, duties and powers that a regional council would have under the Bill in respect of coastal marine areas of specified offshore islands.

The Minister responsible for aquaculture will have powers to recommend the making of regulations on several matters, including—

• amending provisions in operative plans relating to aquaculture activities in the coastal marine area:

• establishing rules for allocation of specified aquaculture-related authorisations:

• amending natural environment plans in relation to aquaculture activities and allocation processes.

In some cases, the Minister responsible for aquaculture may also direct regional councils to process and hear together applications for coastal permits to occupy space for aquaculture activities in the common marine and coastal area.

The chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment must produce a system performance report every 3 years. They may also undertake a strategic review of any aspect of the system under the Bill at the Minister’s request or at the request of any entity performing or exercising functions, duties, or powers under the Bill, or on their own initiative.

Under the Bill, regional councils will have a general responsibility to enable and regulate the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment within their regions. These responsibilities must be in line with any direction provided via higher order instruments, such as national instruments or the spatial plan. In undertaking their responsibilities, regional councils must regulate and manage—

• the quality and quantity of water and geothermal resources:

• the discharge of contaminants to land, air, or water:

• indigenous biodiversity:

• the coastal marine area, including coastal occupation:

• natural hazard risks as they relate to natural resources:

• soil conservation:

• the bed of any water body:

• the use of land where required for regulating the use of, and effects on, natural resources:

• the allocation of natural resources.

The functions of regional councils under the Bill are to—

• jointly make and maintain a spatial plan for the region with territorial authorities:

• set ecological health limits:

• make, maintain, and monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the natural environment plan for their region:

• regional councils will be the permit authority for their regions, will regulate and manage effects, and will undertake compliance monitoring and enforcement:

• regional councils are also responsible for keeping and maintaining certain records for each iwi and hapū within their regions.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) may perform compliance and enforcement functions when necessary or desirable to promote the purpose of this Bill. In some cases, the responsible Minister may delegate functions, duties, or powers to the EPA, such as deciding whether to intervene in the enforcement actions of a regional council.

The Bill introduces a more targeted and proportionate approach to managing effects by narrowing the scope of effects that are subject to assessment and regulation. Under the Bill, activities that will have a less than minor effect will not be considered, unless they contribute to a cumulative effect. The new system will also allow effects to be avoided, minimised or remedied where practicable, and offset and compensated for where appropriate. National instruments will be enabled to set out how effects should be managed in certain situations. Together a narrower scope of, and higher threshold for, effects managed is intended to reduce the number of permits required by the system and enable a more permissive environment.

National instruments will set out detailed objectives, policies, and standardised approaches for addressing national and regional priorities. National instruments will comprise the NPD and national standards.

Under the Bills, national instruments will be set by central government and implemented by local government through spatial plans and natural environment plans. Each Bill will have 1 corresponding NPD, which is intended to be a short, targeted document made up of objectives, policies, and directives that provide direction on the goals (such as environmental protection, economic growth, housing, and infrastructure), including how to manage conflicts between these matters. The NPD will be implemented through standardised direction (such as standard zones, overlays, rules, and methodologies) set out in national standards. This is intended to create greater consistency across the system by providing standard approaches to planning and environmental management.

The Bill requires environmental limits to be set for air, freshwater, coastal water, land, and soil, and indigenous biodiversity. These limits are to protect both human health and the life-supporting capacity of the natural environment. There are two exceptions: no human health limit is to be set for indigenous biodiversity, and an ecosystem health limit is not compulsory for air quality.

The responsible Minister will set limits to protect human health, informed by Ministry of Health guidelines, through national standards. Regional councils will set ecological health limits in their natural environment plans following methods prescribed in national standards. The Bill enables the Minister to specify minimum levels for ecosystem health limits. If regional councils want to set less stringent limits for ecosystem health than a specified minimum level, then they must produce a justification report.

Regional councils will be responsible for allocating natural resources through their natural environment plans. Natural resources can be allocated through permitted activities and permits granted in the order in which they are lodged with a council, as well as new allocation methods such as auctions, tenders, and comparative consenting. These new allocation methods cannot be used until they are introduced through national instruments. This is intended to make resource allocation more efficient, especially when resources are in short supply.

Natural resources that can be allocated include—

• the taking of water (including freshwater, geothermal, and coastal):

• heat or energy from water or the material surrounding geothermal water:

• discharges to air or water:

• occupation of space in the common marine and coastal area:

• natural materials such as sand, shingle, and shell in the beds of rivers and lakes owned by the Crown and the common marine and coastal area.

In the new system, there must be a combined plan for each region at all times. A combined regional plan consists of the regional spatial plan, a land use plan for each district in the region under the Planning Bill, and the natural environment plan for the region under this Bill.

Under the Bill, regional councils will be required to prepare and maintain a natural environment plan as part of the combined regional plan. The purpose of natural environment plans is to enable and regulate the use, protection, and enhancement of natural resources within a region, and to assist regional councils in carrying out their functions and responsibilities. The plan-making process is designed to ensure consistency with national instruments and the regional spatial plan while providing for local input.

Councils will have 2 options when choosing content for their plans. They may select from nationally standardised provisions to efficiently assemble the plan’s content such as overlays and rules. They may also create bespoke provisions, which must be supported by a justification report explaining why a departure from the standardised approach is necessary. The parts of plans that contain bespoke provisions are subject to merits submissions and appeals. In contrast, nationally standardised provisions would not require submissions on the substance of those provisions, and a simpler evaluation report would be required.

These processes are intended to speed up plan-making processes when using standardised content, while providing for local variation when justified.

This Bill refers to the Planning Bill for provisions relating to regulatory relief. The Planning Bill will introduce a regulatory relief framework that requires councils to consider the impact of specified planning controls on landowners when they are developing plans. Access to regulatory relief in this Bill is limited to planning controls that—

• have a significant impact on the reasonable use of land; and

• relate to land-based indigenous biodiversity, significant natural areas, or sites of significance to Māori.

Under the Bill, resource consents will be replaced by permits. Activity classification will be simplified into 4 categories: permitted, restricted discretionary, discretionary, and prohibited activities. Each activity category will be subject to clear and distinct information and assessment requirements. Regional councils will be permit authorities whose permission is required to use a natural resource or undertake an activity for which a permit is required under the Bill. The new system will also only allow people who are materially affected to participate in the permitting process by raising the threshold for identifying someone as an affected person to more than minor. Applications will only be publicly notified when adverse effects are more significant and all affected persons cannot be identified, or the applicant requests it. This is intended to enable faster, cheaper, and more certain permitting while reducing the overall number of permits required by the system.

The Planning Bill establishes a new Planning Tribunal, intended to provide for a faster, and more cost-effective, way of resolving certain, lower-level, disputes between system users and councils. This Bill enables people to access the Planning Tribunal for certain decisions made under the Bill. The Planning Tribunal is aimed at providing an additional accountability mechanism to help ensure that the new system delivers the desired shifts in planning practice. The Planning Tribunal will be established as a division of the Environment Court, with its own chairperson and pool of adjudicators.

Under this Bill, the key functions of the Planning Tribunal will include reviewing administrative decisions made in the processing of permits, for example, requests for further information, notification decisions, interpreting permit conditions, and being able to strike out permit conditions that are deemed to be out of scope of the system.

The Planning Tribunal will have streamlined processes to support the prompt resolution of matters. It will be able to confirm, modify, or quash the decision or aspect of decision being reviewed, or send matters back to a local authority for reconsideration. It will be empowered to regulate its own procedures. There will be a presumption that matters will be decided on the papers unless a hearing is considered necessary.

The Planning Tribunal will not have a role in hearing appeals on plans, designations and notified permits where there are third-party submitters, nor deal with enforcement matters. These will remain with the Environment Court due to the complexity and stakes involved of these appeals.

The Environment Court will continue to hear appeals on proposed plan and plan changes (although these are limited to points of law in relation to standardised provisions), appeals to notified permits or applications for reviews or changes of permit conditions where there are submitters on the applications. The Environment Court will also hear appeals on designations, and merits appeals on bespoke provisions in natural environment plans, as well as appeals on decisions of the Planning Tribunal on points of law and the issue of abatement notices. The Environment Court may also issue enforcement orders. The ability for the Environment Court to consider direct referrals and nationally significant proposals will be removed from the system.

The Bill contains a goal to provide for Māori interests through Māori participation in the development of the NPD and plans, the identification and protection of sites of significance, enabling the development and protection of identified Māori land. Policies for this goal will be set through the NPD, which The Bill includes a descriptive Treaty clause that sets out how the Crown’s responsibilities under the Treaty of Waitangi are provided for in the Bill through listed provisions. These include requirements to notify and consult iwi authorities during the development of national instruments and plans that councils will have to implement when developing plans.

The Bill includes provisions that address how Treaty settlement redress, Ngā hapū o Ngāti Porou arrangements, and Marine and Coastal Area Act 2011 rights interact with the new system, as follows:

• provisions that provide for statutory acknowledgement redress in the new system; and

• a provision that commits the Crown to work with post-settlement governance entities, and Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou, to seek agreement on how their Treaty settlement redress or arrangement will operate in the new system with the same or equivalent effect to the greatest extent possible; and

• before any agreement is reached, a provision that requires those exercising or performing powers, functions, or duties to give an effect that is the same, or equivalent, to the greatest extent possible as the effect the redress or arrangement has in relation to the RMA; and

• provisions that ensure that the rights available under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 are maintained in the system.

The Bill contains a clause clarifying (for the avoidance of doubt) that the Bill does not create or transfer any proprietary right or interest or extinguish or determine any customary right or interest that may exist in freshwater or geothermal resources.

These provisions are intended to provide more certainty for all users of the system about how Māori interests and the Treaty of Waitangi are provided for.

The Bill retains and strengthens core compliance and enforcement components of the RMA. These are intended to prevent adverse effects and remedy harm that occurs, support information gathering to inform decision-making, enable a range of accountability mechanisms, and enable effective administration of compliance and enforcement and cost recovery.

Regional councils will be responsible for monitoring compliance with standards, rules, and permits and are enabled set charges to fund these responsibilities. They must respond proportionately, consistently, and reasonably to non-compliance using the powers and enforcement tools available to them under the Bill. Responding to non-compliance must be done in a way that gives effect to the purpose, goals, and procedural principles of the Bill. Regional councils must prepare and publish a compliance and enforcement strategy in accordance with the requirements set out in this Bill.

If necessary or desirable to promote the purpose of the Bill, the EPA may also perform some enforcement functions, including—

• taking any enforcement action where the local authority is not taking an enforcement action for the same incident:

• assisting the local authority with an enforcement action in relation to an incident and any subsequent action:

• intervening in, and taking over, a local authority’s enforcement action:

• taking enforcement action against a regional council.

Regional councils, the Minister, and the chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment all have system monitoring responsibilities under this Bill. Monitoring is expected to support continuous improvement in plan-making and implementation and will inform future plan reviews. The monitoring processes in the new system are designed to support the system performance and stewardship functions.

Regional councils are responsible for monitoring the whole or any part of the region as far as is appropriate to effectively carry out their functions and responsibilities under the Bill. This is intended to ensure that natural environment plans are implemented as intended, and that plan outcomes are tracked over time. Regional councils’ monitoring must include—

• the efficiency and effectiveness of limits, rules, or other methods in the regional plan:

• the performing or exercise of any functions and responsibilities under its plan or delegated or transferred by the regional council:

• the efficiency and effectiveness of processes used by the council:

• the exercise of permits in its region:

• the exercise of protected customary rights in the region, including any controls imposed on the exercise of that right under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011:

• the implementation and effectiveness of any water conservation orders in the region.

Regional councils also have a duty to compile and publish a review of the results of monitoring undertaken no less than every 5 years.

The Minister is responsible for monitoring—

• the performance of the system, including monitoring the functions, duties, and powers performed or exercised by any person under this Bill:

• the implementation and effect of this Bill, regulations under it, the NPD, and national instruments:

• the relationship between the functions, powers, and duties of central government and local government:

• any significant land use matter as the Minister sees fit.

The Minister may investigate and make recommendations on councils’ actions under this Bill. Where a council fails to perform or exercise any of their functions, duties, or powers under the Bill, the Minister may appoint 1 or more persons to perform do so instead.

The chief executive must prepare and maintain a system performance framework under this Bill. The purpose of the framework is to maintain regular strategic oversight of the system by—

• improving understanding of whether and to what extent legislative and system outcomes are achieved:

• enabling continuous evidence-based improvements to the operation and implementation of the system:

• supporting continuous improvement in the way in which the legislation is implemented:

• establishing a process to identify and respond to emerging system-wide issues, including national direction outcomes.

In consultation with the Minister, the chief executive must set out key performance indicators for the framework. The chief executive may collect data from any entity that performs or exercises functions, duties, or powers under the Bill.

The chief executive must produce a system performance report every 3 years. This must provide advice on interventions within and outside the control of regional councils to manage environmental limits in an efficient and effective way, and whether additional government intervention is recommended. The chief executive must provide this report to the Minister as soon as practicable and make it publicly available.

Departmental disclosure statement

The Ministry for the Environment is required to prepare a disclosure statement to assist with the scrutiny of this Bill. The disclosure statement provides access to information about the policy development of the Bill and identifies any significant or unusual legislative features of the Bill.

A copy of the statement can be found at http://legislation.govt.nz/disclosure.aspx?type=bill&subtype=government&year=2025&no=234

Regulatory impact statement

The Ministry for the Environment produced a regulatory impact statement to help inform the main policy decisions taken by the Government relating to the contents of this Bill.

A copy of this regulatory impact statement can be found at—

• https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/MfE-RIS-Replacing-the-RMA.pdf

• https://www.regulation.govt.nz/our-work/regulatory-impact-statements/

Clause by clause analysis

Clause 1 is the Title clause.

Clause 2 is the commencement clause. It provides that the Bill comes into force on the day that it receives Royal assent with the exception of the provisions specified in clause 2(1), which come into force on the specified transition date (as defined in clause 4(5) of Schedule 1 of the Planning Bill).