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Natural Environment Bill

Foundations - Key instruments - Relationship between national rule and other instruments

40: How instruments are more restrictive or enabling than national rule

You could also call this:

"How local rules can be stricter or more lenient than national rules"

Illustration for Natural Environment Bill

You will learn how some rules can be more restrictive or enabling than national rules. When a rule is more restrictive, it means it has stricter conditions than the national rule. This can happen in a few ways, such as classifying an activity more strictly or imposing extra conditions. You can think of an instrument as a type of rule that can be found in plans, permits, or bylaws. An instrument is more enabling than a national rule if it allows something that the national rule does not. This section of the proposed Natural Environment Bill is important for understanding how these rules work together. The term instrument refers to a range of things, including rules in plans, natural resource permits, bylaws, or water conservation orders. These instruments can affect how you interact with the environment, so it is good to know how they work. You can find more information about how these rules apply in sections 41 to 44 of the bill.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1557529.

This page was last updated on 14 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Environment and resources > ConservationEnvironment and resources > Town planningGovernment and voting > Local councils

39: Permitted activity rules, or

"Rules for activities that are allowed but need permission or registration"

41: Relationship between national rule and rule in plan or proposed plan, or

"Which rule to follow: national or local plan rules"

Part 2Foundations
Key instruments: Relationship between national rule and other instruments

40How instruments are more restrictive or enabling than national rule

This section applies for the purpose of sections 41 to 44.
An instrument is more restrictive than a national rule if the instrument does 1 or more of the following:
classify an activity more restrictively than the national rule:
impose conditions on an activity that the national rule does not impose or authorise:
prohibit or restrict an activity that the national rule permits or authorises.

An instrument is more enabling than a national rule if it permits or authorises an activity that the national rule prohibits or restricts.
In this section, an instrument means a rule in a plan, a rule in a proposed plan that has legal effect, a natural resource permit, a bylaw, or a water conservation order.