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Natural Environment Bill

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

44: Relationship between national rules and bylaws

You could also call this:

"How National Rules and Local Bylaws Work Together"

Illustration for Natural Environment Bill

You will have a new rule about how national rules and bylaws work together. A bylaw can be stronger than a national rule if it is more restrictive and the national rule says that is okay. You can think of a bylaw as a special rule made under a law. You can also have a bylaw that allows more things than a national rule, but only if the national rule says that is allowed. This means bylaws can be more flexible in some cases. The proposed law change will affect how bylaws and national rules interact. The term bylaw refers to a special rule made under any law. This helps clarify what is meant by bylaw in the proposed law change. It is important to understand what a bylaw is to know how it will work with national rules.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1557533.

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

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsEnvironment and resources > Town planning

43: Relationship between national rules and water conservation orders, or

"Which rules come first: national or water conservation rules?"

45: Defined terms, or

"What special words mean in the Natural Environment Bill"

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

44Relationship between national rules and bylaws

A bylaw prevails over a national rule if it is more restrictive than the rule and the rule expressly allows the bylaw to be more restrictive than it.
A bylaw may be more enabling than a national rule if the rule expressly allows a bylaw to be more enabling than it.
In this section, bylaw means a bylaw made under any enactment.