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Natural Environment Bill

Key roles - Functions and powers of central and local government

218: Ministers may direct commencement of review

You could also call this:

"Ministers can ask councils to review their environment plans"

Illustration for Natural Environment Bill

The Minister can tell a regional council to start reviewing its natural environment plan. You will know when this happens because the Minister must say when the review should start. The Minister must give the council a reasonable amount of time to start the review. The Minister's direction to review the plan will follow some rules that are explained in section 112(2) to (4). These rules will be used with some changes if they are needed for the review. This means the review will be done in a way that is fair and makes sense for the council's plan.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1557555.

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

Topics:

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

217: Minister may direct preparation of plan, document, change, or variation, or

"The Minister can ask a council to create or change a plan to help the environment."

219: Delegation of functions by Ministers, or

"Ministers can give jobs to others to do on their behalf"

Part 5Key roles
Functions and powers of central and local government

218Ministers may direct commencement of review

The Minister may direct a regional council to commence a review of the whole or any part of its natural environment plan and, if the Minister does so, must specify a reasonable period within which the review must commence.
For the purposes of subsection (1), section 112(2) to (4) applies to the review with any necessary modification.