Government proposes RMA overhaul to infrastructure, freshwater, housing regulations

Thursday, 29 May 2025

The Government has laid out a spree of changes to infrastructure, freshwater, and housing regulations aimed at enabling economic activity.

Resource Management Act (RMA) Reform Minister Chris Bishop led Cabinet ministers in announcing consultation on changes to national directions and standards, aimed at simplifying regulation for the electricity sector, quarries, house building, and farmers.

The changes, part of “phase two” of the Government overhaul of resource management, are likely to be criticised for watering down environmental protections - despite assurances the environment will remain protected as regulation is reduced.

“We are announcing consultation will begin today on the biggest change to national direction since the RMA came into force in 1991,“ Bishop said, at a press conference in Auckland.

“This planning system will fundamentally change the way our economy operates for the better. It will be cheaper, faster and more efficient.”

The Government intends to replace two regulatory directives for managing freshwater, the national policy statement freshwater management, and the national environmental standard for freshwater.

One change would be “rebalancing” Te Mana o te Wai “hierarchy of obligations”, such as obligations to the health and well-being of the fresh water ecosystem, and the health needs of people, so that economic impacts can be balanced against environmental goals.

“This is a key to step towards restoring balance in how fresh water is managed across the country and ensuring the interests of all water users, including farmers … are properly reflected,” Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said.

“The current system, Te Mana o te Wai, has caused frustration across rural New Zealand, with some councils applying it. We're proposing practical, farmer-focused reforms that will restore confidence and reduce red tape.”

Regulation around creating water storage will be liberalised, definitions around wetlands will be changed, and a requirement for councils to map wetlands by 2030 will be removed.

Councils will also be permitted to deviate from “national bottom lines” in environmental standards and the monitoring for this, “to account for local circumstances”.

The Government is also considering changing requirements placed on the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Use of such fertiliser is regulated as it pollutes waterways.

“We’re putting outcomes ahead of process,” McClay said.

National standards and policy statements for marine aquaculture, commercial forestry, highly-productive land, and excluding stock from waterways would also be changed.

Freshwater, biodiversity, and productive land regulations would be changed to allow for more quarrying and mining - which the Government says is critical for growing housing supply, building infrastructure, and boosting mineral exports.

“It is a cold, hard fact that New Zealand needs more quarries. We make them far too hard to build, and once they are built, we make them far too hard to expand. We need quarries for roads and construction,” Bishop said.

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, in a statement, said the Government was “cutting red tape and barriers, not corners”.

“A mining operator currently needs to navigate the often contradictory and confusing requirements of many national direction instruments.

“By amending these instruments to remove duplication and provide more clarity, we are reducing costs and inefficiencies and providing the certainty potential investors and operators need to take well-designed projects forward – something our regulatory regime has long lacked.”

A new national policy statement for infrastructure would also be drawn up, as should be standards for granny flats, papakāinga, and natural hazards.

The new statement on infrastructure would “enable a more streamlined and efficient system that supports infrastructure delivery”, according to high-level information provided by the Government.

Electricity regulations would be changed to ease the consenting of renewable energy projects.

“The changes, I want to stress, are highly technical … they are complicated, but they are extremely important,” Bishop said, of the directions and standards.

Consultation on the changes will be open until July 27. The Government intends to make the changes law by the end of the year, in time for the replacement of the RMA in 2027.