Government pushes overhaul of freshwater rules

Friday, 30 May 2025

A proposed shake-up of freshwater rules is drawing support from farmers and alarm from environmental advocates.

On Thursday, the Government proposed overhauling several regulatory frameworks spanning housing, infrastructure and the environment.

The proposals, alongside alternative options, are out for public consultation.

Among them is a major rewrite of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM), which guides how regional councils manage and protect rivers, lakes, and aquifers.

In what has been framed as a “farmer-focused” reform that will restore “balance”, the Government proposals would likely weaken existing freshwater protections in favour of economic uses of water. They have already been met with support from farmers and opposition by environmental groups.

The NPS-FW has been overhauled many times, most recently in 2020. Its current form centres on Te Mana o te Wai (TMoTW), a hierarchy of three obligations that prioritises the health of water bodies above all else.

Councils are required to reflect this in their planning, marking a significant shift from previous approaches where water quality could be weighed alongside economic considerations.

Despite its introduction five years ago, most councils have yet to implement plans that align with the 2020 policy. An original deadline of December 2024 was pushed to 2027 by the current Government in anticipation of it passing its own NPS-FW.

Supporters of TMoTW praise it for putting ecosystem health at the centre of water management. But critics, particularly within the farming sector, argue the concept is vague, overly prescriptive, and imposes excessive costs on rural landowners.

Thursday’s announcement makes good on the coalition agreement’s pledge to “rebalance” TMoTW to “better reflect the interests of all water users”.

More broadly, the freshwater proposals would simplify rules to remove costs and complexity, while providing more flexibility at a regional level.

“This is a key step toward restoring balance in how freshwater is managed across the country and ensuring the interests of all water users, including farmers, growers, and rural communities, are properly reflected,” said Agriculture Minister Todd McClay.

He described the proposed changes as a corrective to a system that had unfairly burdened farmers.

“Farmers aren’t asking for a free pass – they’re asking for a fair go,” he said.

“We won’t stand by while councils weaponise Te Mana o te Wai to push ideology over common sense. It must reflect the importance of freshwater to all New Zealanders.”

The proposals

Key changes include replacing the current NPS-FW’s single objective — giving effect to the hierarchy of obligations in TMoTW — with multiple new objectives.

These include requiring councils to create plans that:

• Protect the life-supporting capacity of freshwater and the health of people and communities, and;

• Enable communities to provide for their social, cultural, and economic wellbeing, including productive land use.

Councils would be expected to consider these objectives equally, rather than prioritising water health above all else.

Councils would also need to factor in the cost of any regulatory changes, who would bear those costs, and the timeframe for implementation. The proposals emphasise that meaningful freshwater improvement is a “long-term” process that would likely happen over many years.

The Government was also considering the status of an existing policy to “maintain or improve freshwater quality”. It is currently a directive (a way to give practical effect to an objective), but the Government proposes elevating it to an objective, giving it more weight.

In regard to TMoTW, it has proposed removing its hierarchy of obligations and decreasing its legal weight, making it something for councils to “have regard” for rather than “give effect” to.

It is also consulting on an option to remove TMoTW provisions completely, a step that would likely lead to significant backlash from iwi and Māori organisations.

Changes are also proposed for the National Objectives Framework (NOF), a technical system that sets bottom-line thresholds for pollutants such as nitrogen and E. coli.

Councils would be given more flexibility in how and when they meet these standards.

Reaction

The announcement drew a strong reaction, with farmers backing the changes and environmentalists warning they could damage water quality.

Farming groups have vigorously lobbied the Government for numerous law changes, particularly concerning freshwater, arguing that current rules were detached from on-the-ground reality.

'The previous government’s freshwater rules were completely unworkable for farmers,” said Federated Farmers freshwater spokesperson Colin Hurst.

'The current Government simply had to push pause on these rules — and now we’re seeing steps towards more sensible national direction to local authorities.'

TMoTW had been “unworkable and highly problematic”, he said, and was “wildly imbalanced”. Federated Farmers, he said, believed it could be worth removing the concept from the law completely.

Beef + Lamb also welcomed the announcement. Chair Kate Acland said the current system was “complex, often impractical and focused on unachievable numeric limits rather than the health of ecosystems”.

“[W]e’ve made it clear that there needs to be a rethink about how we approach freshwater regulation,” she said. “Rules need to account for natural processes, better accommodate different land uses and provide more realistic targets and timeframes.”

Environmental groups, by contrast, warned that the changes represent a roll-back of hard-won protections.

“Ministers are using comforting words like ‘balance’ but the details of this policy demonstrate that this is not about balance or protecting the public,” said Tom Kay of Choose Clean Water.

“Don’t be fooled — this is a massive blow for the health of our water and the health of our communities.”

TMoTW was a “vastly improved” decision-making framework, Kay said, and had been frequently misrepresented by its critics.

Forest & Bird said Thursday’s announcements collectively were part of the Government’s “dismantling of environmental protections”.

“The Government seems determined to strip away protections for nature, yet most New Zealanders just want clean, healthy ecosystems and thriving communities,” said spokesman Richard Capie.

“They have consistently said that they want to be able to swim in their local rivers and beaches, have safe drinkable water, and for our wildlife and wild places to flourish.

“Instead, these proposals pave the way for weak environmental standards that will mean more pollution and put more pressure on our already endangered species and vulnerable habitats.”

Public consultation on the proposals will run until July 27.