Resource management reform

The two proposed Bills separate land-use planning and natural resource management. The aim is to develop a system with clear direction for decision-makers and make it more consistent and predictable for resource users.

The goals in each Bill drive the outcomes of the system. They set out what the system must achieve and what can be regulated. It is important that the goals enable the use of natural resources such as land and water for productive land uses.

The Bills propose an overarching structure that will be implemented through secondary legislation including national instruments and a combined plan for each region.

The national direction that sits under the Acts (refer to image below) heavily influence the outcomes for farmers. This detail will follow in a second phase of information in 2026.

The new system delegates decisions to Ministers through national standards. This makes it faster to make changes to rules especially around environmental limits, rules and settings but could mean there is more influence from the Government of the day. To balance this, DairyNZ is considering whether specific amendments to wording related to the principles and goals of each Act are necessary to ensure an appropriate level of protection against significant or abrupt change.

Figure adapted from: Better planning for a better New Zealand | Ministry for the Environment

Two sets of Environmental Limits will be set as numerical values across air, freshwater, coastal water, land, and soil, and indigenous biodiversity.

Limits for human health will be set nationally – through secondary instruments like national standards.

Ecosystem health limits will be set regionally - with direction in national standards to specify methodology for regional councils to follow.

DairyNZ is considering whether a qualitative outcomes-focused approach is preferable to strict numerical limits for ecosystem health. We also want to see robust methodologies for setting limits that will be enduring and provide certainty for farmers.

The intent of the bills is to simplify and make the consenting system faster and easier and to make more activities permitted so less consents are needed overall. We agree with this intent but believe some key provisions will need to be changed for the bills to fully achieve this.

The new system proposes to reduce the consent categories from the current 6 in the RMA, to four, removing controlled and non-complying activity consents.

One of the key changes are to the permitted activity category – current drafting means an activity can only be permitted if it is low impact and not in a catchment with overallocation.

While complying with a permitted activity rule means you would not require a consent or permit, current drafting would require some permitted activities to be notified to a permit authority. There is a lot of uncertainty as to what this will mean for dairy farmers.

We don’t believe all activities should require an approval via registration since this most likely will come with a processing fee, increasing the cost and administration for farmers. On the other hand, an approval is proposed to be valid for three years so could lead to some certainty for farmers. We want to ensure there is justification for those permitted activities that do require registration.

The Natural Environment Bill seeks to provide more enabling options for land use and a cascading schedule of tools to stay within limits.

The tools available are:

1. Voluntary action and catchment groups – when resources are not under pressure.
2. Freshwater Farm Plans – flexible and farmer-led risk assessments and appropriate actions.
3. Action plans (led by councils) – for getting back within a limit when it’s been breached.
4. Resource caps and land-use controls – place restrictions on some activities.
5. Charging and market mechanisms for resource allocation.

Freshwater Farm Plans will be the main the alternative to resource consents to manage risk from farming activities. We will be seeking to ensure the sequencing of these tools is clearly set out.

Where there is overallocation and environmental limits are being breached, more tools will be available to regulators including resource caps, action plans and market mechanisms.

The Natural Environment Bill introduces the ability to use market mechanism to address overallocation. Potential allocation of tradable rights through market mechanisms could look like a cap and trade at the farm level to address water quality or quantity issues.

DairyNZ has concerns around the efficacy of market mechanisms because they are not practical for diffuse contaminants like nitrogen, given small, inefficient markets and the inability to accurately measure losses at the farm scale.

A regulatory relief must be included in the land use plan for the district where a rule has a significant impact on the reasonable use of land.

A local authority must assess the materiality of the impact by considering the restrictions on development potential, any constraints on the reasonable use or enjoyment of land, and land value.

Areas for relief are limited to rules dealing with:

• Land based indigenous biodiversity, Significant Natural Areas, and sites of significance to Māori (regulated through the Natural Environment Bill) and,
• Significant historic heritage, outstanding natural landscapes and features, areas of high natural character within the coastal env, wetlands, lakes rivers and their margins (Planning bill).

It will take time to fully transition to the new system, and the RMA will still be in force during the transition period.

A Transitional framework is included in the bills. This includes:

• Targeted changes to the RMA
• A Transitional consenting framework
• Regional and district plans staying in place until the new system is fully switched on

Consents due to expire during the transition period will be extended to a date two years after the end of the period. The end date is not set and will be decided by Order in Council, once all the plans have been notified. It is likely that current consents will be extended to 2031. The RMA and all planning instruments under the RMA will cease to apply at the end of the transition period.

Some changes to consent duration are already passed into law. This is what you need to know:

• All consents expiring before 31 Dec 2027 will be automatically extended to this date.
• Consent conditions are unchanged and will need to be followed.
• Water consents are capped at 35 years.
• Renewals already lodged with a regional council will be extended to 31 December 2027.
• Farmers with an application in progress are still able to progress the consent renewal under the current RMA framework which is worth considering or may decide to withdraw their application.
• Regional councils must inform all applicable consent holders.

More information: Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act | Ministry for the Environment