RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The coalition's replacement of the Resource Management Act (RMA) will force councils to compensate landowners for significant restrictions that impact developments.
It will be an additional challenge for councils facing rising costs and widespread changes in other areas, including restrictions on what they are able to spend funding on - and an incoming 4 percent cap on rates increases.
The reforms follow a similar model to Labour's attempt, aiming to creating two new laws - a Natural Environment law and a Planning law.
More than 100 reporters, stakeholders, commentators and officials spent two hours going over the documents ahead of the official release at 1pm, revealing the information all at once to avoid market disruption.
The planning bill would lay out what infrastructure is needed and when, with land secured for key infrastructure like roads, schools, and utilities. Regional policy statements are being scrapped and replaced with 'Regional Combined Plans' which include spatial planning, environmental planning, and land-use planning.
Zoning - currently up to councils, with more than 1100 different zones across the country - will also be standardised, with new "overlays" providing additional and sometimes stricter rules for specific areas where consents would normally be permitted.
The government estimates its new system will save about $13.3b over the next 30 years and increase GDP by 0.56 percent a year by 2050.
The planning bill would lay out what infrastructure is needed and when, with land secured for key infrastructure like roads, schools, and utilities. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The changes, introduced to Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, would be passed in 2026, with another bill to be passed in "coming days" to extend current consent expiry dates.
Until the main bills take effect, new consent applications will still be able to be made. Current consents will also be largely extended to 2031, two years after the main legislation takes effect, under a bill the government expects to pass urgently in "the coming days".
The legislation will include "descriptive, non-operative" Treaty of Waitangi clauses listing specific provisions that relate to the Crown's Treaty obligations, and "clear requirements for iwi participation in the development of national instruments" like the national policy statements and national standards.
Councils will also work with tangata whenua to identify significant sites and apply rules and policies in line with the national standards.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said he did not think the legislation would weaken Māori rights, rather providing additional clarity.
Like Labour's approach, consenting would be largely standardised, with many activities deemed permitted so no consent is needed and new national standards giving councils requirements to develop plans and make consenting decisions. Also resembling Labour's approach, regional spatial plans will set out 30-year planning for infrastructure in each region.
Labour's approach reduced the number of consenting categories to five, the coalition reduces it further to four: permitted, restricted, discretionary and prohibited.
The coalition repealed Labour's version as one of their first orders of business, reinstating the Resource Management Act until they could bring in their own replacement.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Simon Court and Chris Bishop Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
There are key differences to Labour's version.
One is an emphasis on regulatory takings - a concept that was also a key feature of the Regulatory Standards Bill. In this case, councils would be required to compensate landowners, including through rates remission and other measures.
Under the RMA, compensation is limited to extreme scenarios where land is considered unable to be reasonably used; the new system would lower that threshold to where impacts of regulation on all privately owned land are "significant" under a new framework.
Instead of shifting to a system focused primarily on environmental limits the coalition will have a mix between the effects-based RMA and the limits-based approach. However, fewer effects would be able to be considered as part of the consenting process. Limits would be set out in national direction documents.
The new approach would also come into effect much faster than the decade-long process Labour envisioned, with the first suite of national instruments expected in place by the end of 2026.
Planning would be largely up to a new planning tribunal which would also be tasked with resolving disputes about how councils provide compensation.
The RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop also highlighted simplified purpose statements in the legislation which would avoid complexity and litigation.
Labour's version also aimed to have a Climate Adaptation Bill which would intersect with its other legislation, but the work on that was not completed before the party lost power in the 2023 election.
A new national regulator may also take over enforcement, which is currently up to councils and inconsistent across the country, depending on advice to the government. This would be progressed through separate legislation if the government decides to take it up.
Where Labour's bills totalled about 900 pages, the coalition's version is a little shorter at about 750 pages. That total - in both cases - also does not include the respective fast-track laws, the transitional bill the government is passing, the coalition's local government reforms, or the potential new national regulator.
Only those materially affected will have a say - Bishop
The Resource Management Minister said his proposed changes will mean only those materially affected will be able to have a say on new developments.
Bishop told Checkpoint part of the problem was when public health was considered as part of a planning decision - as evidenced when consent was denied for a McDonald's in Wanaka.
"We do want to make sure we avoid situations like people in Auckland submitting on whether or not there's a McDonald's in Wanaka."
He said what was "precisely what's wrong with the status quo" was that everybody thinks everything is part of the planning system.
"We're trying to get away from those sort of scenarios."
He said it was legitimate to debate traffic volumes or the impact on the local area when considering a McDonald's in Wanaka.
"But you shouldn't have a debate around the health impacts. That's not a planning function."
Bishop said there would potentially be a role for umbrella groups or NGOs submitting on consents when dealing with common pool resources, where "everybody is impacted by definition".
The new system would see the removal of around up to 46 percent of consents and permits, he said.
That would mean that people did not need consent or permission from council to go and do a variety of things, making a big difference in terms of red tape and compliance costs in the system, Bishop said.
He referenced a range of examples where council "got involved" in ways that just "drives people completely bananas".
"Take a Christchurch council that got involved in which way the front door faced of a new housing development."
He said the council told the same developer doing housing developments in Christchurch that the front door had to face the street, then told the same developer in a different part of town, with a different planner, but the same council that the front door had to face away from the street for completely different reasons.
The key change the government was making, he said, was returning the RMA to what it started as, which was "you can do what you like with your land as long as you don't affect other people".
"When you do affect other people, then clearly, that's when the planning system kicks in.
"But the RMA has encroached more and more into people's private affairs and private property, and so we're resetting the balance there."
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