Two new laws to replace the Resource Management Act will stop “every Tom, Dick, and Harry” vexatiously objecting to peaceful use and development of private property, it’s been claimed.

The laws will have private property rights at their core and an ambitious timetable has been proposed with the government intending to have the new legislation in place before the next election.

Under the new system there will be fewer consents, and the scope of consents will be limited. It will be a rules-based system and embed respect for property rights.

The minister responsible for RMA reform, Chris Bishop, and parliamentary under-secretary Simon Court say the RMA was well-intentioned but had not worked.

“It’s too hard to build a house. It’s too hard to build roads, water and other infrastructure. It’s too hard to secure the energy we need, including from renewables,” Bishop says.

“High compliance costs have not always delivered the environmental outcomes we all want. The RMA protects the environment by resisting growth.”

Bishop says that has made development a problem.

“That means more people in cars. More kids growing up in emergency motels. An entire generation of New Zealanders who think they will never own a home. The RMA has hindered economic growth and productivity, while failing to improve the environment.”

Climate goals

Court says the RMA consenting system is an active barrier against achieving climate goals. A recent report by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission shows the country is on track to miss between 11 and 15 per cent of emission reductions from energy and transport by 2050 due to consenting delays.

“In this RMA reform programme, we’ve repealed the previous government’s even more complicated reforms through phase one, developed a one-stop shop fast-track consenting regime and announced a raft of ‘quick fixes’ to the interim RMA and national direction through phase two, and now we’re turning to replacing the RMA in phase three.”

Bishop says putting property rights at the centre of resource management means ditching rules that invite every Tom, Dick, and Harry to vexatiously object to peaceful use and development of private property.

“Rules should only restrict activity with material spillover effects on other people’s enjoyment of their own property, or on the property rights of the wider natural environment that sustains us.”

Phase three of the RMA reforms will involve the creation of two new acts “with clear and distinct purposes - one to manage environmental effects arising from activities, and another to enable urban development and infrastructure”.

The Cabinet has agreed on core design features for the new resource management system. The new system will:

• Narrow the scope of the resource management system to focus on managing actual effects on the environment.

• Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed.

• Provide greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and simplify council plans. This will mean that an activity which complies with the standards cannot be subject to a consent requirement.

• Shift the focus away from consenting before activities can get underway, and towards compliance, monitoring and enforcement of activities’ compliance with national standards.

• Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure.

• Realise efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils.

• Provide for a rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with the potential for a new Planning Tribunal (or equivalent).

• Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations.

• Provide faster and cheaper processes with less reliance on litigation, contained within shorter, simpler and more accessible legislation.

Court says the new system will have three key tasks:

• Unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth.

• Enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure for the future, including doubling renewable energy.

• Enabling primary sector growth and development (including aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture and mining).

These objectives must be achieved while also safeguarding the environment and human health, adapting to the effects of climate change and reducing the risks from natural hazards and improving regulatory quality in the resource management system.

Court says empowering Kiwis to take a punt and invest time, care and capital into their land would be how NZ opens the door to prosperity.

An expert advisory group will be established to work alongside Environment Ministry officials and other agencies to develop details of the new system.

Smooth transition

“This is important and complicated work, and we are determined to avoid the mistakes of reform efforts by governments in the past. Rather than kicking the issue of ‘fixing the RMA’ off to a judge or lawyer to spend years studying before a report is even produced, let alone actioned, the government is making it clear from the outset what the design of the new system will look like,” he says.

“We have deliberately designed our reform programme in a calibrated and sequenced way to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption. Changes made during phase two between now and mid-2025 are intended to transition into the new system.”

Key aspects of the new resource management system are expected to go to Cabinet for sign-off before the end of 2024, and legislation will be introduced and passed before the next election.