The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill (the Bill) had its third reading on Thursday 14 August 2025, and is expected to become law shortly. The Bill brings a host of changes in advance of upcoming legislation to replace the RMA, which the government has signalled will be introduced later this year.

In this article we summarise the key changes which the Bill will introduce. These changes have the potential to impact a wide range of infrastructure, rural and urban activities and will provide more direction in relation to planning for natural hazards and emergencies.

Energy and infrastructure to be consented more quickly

One of the key threads woven through the Bill is an intention to speed up the consenting process for energy generation and other energy activities. The changes include a requirement for consent authorities to process applications for these activities within one year. Wood processing activities are given the same treatment as energy activities, meaning that timber mills, pulp and paper mills and wood-derived bioenergy plants must also have their consent applications determined within one year.

Other changes include extending the duration of renewable energy and ‘long lived infrastructure’ consents (for activities such as pipelines, telecommunications networks, and roads) to 35 years.  Longer consent durations typically support greater investment in these activities, because they provide certainty that the activity can continue over a longer timeframe.

The Bill also extends the default lapse period for renewable energy consents from 5 years to 10 years. The default lapse period for designations (typically used to authorise infrastructure) is also extended to 10 years. The lapsing of a consent or designation occurs when it has been granted, but then not actioned within a certain period of time. Longer lapse periods allow renewable energy and infrastructure developers more time to decide whether to action a consent or designation, and then finalise land acquisition, project procurement and planning.

Port companies will be pleased to see that the expiry of existing coastal permits for port companies has been deferred to 30 September 2046 (with conditions to be reviewed in 2027). Many of these consents were rolled over by the RMA in 1991 for a period of 35 years, but were about to expire.

Targeted changes for particular cities and regions, and to ease heritage protections

The Bill introduces new urban development powers and requirements for specific councils, and to change the approach to heritage protection. These include:

• An ability for Auckland Council and Christchurch City Council to withdraw their housing intensification plan changes (provided they implement specified alternative changes to their plans).
• More options for councils and building owners to remove heritage protections from buildings and structures.
• Changes to streamlined planning processes, to allow quicker plan changes.

For the primary sector, the Bill amends the requirements relating to freshwater farm plans and marine farming consents and allows council plans to permit discharges to water which cause significant adverse effects, but still contribute to improvements in water quality over time.

Emergencies and natural hazards

In relation to national hazards, the Bill provides that:

• Proposed plans relating to natural hazards will now have immediate effect (i.e. will trigger the need to seek consent as soon as they are notified, rather than when included in the operative plan).
• Councils will have a greater ability to refuse (or alternatively, impose conditions on) land use consents where they entail significant risks from natural hazards. Importantly however, this ability does not extend to consents involving infrastructure or primary production.

The Bill also provides a new regulation-making power for emergency responses, and allows more time for retrospective consents to be obtained to authorise emergency works.

Consenting process changes

The Bill provides more flexibility for consent authorities to proceed with applications that do not fully comply with the amount of information required by the RMA.

Consent authorities will no longer be required to consider applications where the applicant does not respond on time to requests for information. If the applicant does not respond for a further 3 months, the consent authority has the ability to declare the application incomplete and return it.

Past non-compliance with the RMA will now play a greater role in consenting decisions and related conditions. This includes:

• An applicant’s history of non-compliance being considered as part of a consent application.
• The ability for consent authorities to impose conditions aimed at mitigating future non-compliance risk.
• The ability for consent conditions to be reviewed if they are breached.

Lastly, the Bill provides a new mechanism where applicants can request a copy of draft consent conditions for the purposes of reviewing them.

Enforcement and compliance

While consents may be faster and easier to obtain, the penalties for non-compliance will be more onerous:

• Changes to the scope of enforcement orders mean that, where a consent holder demonstrates ongoing and repeated non-compliance with their consent, councils or the EPA will be able to seek enforcement orders from the Environment Court revoking or suspending the consent.
• Enforcement officers will be able to issue preventative abatement notices for activities with known adverse effects.
• The maximum fines for offences are increased:
  • Penalties for a natural person are increased from NZ$300,000 to NZ$1,000,000, with the maximum prison sentence reduced from 2 years to 18 months, so defendants can no longer opt for a jury trial.
  • Penalties for a non-natural person (e.g. a company) are increased from NZ$600,000 to NZ$10,000,000.
• Finally, the Bill prohibits contracts for insurance against RMA fines (though insurance could still cover other costs associated with a prosecution).

Last minute changes to the Bill

Notably, two important changes to the Bill were made immediately before the third reading, and so have not been the subject of Select Committee submissions or consideration. These changes are a pause on council plan changes, and the introduction of a new regulation making power.

Pause on council plan changes – the ‘plan ban’

Previously signalled by the Government in media releases, the Bill implements a pause on council plan changes. This requires councils to:

• Immediately cease notifying any new proposed planning instruments until 2028.
• Withdraw any proposed planning instrument (unless it has progressed to the hearing stage), within 90 days of the Act commencing.

The only exceptions to this ‘plan ban’ are where:

• The Minister chooses to intervene, and directs the council not to withdraw a planning instrument.
• One of the automatic exemptions applies (for example, where new national direction requires implementation through planning instruments, as well as certain freshwater planning, streamlined, or intensification streamlined planning processes).
• A specific exemption is granted by the Minister, if specified criteria are satisfied.

Ministerial powers to modify plans

The other significant change to the Bill is the ability for the Minister to make regulations modifying or removing provisions in plans and policy statements. The Minister may do this if they are satisfied that the provisions are negatively impacting economic growth, development capacity, or employment. Until now, the government has used national policy statements to direct changes to council plans, but this new power to directly change plan provisions is significantly more interventionist. Combined with the ‘plan ban’ described above, this regulation making ability demonstrates a shift in the centre of power away from councils and towards central government.

These sections are described as assisting with the transition in the new resource management system and will be repealed at the beginning of 2028.

If you have any questions about what the Bill means for you, please get in touch with us. We would be very happy to assist.