On 29 May 2025, the Government launched public consultation on what it describes as the most significant package of changes to ‘national direction’ (national policy statements and national environmental standards) under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) in New Zealand’s history. 

The proposals are wide-ranging, and are grouped into four consultation ‘packages’:

• Package 1 – Infrastructure and Development: Four new national direction instruments and amendments to four existing ones.
• Package 2 – Primary Sector: Amendments to eight existing instruments.
• Package 3 – Freshwater: Proposed changes to two existing instruments, with feedback sought on whether to implement them under the current RMA or future legislation.
• Package 4 – Going for Housing Growth: Explores how freeing up land for development and removing unnecessary planning barriers could be implemented under the new resource management system.

These packages can be accessed here.

Packages 1 – 3 were released for public consultation on 29 May and are open for submissions until 27 July 2025. Submissions on packages 1 and 2 can be made together, here, and package 3, here. Consultation on Package 4 is expected to begin in early June 2025.

In this Insight we briefly outline the new and amended national direction instruments included in each package and provide further detail on selected changes. If you’d like to know more about any particular proposal and how it might impact you, please get in touch.

Package 1: Infrastructure and development

This package aims to better enable infrastructure and co-ordinate this with development that meets the needs of people, communities and the environment, support development for Māori living on ancestral land in papakāinga, and support development in all areas with a reduced risk from natural hazards. Proposed changes include:

• New National Policy Statements (NPS) for infrastructure and natural hazards.
• New National Environmental Standards (NES) for Granny Flats (Minor Residential Units) and for Papakāinga.
• Amendments to the existing NPSs for renewable energy generation (REG), and electricity transmission (ET).
• Amendments to the existing NESs for electricity transmission activities and telecommunication facilities.

A new NPS for Infrastructure would establish ‘consistent definitions’ and objectives for infrastructure planning across sectors—such as energy, transport, three waters, and social infrastructure—while requiring decision-makers to consider infrastructure benefits, functional and operational needs, and long-term consenting challenges.

Changes to the NPS-REG and the NPS-ET (to be renamed the NPS ‘electricity networks’ and apply to distribution as well as transmission) would add new policies to enable renewable electricity generation, and clarify how operational and functional needs are assessed. Updates to the NESs would enable more routine work on electricity and telecommunications networks, including EV charging and off-grid generation, and introduce clearer rules for network protection.

The package also introduces new standards to permit minor residential units (granny flats) and papakāinga housing on Māori land, with defined limits and conditions. A new NPS for Natural Hazards would require councils to apply a risk-based approach to development in hazard-prone areas, using long-term climate and hazard data. It will not however apply to infrastructure or primary production.

This package continues the Government’s support for infrastructure, which has been evident in recent amendments to the RMA as well as the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024. Once confirmed, the new and revised policy and NES rules will lead to a more nationally consistent treatment of infrastructure and development consenting.

Package 2: The primary sector

Package 2 aims to deliver on pre-election promises and the Coalition Agreements in relation to the primary sector. The proposals include new and amended rules relating to permitted activities (which can be undertaken without a resource consent), as well as national policy which is intended to flow through into district and regional plans. Proposed changes include:

• Amendments to the NESs for marine aquaculture and commercial forestry.
• Amendments to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) and NPS for Highly Productive Land.
• Amendments to the Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020.
• Amendments to the mining and quarrying Provisions of the NPSs for indigenous biodiversity, highly productive land, and freshwater management, as well as the NES for Freshwater.

The package includes adjustments to aquaculture rules to allow more flexible reconsenting, support additional spat catching, and for research and trials. The forestry rule changes would limit councils’ ability to impose more stringent forestry rules, require a Slash Mobilisation Risk Assessment (SMRA) for all forest harvests, and remove afforestation and replanting planning requirements.

Changes proposed to the NZCPS aim to make it easier to consent ‘priority activities’—such as infrastructure, renewable energy, aquaculture, and resource extraction—in the coastal environment. Additional policy support is also provided for aquaculture activities.

Changes to the NPS for Highly Productive Land would remove LUC 3 land from the scope of the Highly Productive Land policy, limiting its application to LUC 1 and 2 land. The proposal seeks feedback on alternative methods of protecting areas of agricultural and horticultural land, such as establishing special agricultural areas around key horticulture hubs, such as Pukekohe and Horowhenua. Related amendments to biodiversity and freshwater national direction would revise terminology, adjust consent pathways for extractive industries, and provide support for activities which have an ‘operational need’ to locate in wetlands.

Package 3: Freshwater

In addition to the changes proposed to the NPS for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) as part of the primary sector package, the Government is consulting on a more fundamental set of changes to the NPS-FM and the NES for Freshwater (NES-F) “to better reflect the interests of all water users”.

Key proposals include replacing the single objective in the NPS-FM with multiple new objectives intended to balance environmental, social, cultural, and economic outcomes, but without establishing a hierarchy. New objectives would address life-supporting capacity, health, well-being, productive economic opportunities, the pace and cost of change, domestic vegetable supply, and water security.

An important change is the proposal to revise or remove the current ‘hierarchy of obligations’ under Te Mana o te Wai (which at present prioritises the health of waterbodies and ecosystems), reinstate the NPS-FM 2017 provisions, or remove the concept of Te Mana o te Wai entirely (which is likely to be controversial). The package also proposes greater flexibility in the National Objectives Framework, including how councils apply values, thresholds, and monitoring.

Other changes include excluding “induced wetlands” from wetland protections (unless regionally significant), encouraging wetland construction, simplifying fish passage rules, and reviewing synthetic nitrogen fertiliser limits.

The Government is seeking feedback on whether these changes should be implemented under the current RMA or through new legislation. Further consultation will be undertaken, later this year, through a more detailed exposure draft of the proposed freshwater national direction.

Package 4: Going for housing growth

Consultation for Package 4 is expected to commence in June, so consultation documents were not released at the same time as those for Packages 1-3. Package 4 will support ‘Pillar 1’ of the Government’s “Going for Housing Growth” programme announced in January 2025, and focuses on boosting housing supply under the new planning system. Pillar 1 is described as ‘freeing up land for development and removing unnecessary planning barriers’. Package 4 has the potential to include significant change, but detail is not yet available.

Conclusion

These reforms could reshape how projects are planned, consented, and delivered in the future —particularly in infrastructure, housing, freshwater, and the primary sector. Now is a good time to consider how the proposals might affect your operations. If you'd like help understanding the changes or preparing a submission, our team is here to support you.

This article was written with the assistance of Josh Pierson, Solicitor in our Environment and Planning team.