{"id":608115,"date":"2026-09-22T11:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608115\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:40:10","slug":"rma-replacement-laws-pass-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608115\/","title":{"rendered":"RMA replacement laws pass in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two laws replacing the Resource Management Act<\/a> (RMA) have passed their third reading in Parliament.<\/p>\n

The RMA is being superseded by the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill.<\/p>\n

The government said the reforms were “the most significant overhaul” of New Zealand’s planning system in more than three decades, and would make building infrastructure easier, faster and more affordable.<\/p>\n

But opposition parties have warned the changes could make the system more unworkable, and dilute environmental protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said scrapping the RMA was breaking free from a system that had stifled economic growth.<\/p>\n

“We are restoring the freedom for New Zealanders to shape their own futures by using property as they choose, a once in a generation shift towards growth, choice and prosperity,” he said.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the reforms were enjoyment and use of people’s own land, he said, labelling that “the Kiwi dream”.<\/p>\n

Bishop said the Opposition had painted property rights as “some evil, right wing plan”.<\/p>\n

Labour’s Rachael Brooking said the inclusion of regulatory relief scheme (that would see landowners compensated by councils for changes that affect them) would either cause chaos and great expense for ratepayers, or see councils give up on environmental protections.<\/p>\n

“This [reform] will lead to a big, muddy mess … it will not improve efficiencies, and it will not improve the cost burden on the public,” Brooking said.<\/p>\n

A Labour government would not flip-flop on the reform – rather, make amendments, she said.<\/p>\n

The Greens’ environment spokesperson Lan Pham said the laws would allow untold harm to human health and the environment.<\/p>\n

“With the passing of these bills, Aotearoa is in a new era of environmental exploitation at the hands of polluting industries,” she said.<\/p>\n

Pham said the government had ignored official advice, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and 75 percent of submitters.<\/p>\n

The ACT party is claiming victory, saying National had in the past been against RMA reform but ACT had never run from the massive job of replacing it.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure spokesperson Simon Court said the old system “let every Tom, Dick and Harry say no” to building projects.<\/p>\n

“The new one starts from the opposite place, saying it’s your property, and if you’re not harming anyone else then you have the freedom to use it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two laws replacing the Resource Management Act (RMA) have passed their third reading in Parliament. The RMA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-608115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}