Reform Series – Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Submission
Reform Series – Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Submission
Thursday 9 April, 2026
Built on the principle of public participation, the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) has long been criticised for creating slow and costly processes. To remedy this, the Government’s Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill propose to significantly reshape when and how the public can engage in environmental and planning decision-making.
A core feature of the new proposed system is its front loading of participation. In comparison to the RMA which allows broader public involvement across multiple stages of planning and consenting processes, the Bills propose to concentrate public input at the higher levels of planning decisions, while deliberately reducing opportunities to participate in individual consenting and permitting processes. This reflects the Government’s intention to streamline planning, reduce administrative costs and increase decision making consistency across the country. As a result, the new Bills propose to raise notification thresholds triggering public input and significantly narrow submission rights.
Plan Making
Under the new system, public input is proposed to be concentrated at the higher levels through public notification of national instruments (comprising the national policy direction and national standards under each Bill)[1] and draft regional spatial plans.[2] Dropping down a level in the plan instrument hierarchy, public involvement in land use and natural environment plan processes are comparatively reduced.
Targeted notification(replacing limited notification under the RMA)
The Bills retain the current option under clause 5A of Schedule 1 of the RMA for local authorities to choose to subject a proposed plan change or variation to ‘targeted’ notification if satisfied that all persons directly affected by the change to the plan can be identified.[3] Those able to make ‘targeted’ submissions are those directly affected, the Minister, nearby local authorities, tangata whenua of the area (through iwi authorities) and the local authority itself.[4]
Public notification (but not as we currently know it)
For proposed plans publicly notified for submissions, the RMA allows any person to make a submission as long as they are not a trade competitor.[5] In comparison, the Bills propose to significantly narrow the category of persons who can submit on publicly notified proposed plans to “qualifying residents” of the district or region, people with an interest greater than that of the general public, a nearby local authority or the local authority itself.[6] Qualifying residents are defined in both Bills as residents and ratepayers, local infrastructure providers and those who have an office or operate in the district or region.[7]
These restrictions are also carried over into the further submissions stage, with the new Bills limiting further submitters to qualifying residents of the district or region with an interest in the proposed plan greater than that of the general public (in addition to nearby local authorities and the local authority itself).[8]
Content of submissions
In addition to restricting who can submit on proposed plans, the Bills also introduce restrictions on the content of submissions. Submissions on plans subject to either public or targeted notification are limited to bespoke plan provisions or provisions on specified topics only – a submitter cannot seek a change to a nationally standardised plan provision.[9]
Consents and Permits
Notification
Under the Bills, notification thresholds differ depending on whether the application is for a planning consent under the Planning Bill or a natural resource permit under the Natural Environment Bill:
| Planning Bill | Natural Environment Bill |
|---|---|
| Mandatory public notification in certain circumstances[10] | |
|
|
| Targeted notification[13] | |
|
|
| Public notification[15] | |
|
|
For a person to be considered an ‘affected person’ under either Bill, the adverse effects of the activity on the person must be more than minor.[18] This is a higher threshold than the current limited notification test in section 95E of the RMA which applies the more conservative “minor (or more than minor)” threshold.
The Natural Environment Bill also proposes to widen the category of ‘affected person’ to include adverse effects on a management unit, or the persons within that management unit which are more than minor.[19] Management units, a proposed new term under the Natural Environment Bill, are geographic areas within which an environmental limit applies[20] through national standards.[21]
While councils were provided a broad discretion to notify applications in special circumstances under the RMA,[22] this discretion is not provided for in the new Bills (as currently drafted).
Submitters
In addition to constraints on notification, the new Bills also propose to limit who can submit on an application for a planning consent or natural resource permit. The only people eligible to make submissions on an application that is publicly notified will be affected persons or “qualifying residents” of the district or region to which the application relates[23] (i.e. residents and ratepayers, local infrastructure providers and those who have an office or operate in the district or region).[24]
If this approach is retained in the Bills, national environmental non-government organisations such as Environmental Defence Society and Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society will no longer be able to submit on applications outside of the district or region of their registered office. Given these organisations have long been key champions for environmental protection under the RMA, this proposal has initiated significant discussion in submissions on the Bills.
Status of the Bills
The Environment Select Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Bills; it is due to provide its report and recommendations to the House of Representatives on 26 June 2026. Given the proposals in the new Bills significantly narrow the opportunities for public participation in the new system, it will be interesting to watch how these proposed changes develop in the course of the subsequent Second and Third Readings of the Bills.
We will keep a watching brief as the Bills progress.
- Clause 46(2)(a) of the Planning Bill and Clause 70(2)(a) of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 14 of Schedule 2 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 16 of Schedule 3 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 17(2) of Schedule 3 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 5 of Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991.
- Clause 17(1) of Schedule 3 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 3 of the Planning Bill and Clause 3 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 20(1) of Schedule 3 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 18(2) of Schedule 3 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 124 of the Planning Bill and Clause 145 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 126 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 147 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 125(6) of the Planning Bill and Clause 146(5) of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 127 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 125(7) of the Planning Bill and Clause 146(6) of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 127 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 148 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 149 of the Natural Environment Bill and Clause 128 of the Planning Bill.
- Clause 149(1)(a)(ii) of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 3 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 58 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 6(3) of Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991.
- Clause 131 of the Planning Bill and Clause 152 of the Natural Environment Bill.
- Clause 3 of the Planning Bill and Clause 3 of the Natural Environment Bill.
