“Decision making will be less open and transparent, because the new mega-Ministry Chief Executive will carry the responsibility for making trade offs between environmental and development objectives. This will happen at the management level, rather than these being debated and agreed in the public and political realm. There will be fewer opportunities for scrutiny of decision making with a public interest lens or by watchdogs like the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.”

“MfE also plays an important role in managing the Crown’s relationship with iwi regarding natural resources. The current expertise and relationships could be buried or lost in the shift to the MCERT mega ministry.”

“As importantly, resource management law is undergoing a massive overhaul. There is a lot of work to be done setting up the national standards, environmental limits and policy direction that will shape decision making in the future.”

“It makes more sense to leave MfE as it is and properly resource it to do the background work outlined in the new Planning and Environment bills. Restructuring and merging MfE into MCERT will disrupt the team and waste time, energy and resources that could be put into this critical work.”

“As the submission period closes, ZWA encourages the public to understand the negative impacts on environmental protection this will have. ZWA recommends to the select committee that the Ministry for the Environment is not included in this amalgamation, and instead is empowered to actually do the work of caring for our environment.”

Submissions are open until 4:30 pm on March 11, 2026, for the Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill.

The Government introduced legislation to establish a Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT)

MCERT would formally disestablish the Ministry for the Environment. The new ministry will be established on 1 April 2026 and become operational from 1 July 2026.