The Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill are set to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) and have been undergoing the select committee process since the end of 2025.  

"New Zealanders want a thriving natural environment and expect the rulebook set by political leaders to prioritise that. The recommendations from the select committee report strip out the few protections included in the draft bills," says Acting General Counsel May Downing. 

The Committee has recommended a range of changes to the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill, many amounting to a serious erosion of protections for nature. 

Extraordinarily, the phrase “within environmental limits” has been cut from the Natural Environment Bill’s goal for enabling use and development.  

“Environmental limits are meant to be the backbone of our system: the bottom lines that protect people and the natural environment. Across these recommendations, the majority of the Environment Committee chose to erode limits rather than strengthen them,” Ms Downing says. 

Where environmental limits are still retained, the Bill allows for the Minister responsible for the Bill to switch them off. In the original draft, only significant infrastructure could be authorised by the Minister despite harm to nature. Now, any activity that breaches environmental limits but is deemed to have a “public benefit” can be authorised at the Minister’s discretion. 

Other concerning changes are that the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) would gain an effective veto against establishing marine protection areas, and while climate has been introduced as a consideration, only the positive effects of activity on minimising emissions can be considered – not any negative effects.  

The regulatory relief framework, which opens councils to big legal bills and compensation for protecting nature, also remains. 

“Piece by piece, the protections that stop the worst decisions for nature are being eroded,” says Ms Downing.  

MPs across every party have choices to make before the RMA replacements become law. Forest & Bird is calling on decision-makers to use the second reading to: 

• retain a unified system integrating land use and environmental management 

• ensure strong, science-based environmental limits 

• protect existing national direction on freshwater, biodiversity, and the coast 

• remove the proposed regulatory relief framework 

• uphold meaningful participation with the public and environmental NGOs

"Our unique species and precious natural environment depend on a rulebook designed to protect them. This just doesn’t cut it,” says Ms Downing.  

"We'll continue a more detailed analysis of the recommendations, but our initial assessment is clear: if New Zealanders want to pass on a thriving natural environment to tamariki and mokopuna, political leaders need to fundamentally change their approach.”