The government says its new replacement for the Resource Management Act will cut administrative and compliance costs by 45 percent.
The government will look to progress its reforms, introducing two Acts to replace the RMA by the end of 2025, bring it before the Select Committee in 2026, and pass it before the next election - and in time for councils starting their next long-term plans in 2027.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the RMA was "the culture of 'no' that I spoke about earlier in the year brought to life".
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Undersecretary Simon Court said replacing the RMA with law based on property rights would grow the economy and lift living standards.
"The RMA is broken and everyone knows it. It makes it too hard to build the infrastructure and houses New Zealand desperately needs, too hard to use our abundant natural resources, and hasn't resulted in better management of our natural environment," Bishop said.
"Cabinet has now agreed on the shape of the government's replacement legislation, signalling a radical transition to a far more liberal planning system with less red tape, premised on the enjoyment of property rights.
He said the 45 percent estimated reduction in admin and compliance costs - which was based on economic analysis of a "blueprint" developed by an Expert Advisory Group completed this year - compared to a 7 percent reduction under Labour's proposed approach.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo: Photo / Marika Khabazi
Several aspects of the reforms however appeared to closely resemble Labour's proposal.
Like Labour's approach, it includes two new pieces of legislation - a Natural Environment Act and a Planning Act - and will streamline planning systems between councils, providing for more standardisation of consenting and increasing the number of "permitted" activities.
It will also set environment limits, which the government's release said would provide more certainty around where development can and should be enabled, whilst protecting the environment - just as Labour's proposed to do.
A notable difference, however, is the focus on property rights.
"Both Acts will include starting presumptions that a land use is enabled, unless there is a significant enough impact on either the ability of others to use their own land or on the natural environment," the government's documents said.
This would include "clear protection for lawfully established existing use rights, including the potential for the reasonable expansion of existing activities over time where the site is 'zoned or owned'".
Bishop also confirmed it would not carry on the Treaty clause requiring the principles of the Treaty to be upheld, as is included in the current RMA.
Luxon said Minister Tama Potaka was doing work on how to unlock and get more productivity out of Māori land.
He rejected the suggestion the government could have tinkered with Labour's legislation instead of repealing it, going back to the RMA, then replacing it again.
"Absolutely not, Labour's reforms were a disaster - they introduced wholly complicated new legal terms that were unknown to New Zealand law, they stuffed the legislation with a whole range of conflicting goals and objectives that made it impossible for anyone to negotiate the system," he said.
He said he would be speaking to Labour and the Greens to see if there was some common ground, but noted it was government legislation and would be progressed in the form of the government's choosing.
Court said the RMA's scope was far too broad, "and allows far too many people to rely on far too many reasons to object and tangle progress in webs of absurd conditions".
"We cannot have Tom, Dick, and Harry weaponise the planning system to block progress from the opposite end of the country."
Bishop said zoning would also be more standardised.
"Right now, every individual council determines the technical rules of each of their zones. Across the country there are 1,175 different kinds of zones. In Japan, which utilises standardised zoning, they have only 13," he said.
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