The Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill (the Bill) aims to make urgent, targeted amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 (the principal Act) to address resource consents that will expire before the enactment of legislation that replaces the principal Act. The objective is to ensure certainty, and avoid unnecessary administrative burden and costs, for consent holders during the transition to new legislation.

The Bill seeks to do this by—

automatically extending resource consents set to expire before the new legislation is in force:
deeming resource consents that have recently expired to be reinstated and automatically extended if a replacement application has been made but not yet determined.

Key provisions

The Bill makes the following targeted amendments:

resource consents that would otherwise expire before 31 December 2027 are automatically extended until that date:
recently expired resource consents (where an application for a replacement consent has been made under section 124 of the principal Act, but not yet determined) are deemed to be reinstated and extended until 31 December 2027:
consents relating to freshwater are excluded from extension beyond a total duration of 35 years:
wastewater consents that have already been extended under section 139C or 139D of the principal Act are excluded from extension.

The proposed amendments will take effect the day after the Bill receives Royal assent. Consent authorities will update their records to reflect the new expiry dates.

Separate to the provisions of the Bill, consent authorities will notify affected consent holders of these changes. No action is required from consent holders for any extension or deemed reinstatement and extension (as the case may be) to apply. Consent holders will be able to continue to progress (or withdraw) any application to replace a consent affected by any extension or deemed reinstatement and extension if they wish to do so.

Departmental disclosure statement

The Ministry for the Environment is required to prepare a disclosure statement to assist with the scrutiny of this Bill. The disclosure statement provides access to information about the policy development of the Bill and identifies any significant or unusual legislative features of the Bill.

A copy of the statement can be found at http://legislation.govt.nz/disclosure.aspx?type=bill&subtype=government&year=2025&no=232

Regulatory impact statement

No regulatory impact statement was produced for this Bill.

Clause by clause analysis

Clause 1 is the Title clause.

Clause 2 provides that the Bill comes into force on the day after Royal assent.

Clause 3 provides that the Bill amends the Resource Management Act 1991 (the principal Act).

Clause 4 amends section 123 of the principal Act to provide that the period of a resource consent to which new section 123C applies is the period specified in that section.

Clause 5 inserts new section 123C into the principal Act. New section 123C(1) and (2) provides that the durations of certain types of resource consent are extended, or deemed to be reinstated and extended, until the close of 31 December 2027. The types of resource consent are—

a resource consent that is due to expire before the close of 31 December 2027:
a resource consent that expired before new section 123C came into force (the commencement date), but only if,—
- immediately before the commencement date, the consent holder was eligible to operate the consent in reliance on section 124 of the principal Act (exercise of resource consent while applying for new consent); and
- the holder’s application for a new consent had not been determined by the consent authority before that date.

New section 123C(3) provides that, if the resource consent relates to water (as defined in new section 123C(10)), the new expiry date of the consent is the earlier of the close of 31 December 2027 or the date that is 35 years after the date the consent commenced.

However, new section 123C(4) provides that, despite new section 123C(3), a resource consent that relates to water will expire on 1 October 2026 if, on the commencement of the principal Act, the consent was deemed to be (or otherwise treated as) granted under the principal Act.

New section 123C(5) provides that any conditions applying to the resource consent or that applied to the resource consent before it expired (as the case may be) continue to apply unless a change to a condition is required as a result of the extension of the duration of the consent under this section.

New section 123C(6) and (8) clarifies the application of the new section.

New section 123C(7) sets out obligations on the consent authority in relation to recording the new expiry date for a consent to which new section 123C applies.

Hon Chris Bishop

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill

Government Bill

232—1

	Explanatory note
1	Title
2	Commencement
3	Principal Act
4	Section 123 amended (Duration of consent)
5	New section 123C inserted (Duration of certain current and continued consents)
	123C	Duration of certain current and continued consents

The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:

1 Title

This Act is the Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025.

2 Commencement

This Act comes into force on the day after Royal assent.

3 Principal Act

This Act amends the Resource Management Act 1991.

4 Section 123 amended (Duration of consent)

After section 123(2), insert:

(3)

Despite anything in subsection (1), the period of a resource consent to which section 123C applies is the period specified in that section.

5 New section 123C inserted (Duration of certain current and continued consents)

After section 123B, insert:

123C Duration of certain current and continued consents

(1)

This section applies to—

(a)

a resource consent that is current on the commencement date but due to expire before the close of 31 December 2027:

(b)

a resource consent that expired before the commencement date, but only if,—

(i)

immediately before the commencement date, the holder was eligible to operate under the consent in reliance on section 124; and

(ii)

the holder’s application for a new consent had not been determined by the consent authority before the commencement date.

(2)

A resource consent—

(a)

referred to in subsection (1)(a) is extended to the close of 31 December 2027:

(b)

referred to in subsection (1)(b) is deemed to be reinstated and extended to the close of 31 December 2027.

(3)

However, if the resource consent relates to water, the consent expires on the earlier of—

(a)

the close of 31 December 2027:

(b)

the date that is 35 years after the date the consent commenced.

(4)

Despite subsection (3), a resource consent that relates to water expires on the close of 1 October 2026 if, on the commencement of this Act, the consent was deemed to be (or otherwise to be treated as) granted under this Act.

(5)

Any conditions applying to a resource consent or that applied to a resource consent before it expired (as the case may be) continue to apply unless a change to a condition is required as a consequence of extending the consent under this section.

(6)

However, any extension, or reinstatement and extension, of a consent under this section does not affect the application of sections 125, 127, 128, and 129.

(7)

A consent authority must,—

(a)

no later than 6 months after the commencement date, update a resource consent to which this section applies to record its new expiry date; and

(b)

if applicable, continue to process and determine the application for the new consent unless it is withdrawn.

(8)

This section does not apply to any extant wastewater consent that has already been extended under section 139C or 139D.

(9)

In this section, commencement date means the date on which this section comes into force.

(10)

In subsections (3) and (4), a resource consent relates to water if it is—

(a)

a water permit within the meaning of section 87(d):

(b)

a discharge permit (within the meaning of section 87(e)) authorising—

(i)

a discharge of contaminant or water into water:

(ii)

a discharge of contaminant onto or into land, in the circumstances described in section 15(1)(b):

(c)

a land use consent under section 9 that includes associated discharges.

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill