RMA reform: how long it will take

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says these are "the single largest economic reform in a generation". (Image: BusinessDesk)

Pattrick Smellie

Tue, 09 Dec 2025

Today’s announcement of new planning and environmental protection laws represents the starter’s gun on a process the Government envisages will take up to six years to fully implement.The combined 744 pages of the proposed new Planning and Natural Environment Acts are only the building blocks required to allow a slew of other changes, most notably the creation of a range of national standards.The materials released today repeatedly use variations of this sentence: “National policy direction under the new system will be finalise...

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