This feedback is made by the Resource Management Law Association | Te Kāhui Ture Taiao (RMLA) on New Zealand’s New Planning System: Testing the Approach to National Policy Direction (August 2026), the illustrative National Policy Direction (iNPD).
RMLA welcomes the release of the i-NPD ahead of statutory consultation. In our submission on the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill (February 2026) (Bills Submission) we recorded members’ view that indicative national instruments should be published early so that they could be tested in practice and the Government could receive robust feedback before they are finalised. The i-NPD provides that opportunity, and this feedback is offered in that spirit. Since the i-NPD was released, the Bills have been enacted as the Planning Act 2026 (PA) and the Natural Environment Act 2026 (NEA) (together, the Acts), which received Royal assent on 30 September 2026, and this feedback refers to the Acts as enacted.
The i-NPD describes the new planning system as a “funnel”, with National Policy Direction at the top providing clear direction for the rest of the system and narrowing the scope for debate and litigation at each layer. RMLA supports that aim. However, the funnel will only reduce costs, delays and litigation if the NPD itself does the work the Acts assign to it. Because the goals in each Act sit alongside each other with no hierarchy, the NPD is the primary place where those goals must be particularised and where tensions between them are to be managed. If the NPD leaves conflicts unresolved, defers substantive policy choices to national standards, or relies on undefined terms, the scope for debate will not narrow; it will instead move down the funnel to spatial plans, consent decisions and points of law litigation, where merits review is more limited. Similarly, the narrowing of effects and the greater use of standardisation place a premium on getting the national direction right at the outset, and on environmental limits providing the clear signals the system intends. Our comments are directed at ensuring the NPD can perform that function.