The Government has introduced the Building Amendment Bill, which proposes a range of changes to New Zealand's building system, including reforms to liability settings, consenting processes and building research funding.

New research by Earth Sciences New Zealand, commissioned by Te Waihanga, explores how flood damage to infrastructure could change under different climate scenarios. It shows that, across the scenarios modelled, flood damage is expected to increase over the coming decades, with the impacts felt unevenly across the country.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment addressed the Environmental Defence Society Annual Conference identifying that concurrent resource management and local government reforms risk creating “an expensive mess” if catchments are fragmented.