‍RMLA, which represents lawyers, planners, judges, scientists, engineers, economists, landscape architects and other professionals working across New Zealand's resource management system, made a detailed submission on the Bills during the select committee process earlier this year. At a high level, RMLA supports the Government's intention to reform the resource management system and recognises that the Bills introduce a number of positive concepts and processes, including greater standardisation across plans, regional spatial planning and the establishment of a Planning Tribunal.

RMLA was saddened to learn of the death of Jim Hopkins on 27 July 2026. Within RMLA, Jim was a long-standing and valued member who made a distinctive contribution to the Association and to the Resource Management Journal. Over many years, his writing brought something unusual and important to its pages: an ability to look at the complexities, conventions and occasional absurdities of resource management through a sharply observed and warmly humorous lens.

Published annually by the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, NZJEL is New Zealand’s leading academic journal dedicated to environmental and resource management law, featuring in-depth legal scholarship, commentary, and analysis from leading academics, judges, practitioners, and policy experts.

The Government has approved the following new national environmental standards as part of the Resource Management Act 1991 National Direction Programme.