The Government unveiled a raft of changes to New Zealand’s national direction, with details revealed on Thursday, 29 May 2025.
The Government has announced a series of proposed reforms to the national direction on freshwater, which would reshape how water resources are valued, used, and safeguarded across the country. These changes form part of a wider overhaul of the resource management system, including replacing the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
Public consultation open
The Government is inviting public feedback on options to amend the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM) and National Environmental Standards for Freshwater until 27 July 2025.
Consultation is in two phases: initial feedback now, and further engagement after an exposure draft is released later this year. As regional councils have already paused notifying their freshwater planning instruments while the reforms proceed, the Government is seeking feedback on whether these changes should be made now, or as part of the new legislation.
The options discussed are focused on increasing flexibility, reducing complexity, and providing an enduring freshwater management system that better reflects the interests of all water users. There is a particular emphasis on enabling primary sector growth, including by addressing barriers to water storage and changing the rule framework for food production and wetland management. The Government is consulting on the following specific topics:
• Rebalancing freshwater management through multiple objectives.
• Rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai.
• Providing flexibility in the National Objectives Framework (NOF).
• Enabling commercial vegetable growing, with the Government committed to removing the need for resource consent to grow food or rotate crops within a catchment.
• Addressing water security and water storage, including whether to permit the construction of off-stream water storage through national standards.
• Simplifying the wetland provisions, including whether to permit farming activities that are unlikely to adversely affect wetlands.
• Simplifying the fish passage regulations.
• Addressing remaining issues with farmer-facing regulations, which are focused on the application of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
• Including mapping requirements for drinking water sources.
We provide more detail on some of the key changes below.
Rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai
The Government is undertaking a review of Te Mana o te Wai, a cornerstone principle within the current NPS-FM. Currently structured as a hierarchical framework prioritising the health and well-being of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems, the Government is consulting on three key options to ‘rebalance’ this framework:
1. Remove the hierarchy and clarify how Te Mana o te Wai applies for the purposes of the NPS-FM, including that it does not apply to consenting decisions.
2. Revert to the 2017 NPS-FM Te Mana o te Wai provisions, which reflect a different balance of obligations.
3. Remove Te Mana o te Wai and all associated provisions entirely.
These options would apply in addition to the Government’s proposal to reintroduce multiple, equally weighted objectives within the NPS-FM, requiring councils to concurrently balance environmental, economic, and community outcomes.
National Objectives Framework
Since 2014, the NOF has provided a consistent process for setting environmental limits for freshwater management across catchments. Under the current framework, councils and communities set values (e.g., human health) that are provided for by measurable attributes (e.g. the presence of E. coli). These attributes are then used to set targets, which will either maintain the current state or improve it if the attributes are below national bottom lines.
The Government considers that the NOF can sometimes be inflexible, as natural variations and unique local conditions mean uniform standards may not always be appropriate. In response, the Government proposes retaining elements of the NOF but granting councils more flexibility to align with local needs.
Values, attributes and national bottom lines under review
Currently, councils must provide for four compulsory values in freshwater management: ecosystem health, human contact (recreation), mahinga kai (food gathering), and protection of threatened species. Councils may also consider nine optional values including irrigation, cultivation and food (and beverage) production; drinking water supply; hydro-electric power generation; and cultural values such as wai tapu (sacred waters for ceremonial practices).
The Government seeks feedback on whether these values should remain fixed or whether councils should have more discretion to prioritise values based on local circumstances. Similarly, the management of water quality attributes (e.g., nutrient levels, sediment, bacteria) may become more flexible, with councils still required to manage four key contaminants (nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment, and E. coli) but provided with more flexibility to choose how actively to manage other attributes.
National bottom lines establish minimum environmental standards. As these standards may not suit all catchments, such as those with naturally higher sediment, the Government is exploring options to allow councils more flexibility to deviate from national bottom lines, or whether national bottom lines are required at all.
Consultation and implementation
The Government is actively seeking feedback on these proposals until 27 July 2025.
This includes feedback on potential impacts to Māori rights and interests, Treaty settlements, and other arrangements identified in the Treaty Impact Analysis, or any perceived impacts on sites of significance to Māori, marae, Māori land, land returned under Treaty settlements, or other matters of significance to Māori groups, though feedback is generally not limited to this area.
A critical consultation point is whether these freshwater changes should be implemented immediately under the current RMA or deferred for inclusion in forthcoming resource management legislation. Further detailed consultation will follow later this year with the release of an exposure draft of the freshwater national direction.
If you would like assistance to put together a submission, or if you would like more information about the proposed changes, please get in touch with the contacts listed or your usual Bell Gully adviser.
Disclaimer: This publication is necessarily brief and general in nature. You should seek professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication.
