This is the second in Buddle Findlay's series of articles about the new planning and environment system contained within the future Planning Act and the Natural Environment Act (the Acts).

National policy direction made under the two Acts will sit at the top of the hierarchy (or funnel) and direct the content of the lower order documents (regional spatial plans, land use plans and natural environment plans).  National standards can contain rules and requirements for both substantive matters and process and they can apply to both plan making and consenting.

The Government has recently released an Illustrative National Policy Direction (Illustrative NPD) to provide an early example of its thinking and test how national policy direction could operate in practice.

Why national direction matters more under the new system

National direction under the RMA has assumed an increasingly important role in recent years through case law developments and new and updated national policy statements and standards.  The new system has been deliberately designed so that national direction plays the central strategic role right from the start.  Initial national direction will be prepared before other planning documents and all other planning documents are required to implement it.

National direction is intended to narrow the scope for debate and disagreement in the lower order documents.  By resolving many policy questions and methodologies once at a national level, the Acts aim to reduce the extent of relitigating of issues through each regional and local plan making process and to create greater national consistency.  The intention is that the new national direction provides both consistency and certainty.

National Policy Direction

The purpose of national policy direction is to "particularise" the goals in each Act (as in, explain the goal in detail, including by providing any context relevant to it) and direct how they are to be achieved (especially in relation to resolving any conflicts that may arise among the goals).  Separately, when developing national policy direction, the relevant minister must have regard to:

  • Achieving compatibility between the relevant goals as far as is practicable

  • If compatibility cannot be achieved, to identifying and providing for the resolution of the conflict between or within the goals.

National policy direction will look different to existing national policy statements as it is intended to contain directives and not objectives and policies.  The Illustrative NPD shows how this could work in practice.

National Standards

The purpose of national standards is to implement national policy direction and provide procedural and regulatory consistency.  They will work together with national policy direction and in many respects are equally important.

The scope of national standards is very broad and can impact plan making, permits and consents and designations.  They may contain national rules or standards about the preparation of plans, specific plan content, standardised zones and methodologies (e.g. for identifying areas of high environmental value) and set environmental limits and the consequences of breaching those limits.  National rules can directly determine activity status for applications, prescribe how particular effects must be managed, set notification requirements and contain conditions that must be included in permits, consents and designations.

Standards can contain initial national rules, which have immediate legal effect and prevail over existing national instruments and, in some circumstances, over conditions in existing consents and designations.  These initial rules may be issued within the next year and are discussed in our first article on the new system.

Process and timing

Preparation of national documents is undertaken by central government and the Minister retains considerable discretion in the process.  Before notifying a proposed national instrument, the Minister may seek comment on a draft from iwi authorities and any appropriate group or sector.  The Minister may also establish technical advisory groups to advise on the proposal and may consider their advice.

A proposed national instrument must be notified to the public, and any person may make a submission.  A report must then be prepared including any advice from a technical advisory group, any comments received from iwi authorities or sector groups and the relevant statutory criteria and tests.  There is no requirement for a hearing to be held. The final decision sits with the Minister and there is no right of appeal, although it will be possible to judicially review a decision.

The first national policy direction is expected to be issued around September 2027, along with the first set of national standards under the Planning Act.  The first set of national standards under the Natural Environment Act are expected around April 2028, in time for regional spatial plans to be notified in July 2028.

What the Illustrative NPD shows us

To test how this framework could operate, the Government has published the Illustrative NPD.  The document is organised around five themes: housing and development, infrastructure, primary production and the rural economy, resources (covering quarrying, mining and waste), and public values.

Within each theme, directives set out how the goals of the two Acts can be put into practice for that subject area.  Some matters, such as reverse sensitivity, Māori interests and natural hazards, cut across every theme and are addressed both in dedicated cross-cutting and system-wide directives and, where needed, again within individual themes.

Directives describe the outcomes that planning and decision-making are expected to support, rather than setting out a hierarchy of objectives to be weighed or given effect to.  The document also lists indicative national standards for each theme to show how the two instruments might work together.  There are a limited number of specific directives about how to achieve compatibility and resolve conflicts.  However, most potential conflicts between goals are not addressed, with the apparent intention being that resolving conflicts between goals will be a matter for national standards and lower order plans.

Consultation on the Illustrative NPD closes on Friday 16 October 2026.

Key takeaways

National direction will be critical to the new system and provides a significant opportunity for national consistency and an integrated and cohesive policy approach.  Regional spatial plans and other lower order planning documents will need to comply with and implement it.  This may leave limited scope to reconsider or relitigate policy questions at the plan-making stage.

The Illustrative NPD shows that national direction may be quite different from the RMA approach.   But to fully achieve the successful delivery of the new system greater direction on conflict resolution is required.  There are limited ways to engage in the formal development of national instruments, so any informal consultation on drafts could be as influential as formal submissions made later.

The Buddle Findlay team can advise on all aspects of the new system including any assistance with reviewing and providing feedback on the Illustrative NPD.