Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025
Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025
Version updated on 24 December 2025 to make an editorial change to section 2.
Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025
Public Act |
2025 No 77 |
|
Date of assent |
16 December 2025 |
|
Commencement |
see section 2 |
Contents
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1 Title
This Act is the Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Act 2025.
2 Commencement
This Act comes into force on 17 December 2025.
Section 2: editorial change made by the PCO, on 24 December 2025, under sections 86(1) and 87(m) of the Legislation Act 2019 (2019 No 58).
3 Principal Act
This Act amends the Resource Management Act 1991.
4 Section 123 amended (Duration of consent)
After section 123(2), insert:
(3)
Despite anything in subsection (1), the period of a resource consent to which section 123C applies is the period specified in that section.
5 New section 123C inserted (Duration of certain current and continued consents)
After section 123B, insert:
123C Duration of certain current and continued consents
(1)
This section applies to—
(a)
a resource consent that is current on the commencement date but due to expire before the close of 31 December 2027:
(b)
a resource consent that expired before the commencement date, but only if,—
(i)
immediately before the commencement date, the holder was eligible to operate under the consent in reliance on section 124; and
(ii)
the holder’s application for a new consent had not been determined by the consent authority before the commencement date.
(2)
A resource consent—
(a)
referred to in subsection (1)(a) is extended to the close of 31 December 2027:
(b)
referred to in subsection (1)(b) is deemed to be reinstated and extended to the close of 31 December 2027.
(3)
However, if the resource consent relates to water, the consent expires on the earlier of—
(a)
the close of 31 December 2027:
(b)
the date that is 35 years after the date the consent commenced.
(4)
Despite subsection (3), a resource consent that relates to water expires on the close of 1 October 2026 if, on the commencement of this Act, the consent was deemed to be (or otherwise to be treated as) granted under this Act.
(5)
Any conditions applying to a resource consent or that applied to a resource consent before it expired (as the case may be) continue to apply unless a change to a condition is required as a consequence of extending the consent under this section.
(6)
However, any extension, or reinstatement and extension, of a consent under this section does not affect the application of sections 125, 127, 128, and 129.
(7)
A consent authority must,—
(a)
no later than 6 months after the commencement date, update a resource consent to which this section applies to record its new expiry date; and
(b)
if applicable, continue to process and determine the application for the new consent unless it is withdrawn.
(8)
This section does not apply to any extant wastewater consent that has already been extended under section 139C or 139D.
(9)
In this section, commencement date means the date on which this section comes into force.
(10)
In subsections (3) and (4), a resource consent relates to water if it is—
(a)
a water permit within the meaning of section 87(d):
(b)
a discharge permit (within the meaning of section 87(e)) authorising—
(i)
a discharge of contaminant or water into water:
(ii)
a discharge of contaminant onto or into land, in the circumstances described in section 15(1)(b):
(c)
a land use consent under section 9 that includes associated discharges.
Legislative history
9 December 2025 |
Introduction (Bill 232–1), first reading, second reading, committee of the whole House, third reading |
|
16 December 2025 |
Royal assent |
This Act is administered by the Ministry for the Environment.