Freshwater policy reform

What is changing

The coalition Government is undertaking consultation on reforms to national direction under the Resource Management Act (RMA).

These national changes will affect the rules in both national direction and regional plans, as well as the consents and permitted activity standards that farmers, catchment groups, and communities are working with.

There are two stages to the consultation. The first phase was a high-level consultation which closed on Sunday 27 July.

DairyNZ submitted to the consultation on national freshwater direction. You can read our submission. Thank you to those who joined our levy payer webinars and informed our submission.

There will be another chance to give feedback when the government releases draft documents. At that stage, we can comment on the exact wording of these national policies.

We will engage with levy payers through the second phase, expected in October 2025.

What changes to freshwater management are being considered?

There are several policy proposals that will have an impact on farmers, including:

• Rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai and freshwater management objectives.
• Improving the National Objectives Framework.
• Enabling commercial vegetable growing.
• Addressing water security and water storage.
• Simplifying wetlands provisions and fish passage regulations.
• Addressing issues with farmer-facing regulations (e.g. N Cap).
• Mapping requirements for drinking water sources.

The consultation on national policy direction consists of four packages:

Package 1: Infrastructure and development

• Looks at ways to make it easier for councils to plan and deliver infrastructure.

Package 2: Primary sector

• Aims to enable growth in the primary sector by making changes to eight existing national direction instruments.

Package 3: Freshwater

• Seeks feedback on options to amend freshwater national direction to better reflect the interests of all water users.

Package 4: Going for Housing Growth

• Aims to free up land for urban development, and provide for urban infrastructure.

DairyNZ is prepared for freshwater reform

The DairyNZ policy and science teams have been proactively preparing for this consultation, working with independent experts to develop an alternative national freshwater management framework. This puts us in a strong position to deliver a constructive, science-based response.

We are looking to ensure consistency in positioning across the sectors through early and continuous engagement with other organisations.

Four key outcomes we are seeking in a new approach to freshwater management are:

• Practical and effective – a science-based approach that drives real improvement, encourages collaboration, and clearly links on-farm actions to freshwater outcomes.
• Outcome-focused – prioritising human and ecosystem health outcomes over strict contaminant limits as proxies for these outcomes.
• Farmer-led catchment level solutions – supporting catchment and farmer-led freshwater planning and delivery with a mix of regulatory and voluntary actions.
• Balanced policy – ensuring long-term environmental and economic sustainability with clear regulations and market confidence.

What happens next?

MfE and MPI officials will review the feedback received through this process and begin drafting the national policy for the next stage of consultation, which we’re expecting in October 2025.

These changes are part of the coalition Government’s broader RMA reform programme. You can read about these changes and DairyNZ’s work at Resource management reform.