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by Helena Preston
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Supporting New Zealand quarrying through RMA reform
- Post Date
- 07 July 2025
- Read Time
- 3 minutes
On 29 May 2025 the Government announced that consultation was open on changes to national direction under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
These amendments are of relevance to quarrying and mining and propose changes to:
- National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity 2023
- National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land 2022
- National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020
- National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020.
Quarrying is currently treated differently under the above instruments. The Government is now seeking amendments that propose to take a common approach in terms of allowing for functional need and operational need in all instances, and whether there can be a regional benefit without a qualification of not otherwise having a source elsewhere in New Zealand.
At the same time the proposed new National Policy Statement for Infrastructure has been released that gives recognition to quarrying activities that may not be undertaken by the infrastructure provider or ancillary activities, but are necessary to support the infrastructure activities. Further to that quarrying activities are to be defined as:
“the extraction, processing (including crushing, screening, washing, and blending), transport, storage, sale and recycling of aggregates (clay, silt, rock, sand), the deposition of overburden material, rehabilitation, landscaping and cleanfilling of the quarry, and the use of land and accessory buildings for offices, workshops and car parking areas associated with the operation of the quarry.”
Quarrying is proposed to be a subset of infrastructure supporting activities and identified specifically in Policy 4 of this new National Policy Statement.
Find out more about the proposed changes on the Government’s website.
How SLR can help?
Having been involved in the development of these policy statements with Central Government and advised our clients of their implementation, we are supportive of having a common approach across these instruments. Through our understanding of the quarrying industry, by delivering planning and technical services directly for quarrying clients, we believe that the common approach will bring numerous benefits to the quarrying industry. In particular the exemptions applied are not different standards, which would otherwise mean additional justification and assessments tailored to each instrument would need to be provided. A consistent and common approach will simplify these assessments and be more readily understood by all parties.
SLR can help prepare submissions on behalf of our clients to put forward for consultation process, which remains open until Sunday 27 July. The feedback will inform the development of national direction under the resource management system - an important step for ensuring that the changes will be reflective of the needs of the quarrying industry.
Further details on the consultation process can be found on the Ministry of Environment’s website.
We are looking forward to discussing the RMA reforms at the upcoming Quarrying NZ Conference in Hamilton on 9-11 July for which SLR is proud to be a Silver Sponsor and exhibitor.
For more details of our involvement and supporting information, view our event page.
Contact Duncan Whyte
