AM Edition: Top 10 Politics Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for September 11, 2026 – Full Text

Source: New Zealand Government

Introduction 

Good morning. It’s great to be here in the beautiful Kerikeri for this year’s RMLA conference.

I want to acknowledge the RMLA for its leadership, and each of you for the critical role you play in shaping the future of our communities.

You are the people who spend your professional lives helping New Zealand make some of its most important choices – where we build, how we grow, and how we protect what matters most. 

It is where infrastructure, housing, environmental protection, private property, science, investment and community expectations all have to be reconciled in decisions that endure.

Done well, this is how we can turn ambition into tangible progress.

Your work gives decision-makers confidence, gives communities a voice, gives applicants clarity, and helps ensure that these difficult trade-offs are made transparently and defensibly.

You are not just observers of our reform programme; you are central to how it’s shaped and whether it succeeds. Many of you have been a part of it – either through submissions to the select committee, or great involvement working with Officials and us directly on some of the choices we faced.

The goal is not to remove judgement, advice, advocacy or legal rigour from planning. It is to create a system where those qualities help New Zealand move forward with greater confidence, rather than requiring people to relitigate the same questions over and over again.

I know change is hard. I know that many of you have been through this before, and been disappointed. But I am confident that the new system we have developed will increase your value, not lessen it.

Our new planning system. 

Our new planning system will radically change how we build the houses and infrastructure our country needs. It will let farmers and growers get on with doing what they do best, and it will boost our primary sector, all while protecting the environment.

As you have heard me say one hundred times already, the RMA has failed. The case for change is strong.

The infrastructure New Zealanders rely on is delayed for years in consenting processes, costing millions, with consenting costs rising 70% over the past decade. The RMA requires a consent for even the most basic of activities, having long-ago stopped asking whether one is necessary in the first place.

And worst of it, the RMA has failed to protect our environment, with most environmental metrics degrading since 1991, with studies showing that two-thirds of our rivers have impaired ecological health.

As a government, we have a mission to deliver a growing, thriving economy for New Zealanders. We can’t do that when the RMA has a chokehold around our prospects of growth. 

That’s why we are delivering a new system that will supercharge growth whist improving the environment.

For New Zealanders, here’s what our new system will looks like for them.

We’ll have fewer consents. Activities that have small impacts on others will no longer require a consent at all, focusing the system instead on only what matters the most.

We’ll have fewer plans, and they’ll be developed faster. Right now, there are more than 100 plans across the country. We’re reducing that to just 17, creating consistency and simplicity.

Spatial planning will deliver long-term certainty to developers, councils, and the government, clearly identifying growth areas, and areas in need of environmental protection.

More consistency through nationally set policy direction will leave less up for debate, and deliver certainty across the country.

A more proportionate system means less pointless red tape and frustrating processes. 

We’ll have more standardisation. National standards for zoning and common activities will give us more consistency and speed up the system. 

A new system of regulatory relief will ensure that some restrictions will no longer be placed on properties without some form of relief to the landowner.

Consultation will be clear and consistent, with defined rules on who needs to be consulted and when. Gone are the days of every man and his dog getting a say in what you do with your own property. 

Conflicts will be resolved faster and cheaper through a new Planning Tribunal, providing a quick, low-cost way to settle disputes.

One of the biggest shifts in the new system is towards competitive urban land markets. 

The Select Committee strengthened that goal, making it clear the planning system should provide development opportunities beyond simply meeting current and expected demand.

The planning system has limited land, constrained growth, and pushed up costs for too long. 

When land is artificially scarce, homes become more expensive, and businesses have fewer options. 

We cannot keep planning for scarcity. 

New Zealand is not a country that is short of land. We can plan for abundance, opportunity, and growth if we build a planning system that works.

Land supply has to materially exceed demand. More opportunities to build means more housing, more investment, and more productive cities and regions.

We’re also introducing better environmental limits, to improve resource efficiency and improve our environment. And environmental enforcement will be more effective and consistent. We’re centralising responsibility to ensure rules are applied evenly across the country.

In short: we are fundamentally changing most of what has failed in the RMA.

We have delivered a system that looks ahead, makes strategic choices early, and gives confidence about where regions are heading. 

Now we turn to effective implementation. 

If we get that right, we can align housing, infrastructure, transport and resilience in a way that supports stronger communities and better long-term decision making.

The harder question – culture 

Everything I have described so far is system design. 

Statute, direction, standards, plans, consents. It is the part of any reform that governments are good at. 

Governments are good at passing a law, throwing it out into the world, and leaving everyone to fend for themselves. We are determined not to do that. 

We are now shifting our focus to implementation – and how we drive the culture change required in the new system. 

The RMA has encouraged a culture focused on process – one in which decisions are repeatedly litigated, and development is too often treated as something to be constrained rather than enabled.

This is not a critique of the people operating in the system, but instead a critique of the system itself. 

Nobody set out to build a culture of process.It emerged, rationally, from the incentives the system created. When national direction is absent, every question is open.

When every question is open, every decision is contestable. 

When every decision is contestable, the safest course for a decision-maker is more information, more conditions, more process – because process is defensible in a way that judgement is not.

That is not a failure of character. It is a failure of design. And design drives culture. 

Which is good. Design we can fix – and we have, through a few deliberate changes. 

First, we are changing how we approach regulation. The starting point should not be that people ask permission to undertake ordinary activities on their own land.

People should be able to use, develop and enjoy their land unless there is a clear reason for intervention.

That reverses the burden of justification, and it does so at the very front of the statute, where it governs everything that follows.

We are making the system more enabling through more permissive approaches – moving away from regulation as the default, and towards intervention where there is a clear and justified reason for it.

Second, we are narrowing what the system reaches for – this means a higher bar for regulatory intervention, and a defined scope of effects. 

Some of the more subjective effects in the system – such as visual appearance – are out of the system entirely. 

Because if a planning system tries to regulate every possible effect, it becomes too complex, too costly, and much less effective – and complexity is itself a generator of process.

It also erodes the social license for planning. Planning is critical to manage for incompatible land uses, and maximise the use of everyone’s property to the greatest extent possible. But when the local council instead spends months questioning you about the type of finials on your roof, the public stop seeing planning as critical and start seeing it as ridiculous.

Third: Regulation should be proportionate to the scale and significance of the effects on people – which is exactly why we are pricing regulation in the new system. 

Regulatory relief is a novel concept in New Zealand, and I suspect it will generate more interesting law than anything else in the bill. 

The principle is simple: if certain planning controls are imposed on private land for the benefit of the public, the public should bear some of that cost. 

At present a council can impose heritage or landscape controls on private property without bearing any of the cost of doing so. That is an invitation to over-regulate, and we are changing it.

This will change behaviour at every level of the system – the best lever we have to drive behaviour change is pricing.

Importantly, I hope this will make elected councillors pay more attention to the significance of their planning decisions.

I cannot tell you how many councillors or mayors have come to me complaining about provisions in their own plans – their own plans they voted for and endorsed.

If the options to regulate that they are considering have dollar-signs attached, the theory is that around the council table, they will be paying much more attention. 

Fourth: The Planning Tribunal will give applicants an accessible, affordable route to challenge the things that have simply had to be accepted until now – information requests, stacked technical reports, consent conditions that do nothing for the environment or for the community.

It will provide a quicker, more streamlined pathway for resolving planning disputes than court-based processes, helping practitioners and applicants obtain certainty earlier in the consenting process.

By providing an independent check on administrative decisions, the Tribunal can also help promote more consistent decision-making across councils and give both applicants and councils clearer guidance on how the system should operate.

That matters because the Tribunal is not just a dispute-resolution body. 

In the new system the Tribunal will be one of the places where that success becomes visible – and it becomes the place to protect users of the system from carried over culture from old RMA practices.

But personally, I don’t want it to get that far. Which is why we are investing heavily in the implementation of the system.

Budget 2026 invested $294 million over four years to support the rollout of our new planning and environmental management system, and we know that more will be required. 

Through effective implementation of these key shifts, we can change the planning culture from caution and delay to confidence, judgement and delivery.

Dispelling concerns

There are a few concerns that keep popping up from time to time, that I just think are unjustified. 

First, this concern that legislation which only works under the right minister is inherently risky, and therefore putting more power into national instruments is risky, too. This just fundamentally misunderstands how government works.

When there is good reason to, Ministers can amend legislation extremely quickly, as this Government has shown with the RMA this term. 

You can change small or large parts of the planning system nearly overnight if you have to. A future minister who wants to make the system slower and more expensive does not need national direction to do it. They can simply legislate.

The new system does make ministerial instruments more robust and directive. That is true, and it is deliberate. 

What it does not do is place the creation of those instruments solely in the hands of ministers. There are real checks and balances in the process, including significant public consultation and proper process at each step. 

The process for making national direction under the new Bills is more thorough, more transparent, and offers less ability to deviate than the process for making legislation. 

Parliament can pass urgent legislation overnight with no consultation whatsoever. There is no ability to do that with national instruments.

There are also concerns that there is no hierarchy in the goals. In our view, the risks of creating a legislative hierarchy outweigh the risks of not doing it. 

One of the reasons the RMA failed is that it required everything to be viewed through the lens of the single overarching purpose of “sustainable management” and its hierarchy in Part 2. 

Not everything the RMA covered fitted neatly in that box, which created confusion, consenting challenges, and an eyewatering amount of litigation.

By taking a more granular approach, and spelling out through national policy direction which goals come first are prioritised over another in specific circumstances, we avoid the fundamental flaw that afflicted the RMA from the beginning. 

There is an argument for an overarching goal of economic growth and change, or an overarching goal of environmental protection.

But a single overarching goal is also a single target. They can be swapped out for one another in a single line of a future amendment Bill, causing chaos and uncertainty in the system. Granular direction forces governments to justify where precisely each competing goal trumps the other. 

These Bills are not perfect, that is true. Statutory regimes of this scale rarely are. But we cannot let perfect be the enemy of the good.

These Bills are a great deal better than the RMA, and I would wager, a great deal better than most planning systems internationally.

We can reach the panacea of perfection at some point in the future, but New Zealand has been suffering under the chokehold of the RMA for so long, that I am willing to progress ‘good’ now rather than leave Kiwis waiting for perfection.

The opportunity ahead 

Which brings me back to the opportunity in front of us, and the culture shift needed to meet it.

We can introduce price regulation, narrow the scope of effects, and establish a new planning tribunal. Those are real mechanisms, and I believe they will work. More importantly, they give us the tools to build a system that enables people to make good decisions earlier, faster and with greater confidence.

But we can’t get away from the reality that the people making the decisions on the first Monday of the new system will be the same people who made the decisions under the RMA the Friday before. 

Same practitioners, same councils, same instincts, formed over thirty-five years of a system that often-rewarded caution. That is why partnership with the sector matters so much.

A statute can lead the horse to water. But it is only through proper implementation, capability and leadership that we can make it drink.

We’ve done the design – now comes the delivery.

It is true that these reforms will change the shape of practice in this country.

But the work does not disappear – it moves. 

To national direction, where further direction on the goals is given. 

To standards, where those directions get teeth.

To seventeen regional plans carrying weight that hundreds used to share.

And everyone in the system will play a part in that.

The next few years will be busy for you all – but using your experience, your judgement and your practical insight, we can build a better system, together. 

This is our chance to build a planning system that serves New Zealanders better for decades to come. I look forward to working with you to make it real. 

Thank you.

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/speech-to-the-resource-management-law-association-conference/

MIL OSI

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government’s plan to ensure secure, affordable electricity for New Zealanders is working, with data today showing new records for renewable generation and a significant drop in wholesale electricity prices, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.  

Data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment for the three months ended 30 June this year shows: 

• The highest ever solar generation for a June quarter, at 242GWh – 56.2 per cent higher than the same quarter last year 
• A new record for geothermal generation in any quarter, at 2,621 GWh – 5.5 per cent higher than the same quarter last year 
• A June quarter record of 92 per cent electricity generation from renewable sources 
• Wholesale electricity prices fell 66 per cent compared with the same quarter last year 

“These are significant wholesale price decreases, reflecting a number of factors including the Government’s decision to procure an LNG import facility to support renewable electricity,” Mr Brown says.  

“This Government has also delivered policy to drive investment in the energy sector through the fast-track approval of eight renewable energy projects, and the reversal of the previous Labour Government’s oil and gas exploration ban.  

“However, these figures also reinforce that the electricity system still depends on hydro lake levels as security to keep the lights on, which are susceptible to dry years.

“Significant April rainfall means we got through this winter with high hydro in-flows and above average storage levels. But in a winter when lake levels are low, the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing, New Zealand continues to rely on backup thermal generation to prevent power prices spiking and potential shortages that see industry shut down.  

 “That didn’t happen this year, but it did in 2024, and history shows that it will happen again. With dwindling natural gas supplies due to the previous Labour Government’s decision to ban oil and gas exploration, the country’s energy security has been put at serious risk in a dry year. That is why this Government is procuring an LNG import facility to ensure that during a dry year we can keep the lights on and protect consumers from price spikes. 

“Investment in renewables will continue only while people know the system can be supported in a dry year, which was what LNG will provide.

“While today’s data release is encouraging, it also points to a need for continued focus on a secure and affordable energy supply, which is what this Government is focussed on.”

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/new-records-show-energy-policies-are-delivering/

Source: New Zealand Government

Three Government programmes are making a difference in preventing family violence, new independent evaluations show.

Evaluations of E Tū Whānau, Pasefika Proud and the Ethnic Communities Violence Prevention programme found positive shifts in attitudes, behaviours and social norms associated with family violence.

The programmes are funded by the Ministry of Social Development.

“Family violence and sexual violence cause enormous harm, but these evaluations show we can make a difference,” Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says.

“These are three different programmes working with different communities, but the evidence points in the same direction – prevention works best when communities are supported to lead solutions that reflect their own strengths, values and experiences.

“The evaluations reinforce the value of approaches that are community-led, locally informed, and which build on the strengths of individuals, families and communities.

“This gives us a stronger evidence base for making decisions about how we prevent violence before it occurs and where government can make the greatest difference.”

Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour says the findings support the Government’s direction under Te Aorerekura – the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence.

“Responding effectively when violence occurs is essential, but we also need to break the cycle and prevent that harm from happening in the first place,” Ms Chhour says.

“One clear lesson is that government does not always have the answers. Communities understand their people, their strengths and the challenges they face.

“This evidence supports the direction we are taking under Te Aorerekura – putting greater emphasis on prevention and strengthening community capability and leadership alongside effective responses when violence occurs. 

“Breaking the cycle of family violence and sexual violence will take sustained effort. By backing effective approaches and empowering communities to lead change, we can help create safer families, whānau and communities for generations to come.”

Notes to editor:

• More information about the independent evaluations can be found here on the MSD website.
• The findings will help inform future policy, programme design and prevention activity under Te Aorerekura – the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence.

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/making-a-difference-on-family-violence/

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government will provide $8 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund to support the continued operation and preservation of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka say.

“Waitangi is where the story of modern New Zealand began. It is a place of immense national significance, a place of nationhood,” Mr Jones says.

“Preserving heritage buildings, museums, cultural facilities and public infrastructure at a site of this significance is an essential and ongoing investment. This pūtea from the Regional Infrastructure Fund will help ensure this taonga remains accessible, vibrant and fit for future generations.”

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds attract more than 160,000 visitors each year and is one of Northland’s premier visitor destinations, supporting regional tourism, employment and economic activity.

The grant will help support the continued operation of the Treaty Grounds while investing in the infrastructure and assets needed to maintain public access and support educational, cultural and commemorative programmes.

Mr Potaka says Waitangi holds a unique place in New Zealand’s identity.

“Waitangi is where many New Zealanders come to better understand Te Tiriti o Waitangi and reflect on the events and people who shaped our nation.

“This investment from the Crown will help preserve that opportunity while supporting the cultural, educational and commemorative programmes that make the Treaty Grounds a living and enduring taonga.”

Previous regional development funding has supported the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and associated infrastructure, including $10.2m from the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) for Treaty Grounds infrastructure upgrades, $1.57m from the RIF for the sealing and upgrade of Haruru Falls Road, a secondary access route to the Treaty Grounds; and $14.50m from the Provincial Growth Fund for Te Rau Aroha – the Māori Battalion Museum. 

“As we look towards the bicentenary of Waitangi Day in 2040, we are ensuring this nationally significant taonga has the infrastructure and support worthy of its place in our nation’s story,” Mr Jones says.

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/investment-to-preserve-waitangi-treaty-grounds/

MIL OSI

Source: New Zealand Government

The average KiwiSaver balance has passed $40,000 for the first time, with $138.8 billion now invested on behalf of New Zealanders, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer.

The Financial Markets Authority’s KiwiSaver Annual Report, released today, shows the average member balance up 11 per cent to $40,340, contributions up 8.2 per cent, and more than 112,000 new members joining the scheme.

“Competition is a key focus for this Government, and this report shows it working. Members switched funds 460,000 times last year and $7.4 billion moved between providers, up from $5.5 billion. If your provider isn’t delivering, you can move, and hundreds of thousands of Kiwis did exactly that,” Mr Brewer says.

“Check what fund you’re in, check what you’re paying, and don’t be afraid to shop around. This Government’s job is to keep that market competitive and well regulated so Kiwis have real choices.

“Since 2010, hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders have used their KiwiSaver to get onto the property ladder, and they continue to do so, with more than 50,000 members withdrawing a record $2.2 billion for first homes in the last year. 

The Government recently introduced the KiwiSaver (First Home or Farm) Amendment Bill, which will let workers in service tenancies such as farm workers, rural teachers and defence personnel use their KiwiSaver to get onto the property ladder, even when the job requires them to live in employer-provided housing.

“This is all part of the Government’s plan to fix the basics, build the future, and make sure Kiwis’ hard-earned savings are working as hard as they do,” Mr Brewer says.

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/kiwisaver-report-highlights-continued-growth/

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government is investing in upgraded visitor facilities at Horopito on the Mountains to Sea – Ngā Ara Tūhono Great Ride, Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston says. 

“More than 67,000 people pass through Horopito, including on the Great Ride each year, creating lasting memories while contributing the local economy along the way,” Louise Upston says.

Horopito is located on the edge of the Tongariro National Park, near Ohakune.

“This investment of $405,000 will help to rectify the current lack of visitor infrastructure at a key junction through the construction of public toilets, safe shuttle access, parking and other visitor facilities at Horopito.

“This will benefit visitors and locals alike while helping to ensure one of New Zealand’s Great Rides continues to provide a safe, high-quality experience for the thousands of people who use the trail every year.

“The project is ready to start and expected to encourage longer stays in the region while improving accessibility, safety and visitor satisfaction, ensuring the visitors continue to flow for many years to come.

“As visitor numbers continue to grow, we need to ensure destinations have the infrastructure in place to support that growth.

“By investing in the infrastructure that supports great visitor experiences, we’re helping set regional New Zealand up for the future, ensuring communities can welcome more visitors, deliver great experiences, and local businesses and communities benefit from sustainable tourism growth.”

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/investment-to-improve-visitor-facilities-on-great-ride/

Source: New Zealand Government

Lower Overseas Investment fees will make it easier and more attractive for investors to bring capital into New Zealand, helping businesses grow, lifting productivity, creating higher-paying jobs, and unlocking New Zealand’s potential. 

“The Government is focused on removing unnecessary barriers to investment and making New Zealand a more attractive place to do business,” Mr Seymour says. 

“Last year the Government streamlined the Overseas Investment Act, putting in place a risk-based national interest test that reduced unnecessary checks on low-risk investment applications while maintaining the necessary safeguards for New Zealand’s national interests.

“We’ve already made it easier. Now we’re making it cheaper. This will make it more commercially viable for more people to invest in New Zealand. This is important because that money leads to higher productivity, more higher paying jobs, access to new technology and know-how.”  

From 11 September 2026, fees for the initial national interest risk assessment will fall from $22,800 to $16,960, while fees for mandatory stage two assessments involving non-New Zealand government investors will reduce from $83,700 to $61,800.

“We are sending a clear signal that we want to unlock New Zealand’s potential, and are open for business,” Mr Seymour says. 

“In the past financial year, LINZ have granted applications to 230 transactions with a gross investment value of approximately $23.8 billion. The second highest number of consents applications granted in one year was 201, in 2024/25.

“The new law says decisions on all investments except residential land, farmland and fishing quota must be made within 15 working days, unless there is a potential national interest concern, but the target is five working days. Residential land, farmland and fishing quota will continue going through existing pathways.”

LINZ have met the target assessment timeframes for the new investment pathways. Specifically:

• Average assessment timeframes for business and production forestry investments had already halved since June 2024 and continue to reduce. Since the Amendment Act took effect, these investments are now approved in just four working days.
• Since our Government was elected, we’ve reduced the average processing time from 71 working days to 23.

The regulations will also allow Land Information New Zealand to waive, discount, or refund fees in limited circumstances where requiring payment would be unreasonable or where an administrative error needs to be corrected.

“This is a practical change that improves fairness and consistency for investors applying to spend their money in New Zealand. It gives LINZ the flexibility to address exceptional situations while maintaining the integrity of the overseas investment framework,” Mr Seymour says. 

“New Zealand has been turning away opportunities for growth for too long. International investment is critical to unlocking New Zealand’s potential. It provides access to capital and technology that grows New Zealand businesses, enhances productivity, and supports high paying jobs.” 

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/10/overseas-investment-applications-made-cheaper/

MIL OSI