Environment Minister David Parker. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Bills - the government's replacements for the Resource Management Act - have passed their third readings in Parliament.
The legislation makes way for a new planning regime which aims to cut down the number of plans councils are required to produce, in part by getting them to work together.
It also sets environmental limits for things like water quality or air pollution - so instead of asking developers to assess land and predict possible effects, councils would measure the effects already in place and stop or restrict developments if the limits are breached.
"The RMA is long past its use-by date, today the RMA is repealed by new legislation which is faster, cheaper and better, will save homeowners [and] infrastructure providers a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and we have better environmental outcomes as well," the bill's sponsor, Environment Minister David Parker, told reporters.
The regime is expected to take about a decade to fully roll out but National has promised to repeal it by Christmas if elected, saying the proposed system would only increase bureaucracy, encourage litigation and risk worsening emissions.
National's RMA reform spokesperson Chris Bishop said it was all very well to rail against the RMA, but "the question has to be: 'Is what the government's proposing actually going to work, will it be better?', and our view is the answer is no".
"We are not going to sign up to a mammoth, labyrinthine piece of legislation just because David Parker says he thinks it will work. Actually we've closely scrutinised it an analysed it and our view it is will make it harder to do things in New Zealand."
National's prospective coalition partner ACT also wants to replace the system with its own - based largely on property rights.