Adam Hopkinson

The August 2025 amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) were framed as a step-change in strengthening environmental compliance—tightening enforcement tools, signalling tougher consequences, and reinforcing the importance of deterrence. For council compliance teams, the critical question is simple: has anything actually changed in practice?

This session takes a pragmatic, "lessons learned" approach to how the reforms are translating in the Courts. Drawing on early enforcement decisions, it examines whether judicial approaches to liability, culpability, and penalty are shifting—or whether familiar RMA sentencing principles continue to dominate outcomes. Are higher penalties being imposed? Is there greater judicial willingness to respond to repeat offending or systemic failures? Or are the amendments yet to materially influence how cases are investigated, pleaded, and decided?

The session also reflects on how enforcement teams are responding on the ground. It considers whether, and how, the amended framework is being used to deliver better outcomes—from recovering costs for CME work, allowing for preventative abatement notices to be issued, through to increased scrutiny on compliance history.

Looking ahead, the session turns to the incoming Natural Environment Act and Planning Act. Based on current enforcement trends, it explores how the Courts may approach sentencing under these new regimes. How will the strengthened environmental compliance provisions interact with the requirement to respond "proportionately, consistently and reasonably to non-compliance"? And what does that even mean in practice?

More importantly, how should compliance teams be preparing for the new system, and what should you put in your compliance and enforcement strategy?

Focused on practical insights, this session will help council officers understand what is working, what is not, and where to focus effort in an evolving enforcement landscape.