The government unveiled its proposed replacement bills for the Resource Management Act on Tuesday afternoon, totalling about 750 pages.

Here's five key details:

Two new laws, in effect by 2029

Two new laws will replace the Resource Management Act.

The Planning Bill will lay out how land can be used and developed including planning for housing growth, while the Natural Environment Bill will lay out the rules for managing the use of natural resources and protecting the environment.

Each of these will have "goals" the system needs to achieve, and rules limiting what councils can regulate.

They were introduced to Parliament around the same time as the system was announced, and the government plans to have them passed by the end of 2026, and fully operational by 2029.

A transition period allowing some of the new system to kick in while extending the expiry date of current consents - mostly out to 2031 - two years after the transition period is expected to end.

The government intends to urgently pass legislation in the coming days to enable the transition.

Fewer plans, fewer consents

The new system aims to streamline and simplify consenting processes, saying this will save money and improve productivity by curbing compliance costs.

It reduces the more than 100 policy statements and plans across 78 local authorities down to 17 Regional Combined Plans, which will take two years to develop.

Many more activities will be considered permitted by default, and the number of consent categories will be reduced to four.

Zoning will be standardised, and National Standards will set out cookie-cutter approaches to consenting, planning, information gathering, and environmental limits - so all councils are working from the same basic approach.

The government expects the reforms to save $13.3 billion over 30 years, and increase Gross Domestic Product by at least 0.56 percent annually by 2050.

Several current rules from the RMA for things like farming will be scrapped and standardised.

The planning bill would lay out what infrastructure is needed and when, with land secured for key infrastructure like roads, schools, and utilities. 

Property rights

One of the main principles laid out in the new system is a new approach to "regulatory relief", also known as "regulatory takings", which basically means compensation for when people's rights are impacted on by regulation.

In this case, local councils will be required to compensate land owners for "significant" impacts on any privately owned land.

This could take the form of cash payments, rates rebates, extra development rights, no-fee consents, land swaps, or the provision of expert advice.

That's a higher threshold than under the current RMA system, where such compensation is limited to extreme scenarios where land is considered unable to be reasonably used.

A new planning tribunal would help decide what to do if landowners and councils disagree.

'National instruments'

National Standards and National Policy Statements will set out the government's priorities and direction in a regime that expands on the current approach.

Some of the existing national policy statements will be incorporated into the new system.

The government intends to set out the initial instruments out in two stages, the first in late 2026 and the second in 2027.

Iwi authorities will have input into the national instruments.

The environment will be protected through environmental limits, which set out maximum thresholds for things like pollution which cannot be breached - or if they are, councils will plan how to correct it.

Repeal, replace and reform

The overall thrust of the system somewhat resembles the reforms Labour passed shortly before the 2023 election.

The emphasis on property rights is one key difference, alongside the goals set out in national direction and the purpose statements setting out how the laws should be interpreted.

The coalition scrapped Labour's regime as one of its first actions after coming to power in 2023, returning New Zealand to the previous Resource Management Act while writing up its own new version.

Coalition reforms to local councils - including limits on what councils can spend on and increased monitoring of council decisions, the abolition of regional councillors, and a new rates capping regime form another plank of the changes the government is pushing ahead with.