What advice, if any, did the Minister receive from public health agencies and/or advisors on section 80(2) of the Local Government (Water Services) (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2025, which introduced a requirement to the Resource Management Act that "a consent authority must include, as a condition of granting the consent, requirements that are no more or less restrictive than is necessary to give effect to— (i) the wastewater environmental performance standard" ?

Answer

All advice about the policy development of section 80(2) was received in relation to the Local Government (Water Services) Bill. The Bill was split into two Acts at the Committee of the whole House, which created the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025 and Local Government (Water Services) (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2025. Public health agencies or advisors did not provide direct advice about section 80(2). I did however receive advice about the technical settings within the wastewater environmental performance standards (standards) to ensure the standards account for public health. The advice is summarised in briefing LG20242842 Wastewater Environmental Performance Standards: Minimum and Maximum Approach on 20 June 2024, which is publicly available at: https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/Proactive-Releases-2025-26/$file/Briefings-related-to-Local-Water-Done-Well-June-2024-February-2025.pdf.