This Government bill amends the Environmental Reporting Act 2015, restating the purpose of the Act, reducing the frequency of synthesis (state of the environment) reports from every 3 years to every 6 years, strengthening data collection mechanisms and standards, and adding drivers and outlooks as required components of environmental reports. It is still before Parliament.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (first reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
A government bill that would change how New Zealand's official environmental reports are produced under the Environmental Reporting Act 2015. It would restate the Act's purpose, reduce how often the big 'synthesis' reports on the overall state of the environment come out, and strengthen the rules and standards for collecting environmental data. It would also require reports to cover 'drivers' — what is causing change — and 'outlooks', or likely future trends.
Introduced by Environment Minister Nicola Grigg, the bill would move comprehensive state-of-the-environment reports from about every three years to every six, shift routine topic reports from six-monthly to annual, and add a new report identifying priorities for investment. The government says the current system is inflexible and inefficient and that the changes, backed by new funding for environmental data, would make reporting clearer and more useful for decision-makers.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.