Regions of New Zealand

Eleven are currently administered by regional councils, whilst the other five are administered by unitary authorities. Most of New Zealand's outlying Islands are not included within its regions, with the Solander Islands being the exception as they are within the Southland Region. The Chatham Islands are not within any region, having their own specially legislated territorial authority.

History and statutory basis

Legislative framework

The regional councils are listed in Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Local Government Act 2002, along with reference to the Gazette notices that established them in 1989. The act requires regional councils to promote sustainable development – the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of their communities.

The current regions and most of their councils came into being through a local government reform in 1989 that took place under the Local Government Act 1974. The regional councils replaced the more than 700 ad hoc bodies that had been formed in the preceding century – roads boards, catchment boards, drainage boards, pest control boards, harbour boards, domain and reserve boards. In addition they took over some roles that had previously been performed by county councils.

The boundaries of the regions are based largely on drainage basins. This anticipated the responsibilities of the Resource Management Act 1991. Most regional boundaries conform with territorial authority boundaries but there are a number of exceptions. An example is Taupō District, split between four regions, although most of its area is in the Waikato region. There is often a high degree of co-operation between regional and territorial councils as they have complementary roles.

Resource management functions

Regional councils have these specific functions under the Resource Management Act 1991:

• Planning for the integrated management of natural and physical resources
• Planning for regionally significant land uses
• Soil conservation, water quality and quantity, water ecosystems, natural hazards, hazardous substances
• Controlling the coastal marine area
• Controlling via resource consents the taking, use, damming or diverting of water
• Controlling via resource consents the discharge of contaminants
• Establishing of rules in a regional plan to allocate water
• Controlling via resource consents the beds of waterbodies

Other functions

Regional councils have responsibility for functions under other statutes;

• flood and river control under the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act 1941,
• reserves vested in regional councils under the Reserves Act 1977,
• civil defence under the Civil Defence Act 1990,
• regional pest management under the Biosecurity Act 1993,
• harbour and water navigation under the Maritime Transport Act 1994,
• hazardous waste under the HSNO Act 1996,
• public transport planning under the Land Transport Act 1998, and
• supervision of the safety of dams under the Building Act 2004.

Proposed abolition

In mid 2025, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones proposed scrapping the 11 regional councils as part of the Sixth National Government's proposed overhaul of the Resource Management Act 1991. In late November 2025, Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop confirmed the Government would seek to abolish regional councils and transfer their responsibilities to the 67 local district and city councils.

The Government has released two replacement proposals. First, abolishing elected regional councillors and replacing them with combined territories boards, which would consist of the mayors of the district councils within the former regions. While the regional councils as organisations would remain, they would be run by the mayors of the constituent regions. The Government's second proposal would be to get the combined territories boards to prepare a regional reorganisation plan within two years of their establishment, subject to approval by the Local Government Minister. These plans would focus on the delivery of infrastructure, public services and regulatory functions, and would be tested against criteria based on housing, infrastructure, and manageable rates services. Public consultation on the proposed legislative changes was open until 20 February 2026. The legislation is expected to be introduced in mid-2026 with the goal of passing it into law by 2027.

The Government's proposal to abolish the regional councils attracted a mixture of reactions. The proposal was supported by Otago Regional councillor Michael Laws and Dunedin City councillor Lee Vandervis, who described the regional councils as an "excessive level" of bureaucracy and argued that their dissolution would lower rates and red tape. By contrast, the proposal was opposed by Mayor of Wellington Andrew Little, Otago Regional councillor Alan Somerville, Te Wānanga o Raukawa environmental planning lecturer Mahina-a-rangi Baker, Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio chair Paul Madgwick and Mayor of Dunedin Sophie Barker on the grounds that abolishing the regional councils would erode environmental protections, reduce Māori input in regional-level decision-making, infringe on Treaty of Waitangi obligations and add further to mayors and territorial authorities' workloads. Meanwhile, Mayor of Central Otago Tamah Alley, Mayor of Gisborne Rehette Stoltz and Labour leader Chris Hipkins expressed concerns about accountability, the loss of technical expertise, and the nature of the proposed reforms.

In mid-February 2026, several Otago regional councillors criticised the Government's proposal to replace the regional councils. Michael Laws described the proposal as "poorly written, drafted by bureaucrats who used AI when it was in a hallucination state and drawn up by people who had not passed their NCEA literacy tests." Instead, Laws advocated maintaining the Otago Regional Council and a unitary authority based on the Auckland Council. Gretchen Robertson said that the restructure could lead to fragmentation while Neil Gillespie described local government as something "that was not simple." By early April 2026, the Otago Daily Times reported that the Government had backed away on plans to proceed with replacing the regional councils with combined territorial boards following feedback from regional councils and territorial authorities. The Government indicated that it would instead focus on passing its two RMA replacement laws in 2026. On 30 April, Otago Regional Council chair Hilary Calvert confirmed that the Government had abandoned plans to replace the regional councils with combined territories boards before the end of the 54th New Zealand Parliamentary term following a meeting with New Zealand First Member of Parliament Mark Patterson.

By early May 2026, several district and regional councils in Northland, Taranaki, the West Coast, Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Otago and Southland Regions were exploring options to merge into unitary authorities. On 5 May, the Local Government Minister Simon Watts and the RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop issued local councils with a three-month timeframe to come up with amalgamation plans under the new "Head Start" approach. These amalgamation plans replaced the earlier proposed "combined territorial boards" and would be assessed by the newly-established Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT). Regional councils were excluded from the three-month merger consultation. In response, Environment Southland chair Jeremy McPhail expressed disappointment that regional councils had been excluded from making proposals on the amalgamation process but said they would continue advocating.