The government has taken what it is calling urgent action to save thousands of farmers from having to lodge resource consents to discharge pollutants into waterways.

It said changes to the Resource Management Amendment (RMA) Bill meant farmers could carry on the routine work they had been doing for years without needing consent.

Federated Farmers has welcomed the move, but critics called the environmental law changes a last-minute smash and grab that was being rammed through Parliament

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said last month Waikato Regional Council told the government that unless urgent changes were made to water discharge rules in the RMA, approximately 2800 Waikato farms would require resource consents for on-farm activities.

"The Waikato region generates 20 percent of the nation's primary exports, with dairy farming supporting the employment of over 9000 Kiwis in the Waikato alone. If we don't act, the economic heart of New Zealand's primary sector could grind to a halt under what would effectively be a 'stop work' order," he said.

Horizons Regional Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tasman District Council and Environment Southland all requested further changes to water discharge rules as well.

The amendment would broaden what water discharges could be allowed as a permitted activity.

But Tom Kay, from the freshwater campaign group Choose Clean Water, said local councils would be stripped of the power to have any meaningful say over the future for their communities and environment.

The changes would, among other things, prevent councils writing or changing plans and policy statements until 2027, give the minister the power to modify or remove provisions of a Regional Policy Statement or regional or district plan, and weaken restrictions on commercial fishing and farming industries, he said.

"Despite claiming to be for the benefit of council efficiency, these changes effectively grind vital planning to a halt while allowing increasing pollution. Councils won't be able to move ahead with protecting things that are important for their communities-like drinking water sources or coastal fisheries-until the government says so."

He said the government was doing what agricultural lobby groups Federated Farmers, Beef & Lamb and Dairy NZ had asked for in their submissions on the Bill.

Federated Farmers applauded the changes, saying they would spare thousands of farmers from needing an unnecessary resource consent just to keep farming.

"I'd love to say this is a practical and pragmatic change from the government - but it's actually just commonsense," its RMA reform spokesperson, Mark Hooper, said.

Councils would still be able to require consent for genuinely high-risk activities but would not be forced to do so when something such as a farm plan was a better option, he said.

The Bill was expected to pass into law by the end of next week.

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