The quarry industry is warning of shortages and rising costs for foundation materials due to at least two more years of delays in obtaining consent.

While quarries supported the intent of the Government’s latest Resource Management Act (RMA) reform announcements, Aggregate and Quarry Association (AQA) chief executive Wayne Scott said waiting until 2027 for meaningful change was unacceptable.

Government ministers were informed upon taking office that flaws in two National Policy Statements (NPS) were preventing quarries from obtaining consents for land needed to supply rock, aggregate and sand for housing and infrastructure, Scott said.

AQA chief executive Wayne Scott said waiting until 2027 for meaningful change was unacceptable.

“We were told the problems with the flaws in the Highly Productive Land and Indigenous Biodiversity national policy statements would be fixed,” he said.

“Yesterday’s announcements show little intent from the Government to address these in a timely manner.”

Ministers seemed to believe that introducing two new RMA bills before the end of the year and passing them before the 2026 election would resolve all planning and consenting issues, Scott said.

However, he warned regulatory plans would take years to implement, leaving quarries struggling.

“The Fast-track Approvals Act is very welcome, but it will only apply to eight out of a thousand active quarries around New Zealand,” Scott said.

He said other quarries seeking expansion or new sites would still have to navigate the drawn-out RMA reform process while facing constraints from flawed policies that successive governments had failed to fix.

“Quarries are already stretched to meet supply and costs can now only rise. We need urgent attention to resource consenting constraints now,” Scott said.