Lessons from South Australia's Planning Portal for New Zealand’s RMA Reform
Introduction: A Digital Revolution in Planning
Adelaide: Compact, livable, connected - and supported by streamlined planning.
As New Zealand advances its Resource Management Act (RMA) reform, parallels can be drawn to South Australia’s pioneering efforts through PlanSA. South Australia's system offers a real-world case study of how a centralised, fully digital planning platform can transform resource management.
Over the Easter and ANZAC Day holidays, I visited South Australia and spent time exploring Adelaide and its surroundings. I was genuinely impressed by Adelaide’s city form - compact, liveable, and vibrant - supported by a beautiful and highly productive rural hinterland and framed by a long, stunning coastline. It was impossible not to think about planning in this context: a place similar to New Zealand in its rural-urban-coastal mix, yet with different ways of tackling planning challenges. Seeing this firsthand brought home just how important system design is to achieving good outcomes for people and the environment.
New Zealand’s proposed Planning Act and Natural Environment Act could learn much from PlanSA's bold digital leap. This article explores the lessons PlanSA offers for a future-ready, nationally consistent planning system.
What is PlanSA?
PlanSA is the South Australian Government’s integrated online portal for all planning, development, and building activity across the state. Launched in 2021, PlanSA brought together:
A single online Planning and Design Code, replacing hundreds of individual council development plans.
An online Development Application system (ePlanning portal) where people can lodge, track, and manage applications.
A Property and Planning Atlas providing interactive zoning and policy information for any property.
Real-time mapping and public registers of development decisions, building consents, and land use rules.
Access to State and Local Planning Schemes through a nationally consistent interface.
Key features include one website for all users (public, councils, developers, consultants), immediate property searches showing planning rules and overlays, online application lodgement and processing, automated checks for zoning and development pathways, and public access to decisions and assessment criteria.
PlanSA dramatically reduced the fragmentation and inconsistency that previously existed across South Australia’s 68 councils. Sound familiar to anyone grappling with New Zealand’s 100-plus regional and district plans?
Lessons learned
Lesson 1: Centralisation with Local Relevance
While PlanSA operates at a state-wide level, it still accommodates local variations (council-specific overlays, local heritage protections, and regional growth strategies) all visible within a unified digital system.
Implication for New Zealand:
New Zealand’s move to nationally standardised zones and single regional plans needs a digital backbone that reflects both national consistency and local distinctiveness. A New Zealand equivalent of PlanSA could ensure national direction flows logically into district-level implementation without losing regional voice.
Lesson 2: Real-Time Access to Planning Information
Through PlanSA’s Property and Planning Atlas, anyone (from homeowners to developers to government agencies) can instantly check zoning rules, overlay constraints such as flood risk or heritage status, and the relevant codes for a property.
Implication for New Zealand:
As New Zealand seeks to simplify plan interpretation, a real-time digital platform could eliminate the need for costly private plan interpretation reports. Property owners would know immediately what development is allowed or constrained under the new legislation.
Lesson 3: Digitised Application Lodgement and Tracking
PlanSA’s ePlanning portal allows online development application lodgement, payment of fees, digital submission of plans and documents, application tracking, and notification of decisions. This approach has made the development process faster, cheaper, and more transparent.
Implication for New Zealand:
Embedding end-to-end digital processing in the new system will reduce bottlenecks and costs, especially important given the new focus on more permitted activities and fewer resource consents.
Lesson 4: Integrated Spatial Planning Tools
PlanSA’s mapping layers integrate zoning, infrastructure corridors, natural hazards, biodiversity, and strategic growth areas. Spatial information is presented clearly and is easily understood by planners and the public alike.
Implication for New Zealand:
Spatial plans, a major feature of New Zealand’s new system, should be visualised similarly - not buried in dense text documents. Easy-to-access spatial information will support better development and investment decisions.
Lesson 5: Efficiency, Transparency, and Public Confidence
Since PlanSA’s introduction, South Australia has seen reduced administrative burden for councils, faster decision-making, fewer disputes about information accessibility, and greater public confidence through transparent decision records.
Implication for New Zealand:
If New Zealand embeds the "one portal, one code" philosophy, it could achieve significant reductions in administrative and compliance costs and build trust in the planning system.
Sunset in the Barossa Valley - South Australia's productive landscapes managed within a consistent planning framework
Conclusion: Design the Digital System First
If South Australia’s experience teaches us anything, it’s that digital systems need to be built into planning reforms from the start - not tacked on at the end. PlanSA works because digital access, consistency, and real-time responsiveness were treated as essentials, not nice-to-haves.
As New Zealand drafts the Planning Act and Natural Environment Act, we need to think the same way. A clear, future-focused, easy-to-use national e-Plan shouldn’t be an optional extra, it should be part of the foundation of our new resource management system.
We have a real chance to leap ahead globally in digital-first planning. Looking across the ditch, South Australia shows us it’s not just possible - it’s essential.