This bill establishes a legislative regime to govern the construction, operation, and decommissioning of offshore renewable energy developments.
This bill has been accorded urgency in the House. First detected 11 July 2026, 9:19am UTC.
The avenues that remain: petitions to Parliament (including seeking amendment or repeal); consultation on the regulations that often follow an Act, which do carry public submission windows; and the member in charge or your electorate MP on implementation problems — post-passage corrections ride in later amendment bills.
| Stage | Sitting day | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Committee of the whole House | 30 Jun 2026 | The committee stage of the Offshore Renewable Energy Bill was completed. source · debate & vote (Hansard) |
| Third reading | 30 Jun 2026 | The Offshore Renewable Energy Bill was read a third time. source · debate & vote (Hansard) |
Dates are sitting days as recorded by the Office of the Clerk; a sitting extended under urgency continues under its original day. Readings are decided by party vote: each party casts its members’ votes en bloc (proxies included), so the whole House needn’t be present and individual attendance isn’t recorded — the party-by-party tally for each reading is in that day’s Hansard, linked per stage above.
Topics in the OpenBrief corpus matched to this bill’s title, with their volume over the last six weeks — how loud the subject already was when urgency was moved. This is retrieval against our existing corpus, not model judgement.
| Topic | Press items · 6wk | Social posts · 6wk |
|---|---|---|
| renewable energy potential | 3 | 9 |
AI-assisted analysis · every claim links to primary source ·
corrections
Published 15 Jul 2026, 7:20am UTC (separate from, and later than, the alert timestamp above)
· model: claude-opus-4-8
In short: Creates a two-stage offshore renewable energy permitting regime under which no ORE generation infrastructure may be built without a Minister-granted commercial permit.
“A person must not give effect to a resource consent or marine consent by undertaking any ORE generation infrastructure activities in respect of a proposed ORE development unless they are a commercial permit holder in respect of the development.”
“if they are an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine not exceeding $1 million, or both; or (b) in any other case, to a fine not exceeding $10 million.”
“A person who holds a commercial permit must carry out, and meet the costs of, the decommissioning of all ORE generation infrastructure that is attributable to ORE infrastructure generation infrastructure activities under the permit”
“must ensure that an acceptable financial security arrangement is put in place and maintained as security for the Crown for the performance of that decommissioning obligation”
“The person who intends to make an application for a feasibility permit must consult the following groups before making the application: (a) any relevant iwi authorities, hapū, and Treaty settlement entities”
“The applicant must be the permit holder of a current feasibility permit or commercial permit granted under the Offshore Renewable Energy Act 2024 that applies to the area to which the consent applies”
“The applicant must be the permit holder of a current feasibility permit or commercial permit Act granted under the Offshore Renewable Energy Act 2024 that applies to the area to which the consent applies”
“unless the applicant is the holder of a current feasibility permit or commercial permit under the Offshore Renewable Energy Act 2024 in respect of the ORE generation infrastructure activities that comprise all or part of the development”
Taken under urgency; the compressed timetable limited scrutiny even where a committee stage existed.
Method: the model reads the bill as published (claude-opus-4-8); every claim above carries a verbatim span of that text, checked mechanically — claims that fail the check are dropped, not softened. Text analysed from an archived copy of the official text. Full methodology →
A motion to accord urgency to the following business was agreed to: - the remaining stages of: - the Antisocial Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill; - the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill; - the Offshore Renewable Energy Bill; - the Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill; and - the Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill; - the first reading and referral to a select committee of: - the Building Amendment Bill; and - the Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill; - the second reading of: - the Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill; - the Crimes Amendment Bill; - the Land Transport (Revenue) Amendment Bill; - the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Amendment Bill; and - the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (3 Day Postnatal Stay) Amendment Bill; - the first reading and referral to a select committee of: - the Community Magistrates Legislation Amendment Bill; and - the Environmental Reporting Amendment Bill; - the second reading of: - the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill; and - the Emergency Management Bill (No 2); - the first reading and referral to a select committee of the Regulatory Systems (Social Security) Amendment Bill (No 2); - the discharge and re-committal to a select committee of the Regulatory Systems (Courts) Amendment Bill; and - the remaining stages of: - the Regulatory Systems (Tribunals) Amendment Bill and the Regulatory Systems (Occupational Regulation) Amendment Bill; - the Mental Health Bill; - the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill; and - the Constitution Amendment Bill.
