This Bill proposes to disestablish the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and to incorporate it, together with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Transport, and the local government functions of the Department of Internal Affairs, into a new ministry (Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport, MCERT).
Our submission identified the significant recent acceleration of global heating in the past decade, and that the results of most economic assessments of climate change exclude many of its real-world impacts (e.g. tipping points, extreme events, migration, sea level rise, human health impacts, geopolitical risk, and derailment risk), conflicting with scientific predictions of significantly reduced human habitability from climate change.
MfE was established under the Environment Act 1986 to oversee major environmental issues and land-use planning. Climate change is now a core MfE function.
Environment and Climate responsibilities would comprise just over 6% of the new Ministry’s financial appropriations. We are greatly concerned that these responsibilities will not be given the priority and urgency they need inside the new, growth oriented, mega-ministry.
The EDS submission can be seen here.
See the submission prepared by the NTCF Submissions group here: 2026-03-11 NTCF Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill Submission