King's Counsel · Appointed October 2026
After more than 30 years practicing resource management law and 18 months spent drawing the blueprint that replaced the Resource Management Act: Janette has taken silk.
The rank
King's Counsel is the senior rank of the independent bar in New Zealand. It is conferred by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Attorney-General, with the concurrence of the Chief Justice, and is reserved for barristers who have shown excellence in advocacy and leadership of the profession.
The name comes from the silk gown a King's Counsel wears in court in place of the junior barrister's stuff gown. Among New Zealand's practising lawyers, only a small fraction ever hold the rank, and fewer still have earned it in environment and resource management law.
Janette's silk recognises a career spent in the Environment Court and the High Court, in council hearing rooms from Northland to the West Coast, and most recently in Wellington, rewriting the Act she had practised under since the year she graduated.
Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu at dusk, Tongariro National Park.
The record
The brief
A few of the places that show why the use of our natural resources is worth managing well. Sustainability is not a choice between a working economy and a wild coastline. It means cities that grow and businesses that thrive, with rivers, ranges and beaches still worth visiting, for this generation and the next.
They drift past on their own. Swipe or scroll to linger.
The reform
In September 2024 the Government asked a seven-member Expert Advisory Group to design a replacement for the Resource Management Act 1991. Janette chaired it. The group reported to Cabinet in December 2024 and its blueprint was published in March 2025.
The central recommendation was to split the RMA's job in two, with each Act carrying its own national goals, a single concise national policy direction, and one regulatory plan per region. Cabinet adopted the structure. The two Bills were introduced in December 2025, reported back by the Environment Committee in July 2026, and passed their third reading in September 2026.
Act one
Regulates the use, development and enjoyment of land. Starts from the presumption that land use is enabled, with nationally standardised zones, spatial plans and goals for infrastructure and well-functioning urban and rural areas.
Act two
Governs the use, protection and enhancement of the natural environment. Sets environmental limits to protect life-supporting capacity, charges for natural resource use, and manages over-allocated resources back within limits.
Our solutions to planning and resource management issues must be clear, proportionate and, where possible, elegant.
Alongside the two Acts, the blueprint proposed a Planning Tribunal for quick, low-cost dispute resolution, a national compliance and enforcement regulator with a regional presence, a reverse-sensitivity rule that those who come to a nuisance cannot complain of it, and a single national e-plan so that for the first time New Zealand can measure whether its planning system works.
We do not see this as an inherent contradiction, but rather as a possibility that is within our grasp.
Kitekite Falls, Piha.
Recognition
The cases
Beyond the cases above, Janette has practised exclusively in resource management and environmental law since 1995, for private clients, central government and councils. Her practice has moved with the economy, from forestry, energy and primary production to the large infrastructure projects behind urban growth and essential services: wastewater networks, drinking water supplies, major roads and urban development under the Fast-track Approvals Act. She advises on complex and politically sensitive matters, from contaminated land to the water reforms and national planning instruments. She knows enforcement from both sides, having led prosecutions for councils and acted for defendants. She acts in judicial review, both mounting and withstanding challenges to public decision-making.
Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro National Park.
Chambers