The Resource Management Act 1991 has its own definition of working day. It excludes 20 December to 10 January, including both dates. It does not exclude regional anniversary days.
Those two points distinguish an RMA calculation from the general statutory calendar and the calendars used by many property agreements. Select the RMA calendar only after identifying the section, trigger date and period that apply to the process.
Current-law note, 3 August 2026: this article uses the Resource Management Act 1991 as currently published. Resource-management reform is in progress, so check the legislation governing the particular application.
Convert the RMA definition into calculator settings
| RMA rule | Calculator setting |
|---|---|
| Count working days | Select Working days |
| Saturdays, Sundays and listed national holidays | Applied automatically |
| 20 December to 10 January inclusive | Resource Management Act definition (20 December – 10 January) |
| Regional anniversary days | Leave Regional anniversary days empty |
| First and last day | Set from the wording of the relevant provision |
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the New Year holidays fall within the summer exclusion. The calculator handles the overlap; do not subtract those dates a second time.
Do not add an anniversary merely because the application is lodged with a council in Auckland or Wellington. Section 2 does not include regional anniversaries in its working-day definition.
A 20-working-day period can cross into mid-January
Suppose the trigger date is Friday 28 November 2025 and the provision gives 20 working days after that date. Use:
- Calculation type: Deadline
- Start date: 28 November 2025
- Direction: Forward
- Period: 20 working days
- Include the start date: off
- Include the end date: on
- Regional anniversary days: none
- Additional excluded periods: Resource Management Act definition (20 December – 10 January)
| Part of the period | Treatment |
|---|---|
| 1 to 19 December 2025 | Days 1 to 15 |
| 20 December 2025 to 10 January 2026 | Excluded by the RMA definition |
| 12 to 16 January 2026 | Days 16 to 20 |
The result is Friday 16 January 2026. Open the RMA calculation.
Counting begins on Monday 1 December because the Friday trigger does not count and the weekend follows it. Counting resumes on Monday 12 January because 10 January is a Saturday and 11 January is a Sunday.
A regional anniversary should not change an RMA result
Count seven working days after Friday 16 January 2026:
| Regional anniversary days setting | Result | Treatment of 26 January |
|---|---|---|
| No regional anniversary days | Tuesday 27 January | Auckland Anniversary is not excluded |
| Auckland | Wednesday 28 January | Auckland Anniversary is excluded |
For the statutory RMA definition, use the first row. The second row shows the effect of adding a separate planning assumption; it does not represent the RMA calendar.
The calculator keeps Regional anniversary days and Additional excluded periods separate so that an extra regional exclusion remains visible. If a result is one day later than expected in late January, check whether a regional calendar has been selected.
Establish the statutory period before counting it
Different RMA provisions have different triggers and time limits. Some also identify periods that do not count. For example, section 88 deals with incomplete applications, sections 88B and 88C address excluded periods for particular processes, section 95 covers notification decisions and section 115 covers notice of decisions.
Check the legislation and the file to identify the applicable provision, whether the application was complete and when requested information was supplied. Establish those facts before calculating the period.
Where counting pauses partway through a process:
- count the working days before the excluded period;
- record how many have elapsed;
- establish the date on which counting resumes; and
- calculate only the days still remaining.
Sequential can record the separate calculation stages. Use the legislation and process record to identify the pause and restart dates.
Check these 2026 dates in the result
| Date or period | RMA treatment |
|---|---|
| 20 December 2025 to 10 January 2026 | Excluded |
| Wellington Anniversary, 19 January | Counted |
| Auckland Anniversary, 26 January | Counted |
| Waitangi Day, 6 February | Excluded |
| Good Friday and Easter Monday, 3 and 6 April | Excluded |
| ANZAC Day observed, 27 April | Excluded |
| King's Birthday, 1 June | Excluded |
| Matariki, 10 July | Excluded |
| Labour Day, 26 October | Excluded |
| From 20 December 2026 | The next RMA summer exclusion begins |
Sources
Sources checked on 3 August 2026:
- Resource Management Act 1991, section 2 and sections 88, 88B, 88C, 95 and 115, for the working-day definition and process provisions discussed above
- Ministry for the Environment: resource consent processing, for an overview of the consent process
- Ministry for the Environment: resource management reform, for the current reform programme
- NZ summer shutdown periods, for the other calculator windows
The summer result and regional comparison are covered by executable calculator tests.
