Reports of ram-raids and youth offending have put law and order into the spotlight this election. Parties on the right call for tougher sentences and stricter controls on young offenders. Parties on the left say nothing will change unless the causes of crime are addressed, pointing to NZ's high rates of imprisonment and a significant over-representation of Māori.
Reports of ram-raids and youth offending have put law and order into the spotlight this election. Parties on the right call for tougher sentences and stricter controls on young offenders. Parties on the left say nothing will change unless the causes of crime are addressed, pointing to NZ's high rates of imprisonment and a significant over-representation of Māori.
Increase funding for investigation of tax evasion and financial crimes
Reform Oranga Tamariki and establish an independent Mokopuna Māori Authority
Establish a Māori Legal service to defend Māori charged with crimes
Establish a Māori criminal justice system which operates according to tikanga
Create a code of ethics for police
Establish a Māori Standards Authority
Establish a Māori Parliament
Entrench Māori electorate seats
Appoint a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi
Require all legislation and regulation to have Treaty impact statements
Remove the British royal family as head of state
Require police to wear body cameras
Pardon Māori wrongly convicted of crimes
Evaluate the police through surveys in communities with high Māori populations
Commit all Māori to the Māori electoral roll
Reduce the MMP party vote threshold to 2.5%
Prevent referenda from overturning decisions to establish Māori wards
Review legislation, policy and practice to meet international human rights obligations for children
Require a children's interests analysis for government policy decisions
Reinstate the Children's Commissioner's independent monitoring powers
Establish a Ministry of Climate Change
Fund climate adaption and resilience measures
Ensure NZ's democracy is grounded in te Tiriti o Waitangi
Lower the voting age to 16
Entrench Māori seats in Parliament
Increase transparency in political donations
Increase transparency in political lobbying
Increase access to official information
Mandate civics education in schools and fund adult civics education
Establish a citizens’ assembly to consider constitutional reform
Reform drug laws
Legalise cannabis for personal use
Ensure resource management or local government system changes uphold tino rangatiratanga
Implement the National Strategy for Eliminating Family and Sexual Violence
Enable community-led responses for violence prevention and healing from violence
Prioritise kaupapa Māori solutions to violence
Amend the definition of consent relating to sexual violation
Reform the justice system to prevent re-traumatising victims and survivors
Fund specialist services for victims and perpetrators of violence
Fund evidence-based rehabilitation for offenders
Expand youth courts and support for youth in the justice system
Promote non-violent approaches to policing
Prohibit the detention of young people with adults
Reform bail and sentencing laws to favour non-custodial and community-based outcomes
Increase community reintegration support for people leaving prison
Expand legal aid and community law services
Extend hate speech protections to cover religion, gender, disability, and Rainbow communities
Transform Rau Paenga into the Ministry of Green Works
Make the role of local government as a te Tiriti o Waitangi partner explicit
Require local councils to use proportional voting systems
Transfer the management of local elections from private firms to the Electoral Commission
Allow local authorities to gather revenue from new sources
Increase resilience of local telecommunications and transport networks
Extend the Election Access Fund to disabled individuals running in local elections
Strengthen the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
Establish an independent ocean commission
Extend voting rights to all citizens living overseas
Train public servants in te Tiriti o Waitangi and te reo Māori
Appoint a taskforce to hold public agencies accountable for meeting wellbeing objectives
Standardise career progression, pay, and training across the public sector
Increase funding for the community sector
Establish a Ministry for Rainbow Communities
Prioritise buying goods and services from NZ businesses
Support the direct provision of public transport by local and regional councils
Establish a Zero Waste Agency
Create a new Commissioner for Animals
Increase funding for workplace safety authorities
Extend voting rights to all prisoners
Require councils to restore and expand urban green spaces
Reduce spending on contractors and consultants
Negotiate partnership agreements with local and regional governments
Create a 30-year infrastructure plan
Require councils in major towns and cities to release more land for housing development
Retain rules requiring councils to zone for six storeys close to public transport
Standardise infrastructure funding process for councils at their debt limits
Use targeted rates to fund infrastructure for when developing on greenfield land
Pay councils for consenting additional houses
Increase penalties for young people who offend repeatedly
Ban gang patches in public and on social media
Allow police to issue dispersal notices to groups of suspected gang members in public
Establish youth military academies for certain young offenders
Fund community organisations to work with certain young offenders
Allow police to prohibit some gang members from associating or communicating
Allow the police commissioner to issue firearm prohibition orders to certain gang members
Limit sentencing discounts to 40 percent
Limit certain sentence discounts for repeat offenders
Make gang membership an automatic aggravating factor in sentencing
Re-instate the three strikes sentencing regime
End legal aid funding for written cultural reports used in court
Increase funding for victim support services
Extend eligibility for all rehabilitation programmes to remand prisoners
Remove the requirement for the Reserve Bank to focus on maximising employment
Set a target of NZ students being in the top 10 in the world for maths, reading and science by 2033
Establish a dedicated biotechnology regulator
Reverse water infrastructure reforms
Require councils to produce a plan for water infrastructure
Expand the scope of the water quality regulator to include waste and storm water
Establish a water infrastructure regulator
Remove two agricultural regulations for every one introduced
Publish assessments of the cost of new agricultural regulations
Establish panel to review agricultural regulations
Reduce duplication of information requests for farmers
Narrow the scope of Significant Natural Areas
Abolish Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Prioritise funding social services that have the biggest long term impact
Establish a minister for mental health
Reduce spending on non front-line services by an average of 6.5 percent
Reform the Building Code to speed up the consent process
Allow remote inspections for building consents
Require building compliance certificates to be issued within five working days
Consider establishing a specialised procurement function in the government
Investigate reducing council liability for building performance
Establish an ombudsman for people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and major floods
Speed up land value assessments by EQC
Introduce a contestable funding model for building new social housing
Commission an independent review of Kāinga Ora
Encourage government agencies and organisations to develop Te Reo Māori language development plans
Increase penalties for supplying vapes to under 18s
Continue to support Māori Crown relations – Te Arawhiti
Encourage local councils and boards to create Māori wards
Retain Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Increas funding for Te Reo Māori revitalisation
Continue programme to provide young Māori with a path out of criminal offending
Continue programmes to lower the proportion of Māori in the corrections system
Provide more opportunities for whānau visits in prisons using new technology
Increase funding for police, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Corrections
Review firearms legislation
Ban gang patches
Increase home detention and electronically-monitored bail checks
Focus on rehabilitation to prevent crime
Remove the party vote threshold
Reform the prison system
Introduce relationship and parenting training
Expand Covid-19 inquiry to examine vaccine injuries
Give regions a greater say in government spending
Abolish the regional fuel tax in Auckland
Hold a referendum on whether to make the Bill of Rights supreme law
Oppose co-governance
Increase criminal penalties for gang-related offending
Be a voice for men and masculinity
Reduce government spending by 10 percent
Reduce the number of weeks parliament sits
Reduce the number of non-front-line employees at the Ministry of Education by 50 percent
Reform the firearms licensing system
Extend the government's ability to seize gang assets
Reverse water infrastructure reforms
Increase the number of prison beds
Extend the adult criminal jurisdiction to cover 17-year-olds
Extend the term of parliament to four years
Hold a referendum on a new law to set standards for regulation
Rebalance select committees in favour of opposition parties
Shift responsibility for young offenders from Oranga Tamariki to the Department of Corrections
Split Oranga Tamariki social workers' responsibilities into two new roles
Establish a children's monitoring system that is independent from the government
Abolish the Ministry for Pacific Peoples
Abolish the Human Rights Commission
Abolish Significant Natural Areas
Introduce publicly-reported performance indicators for the Oranga Tamariki CEO
Allow caregivers to make more decisions without permission from Oranga Tamariki or birth parents
Devolve care of vulnerable children to private organisations instead of government
Increase sentences for violent crimes against workers
Increase police powers over gang members
Impose spending controls on gang members who recieve benefits
Index police staffing to population growth
Review the Independent Police Complaints Authority
Oppose laws against hate speech
Upgrade police technology
Abandon the prison population reduction target
Set performance expectations for the Gang Intelligence Centre
Require Inland Revenue to investigate gang finances
Allow police to issue infringement notices for shoplifting
Require government to pay reparations to victims of crime
Re-instate the three strikes sentencing regime
Require minimum literacy standards as a condition of parole
Require serious youth offenders to wear ankle bracelets
Prevent contractors from challenging their employment status in court
Share half of GST revenue from new residential building with local councils
Reduce the government's operating allowance
Reduce the number of public servants and limit pay increases
Abolish the Ministry for Women
Abolish Te Puni Kōkiri
Abolish the Ministry for Ethnic Communities
End various business support and R&D programmes
Sell Landcorp and use proceeds to fund conservation on private land
Partially privatise various state-owned enterprises
Review home detention laws
Prevent judges considering cultural background in sentencing
Hold a referendum on how the Treaty of Waitangi should be interpreted
Repeal the Treaty of Waitangi clause in the Oranga Tamariki Act
Create a Ministry of Regulation
Remove Ngāi Tahu representatives from the Canterbury Regional Council
Remove government agencies' focus on the Treaty of Waitangi
Measure the performance of key government services
Introduce performance pay and indicators for public sector chief executives
Prevent the implementation of Māori seats on Auckland Council
Reform resource management laws to reduce restrictions on private property
Create new state owned enterprise to manage state highways
Abolish the Climate Change Commission
Allow more development projects to be fast-tracked through resource consent
Fund conservation initiatives on private land
Introduce a market-based system for managing water pollution
Introduce a pricing system for water allocation
Partially privatise the rail network
Abolish the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
Abolish the Climate Change Chief Executives Board
Abolish the Climate Emergency Response Fund
Abolish the firearms register
Relax firearms regulations for gun clubs and ranges
Establish a new firearms regulator
Create additional funding options for local government to upgrade their water infrastruture
Create long-term water infrastructure improvement plans with local councils
Stop using te reo Māori names for government departments
Increase funding for medicines and review Pharmac
Make gang membership an automatic aggravating factor in criminal sentencing
Require a six month prison sentence for assault of first responders
Designate gangs as terrorist entities
Abolish Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Establish a dedicated prison for gang members
Hold an inquiry into the Covid-19 response
Hold a referendum on extending the parliamentary term to four years
Move responsibility for protecting biodiversity from central to local government
Require public organisations to install both single sex and unisex toilets
Make English an official language
Establish a Ministry for Energy
Prioritise the procurement of NZ-made aluminium
Establish a commission of inquiry into Gloriavale
Continue to support Farm Environment Plans
Introduce a right to property in the Bill of Rights Act
Increase funding for NZ Export Credit Office
Require the use of wool rather than synthetic fibres in government procurement
Require animal welfare advisory committee to have 50 percent farmer representation
Make Pāmu Landcorp a Crown Entity
Establish catchment boards to manage freshwater
Freeze MP salaries until frontline public workers receive pay rises
Increase funding for community policing in Christchurch
Build a police training college in Christchurch
Share all GST revenue from new residential building with local councils
Support more housing density in central cities and around transport nodes
Fund a national expansion of the alcohol and other drug treatment court
Establish a new offence category for stalking
Provide better support to victims of violent offending
Increase access to legal aid
Respond to increasing cyber security threats
Legalise the sale of cannabis
Create a 30-year infrastructure plan
Remove the requirement for the Reserve Bank to focus on maximising employment
Lower the party vote threshold to 3.5 percent
Limit political donations
Expand civics education
Extend the parliamentary term to four years
Introduce new forms of democratic consultation
Establish an anti-corruption commission
Reform rules for lobbyists
Reform parliamentary select committees
Establish a commissioner for future generations
Reduce parliament sitting weeks
Remove GST from rates
Support amalgamation of local and regional councils
Extend the term of local government to four years
Require all local government elections to use STV
Increase funding for investigation of tax evasion and financial crimes
Reform Oranga Tamariki and establish an independent Mokopuna Māori Authority
Establish a Māori Legal service to defend Māori charged with crimes
Establish a Māori criminal justice system which operates according to tikanga
Create a code of ethics for police
Establish a Māori Standards Authority
Establish a Māori Parliament
Entrench Māori electorate seats
Appoint a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi
Require all legislation and regulation to have Treaty impact statements
Remove the British royal family as head of state
Require police to wear body cameras
Pardon Māori wrongly convicted of crimes
Evaluate the police through surveys in communities with high Māori populations
Commit all Māori to the Māori electoral roll
Reduce the MMP party vote threshold to 2.5%
Prevent referenda from overturning decisions to establish Māori wards
Review legislation, policy and practice to meet international human rights obligations for children
Require a children's interests analysis for government policy decisions
Reinstate the Children's Commissioner's independent monitoring powers
Establish a Ministry of Climate Change
Fund climate adaption and resilience measures
Ensure NZ's democracy is grounded in te Tiriti o Waitangi
Lower the voting age to 16
Entrench Māori seats in Parliament
Increase transparency in political donations
Increase transparency in political lobbying
Increase access to official information
Mandate civics education in schools and fund adult civics education
Establish a citizens’ assembly to consider constitutional reform
Reform drug laws
Legalise cannabis for personal use
Ensure resource management or local government system changes uphold tino rangatiratanga
Implement the National Strategy for Eliminating Family and Sexual Violence
Enable community-led responses for violence prevention and healing from violence
Prioritise kaupapa Māori solutions to violence
Amend the definition of consent relating to sexual violation
Reform the justice system to prevent re-traumatising victims and survivors
Fund specialist services for victims and perpetrators of violence
Fund evidence-based rehabilitation for offenders
Expand youth courts and support for youth in the justice system
Promote non-violent approaches to policing
Prohibit the detention of young people with adults
Reform bail and sentencing laws to favour non-custodial and community-based outcomes
Increase community reintegration support for people leaving prison
Expand legal aid and community law services
Extend hate speech protections to cover religion, gender, disability, and Rainbow communities
Transform Rau Paenga into the Ministry of Green Works
Make the role of local government as a te Tiriti o Waitangi partner explicit
Require local councils to use proportional voting systems
Transfer the management of local elections from private firms to the Electoral Commission
Allow local authorities to gather revenue from new sources
Increase resilience of local telecommunications and transport networks
Extend the Election Access Fund to disabled individuals running in local elections
Strengthen the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
Establish an independent ocean commission
Extend voting rights to all citizens living overseas
Train public servants in te Tiriti o Waitangi and te reo Māori
Appoint a taskforce to hold public agencies accountable for meeting wellbeing objectives
Standardise career progression, pay, and training across the public sector
Increase funding for the community sector
Establish a Ministry for Rainbow Communities
Prioritise buying goods and services from NZ businesses
Support the direct provision of public transport by local and regional councils
Establish a Zero Waste Agency
Create a new Commissioner for Animals
Increase funding for workplace safety authorities
Extend voting rights to all prisoners
Require councils to restore and expand urban green spaces
Reduce spending on contractors and consultants
Negotiate partnership agreements with local and regional governments
Create a 30-year infrastructure plan
Require councils in major towns and cities to release more land for housing development
Retain rules requiring councils to zone for six storeys close to public transport
Standardise infrastructure funding process for councils at their debt limits
Use targeted rates to fund infrastructure for when developing on greenfield land
Pay councils for consenting additional houses
Increase penalties for young people who offend repeatedly
Ban gang patches in public and on social media
Allow police to issue dispersal notices to groups of suspected gang members in public
Establish youth military academies for certain young offenders
Fund community organisations to work with certain young offenders
Allow police to prohibit some gang members from associating or communicating
Allow the police commissioner to issue firearm prohibition orders to certain gang members
Limit sentencing discounts to 40 percent
Limit certain sentence discounts for repeat offenders
Make gang membership an automatic aggravating factor in sentencing
Re-instate the three strikes sentencing regime
End legal aid funding for written cultural reports used in court
Increase funding for victim support services
Extend eligibility for all rehabilitation programmes to remand prisoners
Remove the requirement for the Reserve Bank to focus on maximising employment
Set a target of NZ students being in the top 10 in the world for maths, reading and science by 2033
Establish a dedicated biotechnology regulator
Reverse water infrastructure reforms
Require councils to produce a plan for water infrastructure
Expand the scope of the water quality regulator to include waste and storm water
Establish a water infrastructure regulator
Remove two agricultural regulations for every one introduced
Publish assessments of the cost of new agricultural regulations
Establish panel to review agricultural regulations
Reduce duplication of information requests for farmers
Narrow the scope of Significant Natural Areas
Abolish Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Prioritise funding social services that have the biggest long term impact
Establish a minister for mental health
Reduce spending on non front-line services by an average of 6.5 percent
Reform the Building Code to speed up the consent process
Allow remote inspections for building consents
Require building compliance certificates to be issued within five working days
Consider establishing a specialised procurement function in the government
Investigate reducing council liability for building performance
Establish an ombudsman for people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and major floods
Speed up land value assessments by EQC
Introduce a contestable funding model for building new social housing
Commission an independent review of Kāinga Ora
Encourage government agencies and organisations to develop Te Reo Māori language development plans
Increase penalties for supplying vapes to under 18s
Continue to support Māori Crown relations – Te Arawhiti
Encourage local councils and boards to create Māori wards
Retain Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Increas funding for Te Reo Māori revitalisation
Continue programme to provide young Māori with a path out of criminal offending
Continue programmes to lower the proportion of Māori in the corrections system
Provide more opportunities for whānau visits in prisons using new technology
Increase funding for police, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Corrections
Review firearms legislation
Ban gang patches
Increase home detention and electronically-monitored bail checks
Focus on rehabilitation to prevent crime
Remove the party vote threshold
Reform the prison system
Introduce relationship and parenting training
Expand Covid-19 inquiry to examine vaccine injuries
Give regions a greater say in government spending
Abolish the regional fuel tax in Auckland
Hold a referendum on whether to make the Bill of Rights supreme law
Oppose co-governance
Increase criminal penalties for gang-related offending
Be a voice for men and masculinity
Reduce government spending by 10 percent
Reduce the number of weeks parliament sits
Reduce the number of non-front-line employees at the Ministry of Education by 50 percent
Reform the firearms licensing system
Extend the government's ability to seize gang assets
Reverse water infrastructure reforms
Increase the number of prison beds
Extend the adult criminal jurisdiction to cover 17-year-olds
Extend the term of parliament to four years
Hold a referendum on a new law to set standards for regulation
Rebalance select committees in favour of opposition parties
Shift responsibility for young offenders from Oranga Tamariki to the Department of Corrections
Split Oranga Tamariki social workers' responsibilities into two new roles
Establish a children's monitoring system that is independent from the government
Abolish the Ministry for Pacific Peoples
Abolish the Human Rights Commission
Abolish Significant Natural Areas
Introduce publicly-reported performance indicators for the Oranga Tamariki CEO
Allow caregivers to make more decisions without permission from Oranga Tamariki or birth parents
Devolve care of vulnerable children to private organisations instead of government
Increase sentences for violent crimes against workers
Increase police powers over gang members
Impose spending controls on gang members who recieve benefits
Index police staffing to population growth
Review the Independent Police Complaints Authority
Oppose laws against hate speech
Upgrade police technology
Abandon the prison population reduction target
Set performance expectations for the Gang Intelligence Centre
Require Inland Revenue to investigate gang finances
Allow police to issue infringement notices for shoplifting
Require government to pay reparations to victims of crime
Re-instate the three strikes sentencing regime
Require minimum literacy standards as a condition of parole
Require serious youth offenders to wear ankle bracelets
Prevent contractors from challenging their employment status in court
Share half of GST revenue from new residential building with local councils
Reduce the government's operating allowance
Reduce the number of public servants and limit pay increases
Abolish the Ministry for Women
Abolish Te Puni Kōkiri
Abolish the Ministry for Ethnic Communities
End various business support and R&D programmes
Sell Landcorp and use proceeds to fund conservation on private land
Partially privatise various state-owned enterprises
Review home detention laws
Prevent judges considering cultural background in sentencing
Hold a referendum on how the Treaty of Waitangi should be interpreted
Repeal the Treaty of Waitangi clause in the Oranga Tamariki Act
Create a Ministry of Regulation
Remove Ngāi Tahu representatives from the Canterbury Regional Council
Remove government agencies' focus on the Treaty of Waitangi
Measure the performance of key government services
Introduce performance pay and indicators for public sector chief executives
Prevent the implementation of Māori seats on Auckland Council
Reform resource management laws to reduce restrictions on private property
Create new state owned enterprise to manage state highways
Abolish the Climate Change Commission
Allow more development projects to be fast-tracked through resource consent
Fund conservation initiatives on private land
Introduce a market-based system for managing water pollution
Introduce a pricing system for water allocation
Partially privatise the rail network
Abolish the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
Abolish the Climate Change Chief Executives Board
Abolish the Climate Emergency Response Fund
Abolish the firearms register
Relax firearms regulations for gun clubs and ranges
Establish a new firearms regulator
Create additional funding options for local government to upgrade their water infrastruture
Create long-term water infrastructure improvement plans with local councils
Stop using te reo Māori names for government departments
Increase funding for medicines and review Pharmac
Make gang membership an automatic aggravating factor in criminal sentencing
Require a six month prison sentence for assault of first responders
Designate gangs as terrorist entities
Abolish Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority
Establish a dedicated prison for gang members
Hold an inquiry into the Covid-19 response
Hold a referendum on extending the parliamentary term to four years
Move responsibility for protecting biodiversity from central to local government
Require public organisations to install both single sex and unisex toilets
Make English an official language
Establish a Ministry for Energy
Prioritise the procurement of NZ-made aluminium
Establish a commission of inquiry into Gloriavale
Continue to support Farm Environment Plans
Introduce a right to property in the Bill of Rights Act
Increase funding for NZ Export Credit Office
Require the use of wool rather than synthetic fibres in government procurement
Require animal welfare advisory committee to have 50 percent farmer representation
Make Pāmu Landcorp a Crown Entity
Establish catchment boards to manage freshwater
Freeze MP salaries until frontline public workers receive pay rises
Increase funding for community policing in Christchurch
Build a police training college in Christchurch
Share all GST revenue from new residential building with local councils
Support more housing density in central cities and around transport nodes
Fund a national expansion of the alcohol and other drug treatment court
Establish a new offence category for stalking
Provide better support to victims of violent offending
Increase access to legal aid
Respond to increasing cyber security threats
Legalise the sale of cannabis
Create a 30-year infrastructure plan
Remove the requirement for the Reserve Bank to focus on maximising employment
Lower the party vote threshold to 3.5 percent
Limit political donations
Expand civics education
Extend the parliamentary term to four years
Introduce new forms of democratic consultation
Establish an anti-corruption commission
Reform rules for lobbyists
Reform parliamentary select committees
Establish a commissioner for future generations
Reduce parliament sitting weeks
Remove GST from rates
Support amalgamation of local and regional councils
Extend the term of local government to four years
Require all local government elections to use STV
Compare the parties’ positions on the key issues this election
See the electorate candidates running in your local area
Learn about each political party, its leaders and candidate list
Each part of the country is represented in Parliament by an electorate MP. We've asked every candidate about their priorities for your community and why they deserve your vote.