About Us

Our Achievements

When New Zealand First returned to Government in 2023 we laid out a vision for a better New Zealand through our coalition agreement. This coalition agreement sets out the policy commitments of New Zealand First which are supported by the National and ACT parties as part of the Coalition Government. Listed below are all of New Zealand First's coalition commitments that have been achieved in our first 2 years.

Economy

Establish a select committee inquiry into banking competition with broad and deep criteria to focus on competitiveness, customer services, and profitability.
By or before 2026, assess the impact inflation has had on the average tax rates faced by income earners.
The Coalition Government will increase funding for IRD tax audits to urgently expand the IRD tax audit capacity, minimise taxation losses due to insufficient IRD oversight, and to ensure greater integrity and fairness in our tax system.

Employment & Immigration

Strengthen obligations on Jobseeker work ready beneficiaries to find work and make use of sanctions for non-compliance with work obligations and consider time limits for under 25s.
Improve the Accredited Employer Work Visa to focus the immigration system on attracting the workers and skills New Zealand needs.
Ensure Immigration New Zealand is engaged in proper risk management and verification to ensure migrants are filling genuine workforce needs.
Investigate the establishment of an "Essential Worker" workforce planning mechanism to better plan for skill or labour shortages in the long term.

Infrastructure, Energy, Natural Resources

Establish a National Infrastructure Agency.
Establish a Regional Infrastructure Fund with $1.2 billion in capital funding over the Parliamentary term.
Repeal the Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 and the Spatial Planning Act 2023.
Amend the Resource Management Act 1991 to make it easier to consent new infrastructure including renewable energy, allow farmers to farm, get more houses built, and enhance primary sector including fish and aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture and mining.
Establish a fast-track one-stop-shop consenting and permitting process for regional and national projects of significance.
Cancel Auckland Light Rail and Let's Get Wellington Moving - and reduce expenditure on cycleways.
Commit to building a four-lane highway alternative for the Brynderwyns and investigate the use of private finance to accelerate construction.
Investigate the threshold at which local lines companies can invest in generation assets.
Commission a study into New Zealand's fuel security requirements.
Commence an urgent review into the implementation of the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity before any implementation.
Investigate the reopening of Marsden Point Refinery. This includes establishing a Fuel Security Plan to safeguard our transport and logistics systems and emergency services from any international or domestic disruption.
Progress further work examining connecting the railway to Marsden Point and Northport from the Northern Main Truck Line.
Progress the detailed business case for a dry dock at Marsden Point to service domestic and international shipping needs and to support our Navy vessels, with investigation of funding options including commercial partnerships.
Plan for transitional low carbon fuels, including the infrastructure needed to increase the use of methanol and hydrogen to achieve sovereign fuel resilience.
Future-proof the natural gas industry by restarting offshore exploration and supporting development of hydrogen technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas without co-production of CO2.
Ensure the government's energy settings allow for the exploration of natural geological hydrogen in New Zealand, to maximise future energy resilience.
Investigate the strategic opportunities in New Zealand's mineral resources, including vanadium, and develop a plan to develop these opportunities.

Primary Sector

Stop the current review of the ETS system to restore confidence and certainty to the carbon trading market.
Incentivise the uptake of emissions reduction mitigations, such as low methane genetics, and low methane producing animal feed.
Direct government agencies where practical and appropriate to preference the use of woollen fibres rather than artificial fibres in government buildings.
Reverse the recent ban on live animal exports while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare.
Deliver longer durations for marine farming permits and remove regulations that impede the productivity and enormous potential of the seafood sector.

Law & Order

Adequately resource community policing, including Maori and Pasifika wardens.
Introduce a suite of measures designed to tackle youth crime including consideration of a Youth Justice Demerit Point system.
Reform the Fleeing Driver laws to curb the increase in fleeing driver incidents.
Amend the Sentencing Act 2002 and associated legislation to ensure appropriate consequences for criminals, including:
- Give priority to the needs of victims and communities over offenders.
- Include gang membership as an aggravating factor during sentencing.
- Ensure real consequences for lower-level crimes such as shoplifting.
- Remove concurrent sentences for those who commit offences while on parole, on bail, or whilst in custody.
Equip corrections officers with body cameras and protective equipment, where appropriate.
Seek to make it easier for New Zealanders, including prisoners, to get drivers licences, and better support to existing programmes that are delivering positive outcomes.
Introduce the Protection for First Responders and Prison Officers legislation which will create a specific offence for assaults on first responders which includes minimum mandatory prison sentences.
Introduce the Coward Punch legislation which will create a specific offence for anyone who injures or kills someone with a coward punch.

Education

Focus on doing the basics better through emphasising reading, writing, and maths.
Refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines.
Stop first year Fees Free and replace with a final year Fees Free with no change before 2025.
Maintain the Apprenticeship Boost scheme.

Health

Abolish the Maori Health Authority.
Update Pharmac's decision making model to ensure it appropriately takes "patient's voice" into account and increase funding for Pharmac every year.
Require Medsafe to approve new pharmaceuticals within 30 days of them being approved by at least two overseas regulatory agencies recognised by New Zealand.
Better recognise people with overseas medical qualifications and experience for accreditation in New Zealand.
Progress the adoption of digital technology in harder to staff areas and make greater use of Nurse Practitioners.
Repeal the Therapeutic Products Act 2023.
Fund Gumboot Friday/I Am Hope Charity to $6 million per annum.
Repeal amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations before March 2024, removing requirements for denicotisation, removing the reduction in retail outlets and the generation ban, while also amending vaping product requirements and taxing smoked products only.
Reform the regulation of vaping, smokeless tobacco and oral nicotine products while banning disposable vaping products and increasing penalties for illegal sales to those under 18.

Seniors

Keep the superannuation age at 65.
Amend the Building Act and the Resource Consent system to make it easier to build granny flats or other small structures up to 60sqm requiring only an engineer's report.
Progress the review of the Retirement Villages Act.
Investigate the funding formula for new residential care beds.
Undertake a select committee inquiry into aged care provision to include supporting people with early onset conditions and what asset thresholds are appropriate in 2023/24.
Explore options to build on the Local Government Rates Rebate Scheme for Super Gold Card holders.

Democracy & Freedoms

Commit that in the absence of a referendum, our Government will not change the official name of New Zealand
Support to select committee a bill that would enact a binding referendum on a four-year term of parliament.
Ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender.
Require the public service departments and Crown Entities to communicate primarily in English - except those entities specifically related to Maori.
Protect freedom of speech by ruling out the introduction of hate speech legislation and stop the Law Commission's work on hate speech legislation.
End all Covid-19 vaccine mandates still in operation.
Ensure, as a matter of urgency in establishment and completion, a full scale, wide ranging, independent inquiry conducted publicly with local and international experts, into how the Covid pandemic was handled in New Zealand, including covering:
- Use of multiple lockdowns,
- Vaccine procurement and efficacy,
- The social and economic impacts on both regional and national levels, and
- Whether the decisions made, and steps taken, where justified.
By 1 December 2023 reserve against proposed amendments to WHO health regulations to allow the incoming government to consider these against a "National Interest Test"

Equal Citizenship

Remove co-governance from the delivery of public services.
As a matter of urgency, issue a Cabinet Office circular to all central government organisations that it is the Government's expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race.
Restore the right to local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Maori wards, including requiring a referendum on any wards established without referendum at the next Local Body elections.
Stop all work on He Puapua
Confirm that the Coalition Government does not recognise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as having any binding legal effect on New Zealand.
Amend section 58 of the Marine and Coastal Area Act to make clear Parliament's original intent, in light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Whakatohea Kotahitanga Waka (Edwards) & Ors v Te Kahui and Whakatohea Maori Trust Board & Ors [2023] NZCA 504.

Ongoing Commitments

The below coalition commitments are ongoing commitments that the Government continues to uphold every day.