Introduction

Good afternoon and thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives to be here today.

New Zealand First started our campaign for the 2026 election the day after the 2023 election.  

We knew that winning in 2023 was just the first stepping stone for not only our party, but our country, in turning the fortunes and direction of New Zealand around.

We have worked hard over the past three years to fight for the changes we promised, and that our country needed, to keep the left out, build a new foundation for the future, and prepare for 2026.

It is vital that we as a country realise that if we don’t win in 2026 the opportunity will be lost to make the real changes we need in this country, and the values of our enemies will destroy the chance we have to make this country great again.

This year New Zealand First began our election meetings in March, first with a packed hall in Tauranga with over 1000 people attending, and we have been travelling around the country filing halls every week and will be continuing to do so through until the election.

Public meetings are the lifeblood and essence of democracy. It is where you go and connect, talk, and listen to the people.  

It is where people come to hear what our party stands for and what our vision and plans are for the future that affects them.

It is to the detriment of democracy that other parties just are not holding any real public meetings. 

The so-called ‘public meetings’ they sporadically have are either organised and ticketed events attached to other organisations, or just organic small halls layered with party members.

New Zealand First is the only party that not only has open door public meetings, but we are getting the numbers packing the halls like no other party can.

That is simply because New Zealand First is resonating with ordinary, hard-working kiwis, who want a voice in parliament that represents them.

They are sick of the status quo, sick of the swing between Pepsi and Coke, and sick of politicians who can’t call a spade a spade.

New Zealand First is resonating because we are party that represents nationalism, patriotism, social conservatism, and most of all just plain common sense.

No other party can claim that, because those values that seemed so foundational in leadership not so long ago, are now viewed as some sort of disease to the other parties.

New Zealand First is nationalist, patriotic, and conservative – words which have now become viewed upon as being some sort of evil, and other politicians avoid like the plague.

We stand proud to not only stand for those values, but to fight for them.  And to fight on your behalf to create a country that is proud of who we are in the world, proud of our country and what we stand for, proud our history and our traditional kiwi values.

There is only one party that does that and you are looking at it.

All of the other parties are either self-confessed globalists, socialists, Marxists, separatists - or all of the above.

The problem for all of those other parties is that there is a sea-change in politics that is happening around the world – and it is happening here in New Zealand.

The last time we stood here in Warkworth, just four years ago, New Zealand First was out of parliament, ignored, marginalised by the media, and polling at 1%. Well, we aren’t any more.

Here we are today and those same people in the media are not ignoring us any longer. They aren’t asking if we will get back in, they are all asking how many more seats we will have in November, and just how strong we will be in the next government.

We have the policy, the team, and the party machine to turn this election on its head.

And they are all deathly afraid. Just look at the article today from our best mate ‘News of the World’ fame Andrea Vance.

Vance has written another pathetic butthurt ‘opinion piece’ attacking New Zealand First. 

No one cares what Vance thinks. She might think they do in her little Wellington Bluesky bubble full of lanyard-wearing woke lefty losers, but there’s a reason New Zealand First support is growing out in the real world. 

We are travelling around the country every week packing the halls with ordinary kiwis. We run out of seats and people are flowing out the door - we’re winning and her and her mates can’t stand it. 

We are the enemy of what she stands for and the enemy of the woke mind virus that has infected so much of our mainstream media that they can’t even figure out why no one trusts their industry anymore. 

Her loser ‘News of the World’ opinions do nothing but confirm we are directly over the target. 

It’s Vance, and people like her, that is the reason we are doing so well and why we will win in November - the poetic part is that she doesn’t even know it.

This sort of mudslinging behaviour from the media will continue until the election – it is a well-worn path for them and for us during elections. 

For voters across the country, to actively take part in this election they desperately need to be given the facts, be given ‘both sides of the story’ as Phil Collins once sang, and not editorialising opinions from reporters, not of what politicians have said, but their view of what has been said, all the time denying voters the truth of what was said so that they can be the judge.

That is the essence of democracy, Abraham Lincoln’s definition, ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people’.  To paraphrase what American Ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts”. For democracy to exist voters are entitled to hear and establish for themselves what they believe the facts are – not be victims like school children from ‘a media on high’ serving up only the ‘media’s facts’.

This is critical, because in other parts of the world people are only told what governments want them to hear and are the victims of propaganda and spin which they know, when looking offshore in an IT world at true democracies, cannot be true.

Never has this country needed more a high-quality media acting responsibly, giving you the facts, undiluted political policy and views, and leaving it up to you to decide. 

That is your right, and without it, democracy becomes but a shallow pretence. 

Bold Policies

New Zealand First has already announced a number of election policies that we believe are needed to affect real change in the direction of the country and for the prosperity of kiwis.

We have announced policies to break up the power companies so we stop power companies owning the market and ripping consumers off.

We have announced that we will split up the supermarket duopoly which has a stranglehold on sky-high food prices. ,

We have announced that we will re-establish a competitive state-owned bank so we can stop this continued siphoning of billions of dollars of kiwis money offshore to a foreign country.  

We have announced that we will return mining royalties created in the regions back to the regions. Our regions economic future is New Zealand’s economic future. When the regions do well our country does well. Mining is essential to New Zealand’s future, it creates jobs, exports, and an extraction industry that is essential to a prosperous country.

New Zealand is abundant with resources and we need to stop the green luddites dictating to us that our future should be held back because of some out of touch ideology.

We also announced our KiwiSaver policy of making it compulsory with automatic sign-up at birth $1000 kickstart.

By the way this was a full month before National decided to steal our KiwiSaver policy and claim it as their own.   

We have announced that we will abandon the Paris Accord agreement so we can get back to some common sense.

It is a pointless charade being shoved down our throats by a bunch of globalists.

We are nationalists and we need to look after our own country first – not hand over anywhere up to $22 billion overseas when we create just 0.17% of the entire world’s CO2 emissions.

Think about it, four countries, US, China, Russian, and India, combined are responsible for just under 60% of the world’s CO2 emissions. We are responsible for just 0.17%.

If New Zealand sunk into the South Pacific tomorrow, taking all of our emissions with it, we would have zero effect on the world’s climate.

And yet, if the Green Party ever gets into power, they want us to create a rod for our own backs and beat ourselves senseless with it.  They will sooner see our country go broke in the name of their globalist wacky ideology, than look after kiwis and our country first.

Here’s the idiocy of it all. China built more than 50 large coal powered power plants just last year – that’s one a week. And what did the Labour Party do? Ban coal. Close down Marsden Point. What are the Greens doing? Screaming blue-murder that the world is going to end because New Zealand isn’t cutting our emissions enough.  These MPs are taking us for suckers.

Just two weeks ago, the former longest serving Labour Party PM in the UK, Tony Blair, made a similar statement to New Zealand First’s about what the world needs to do on the Paris Accord. The world is catching on and we are going to get left behind in crippling debt and a swamp of regulations on our productive sector if we remain signed up to the Paris Agreement.

We need to stop this nonsense.

We also announced that New Zealand First will disestablish Auckland Council’s ‘Independent Māori Statutory Board’.

We will disestablish this unelected body that has exercised significant influence over council decision making since the creation of the Auckland Super City in 2010.

The amalgamation of Auckland’s multiple councils was intended to deliver stronger representation, lower costs, and more efficient governance. Instead, as incoming Mayor Wayne Brown found, it has produced a large and increasingly remote bureaucracy in which key decisions are shaped by unelected officials, parallel governance structures, and statutory bodies that are not accountable to ratepayers. 

Although originally established to provide advice, its statutory documents and appointments have become embedded across council planning, funding, procurement, and performance systems.

Aucklanders were never asked whether they agreed to fund or empower a parallel governance system within their council. 

Ratepayers now pay millions of dollars annually to support IMSB operations, including $3.5 million last year alone, despite having no ability to elect or remove its members. This has contributed to a growing democratic deficit at a time when Aucklanders face rising rates, increasing debt, and reductions in core services.

The removal of the IMSB will ensure that those who influence public spending and public decision making are directly accountable to the public. It does not prevent Auckland Council from engaging with Māori or recognising their interests, rather it ensures that such engagement occurs within democratically accountable structures.

It will ensure continuity of council operations while restoring transparency, accountability, and public trust.

We have bold policies. But bold policies are needed to create a fair playing field in the power, food, and banking systems so we can make real change to kiwis lives, drive down the cost of living, give kiwis a fair go, and take back control of our country.

Bold polices are needed to create real change in the future direction of our country.

Citizens only voting

And we have another campaign policy announcement.

We are announcing today that New Zealand First will change the law that only citizens can vote in local and general elections.

In 1975 the law changed in New Zealand.

Prior to then, the right to vote in New Zealand local and national elections was granted only to British subject adults who had been resident in New Zealand for at least a year. Canada and Australia had similar voting laws.  

When Canada and Australia changed to citizens-only, New Zealand made a different choice.

We removed the “British subject” requirement and replaced it with any permanent resident who had been resident here for a year or more. 

The big problem is the Electoral Act definition of “permanent resident” is different to the “permanent resident” definition in immigration terms.

To become a permanent resident under the immigration system, you need to have been on a resident visa first for two years. But in the Electoral Act, anyone on a visa without an expiry date counts as a permanent resident.

That means, in certain circumstances, someone can be eligible to vote in our country’s general election if they are living in our country on an indefinite visa after just one year.

The problem is any permanent resident who has gone through the normal application process, after just two years living in New Zealand, can vote.

They can vote on who the government is, they can vote on who the local council is, they can even vote in referendums that would fundamentally change the social fabric of our society.

Is this what we really mean by democracy in our country?

Is this what we really want in our democracy in our country?

Voting in our country should be a privilege of those who have sworn allegiance to New Zealand and who have made the commitment to make New Zealand their home and their future.  

If you haven’t made that commitment or sworn that allegiance, we are happy to let you live here permanently, but why should you get a say in how this country is run or governed?

New Zealand First will restore the basic democratic principle that the right to decide New Zealand’s future belongs to New Zealand citizens.

Voting in general elections should be reserved for those who have made the full legal and civic commitment to this country. 

Permanent residence gives people the right to live, work, study, and build a life in New Zealand. Citizenship is different. 

Citizenship is the formal bond of allegiance, belonging, responsibility, and democratic authority.

New Zealand First believes that distinction should matter again.

War on Woke, War for Democracy

During the last election campaign, and right here in this hall, New Zealand First declared a war on woke, and a war to save our democracy.

We stood here and asked for your vote so that we could fight in government to deliver what we promised.

And we have.

We have won many battles, but ladies and gentlemen, the war is not yet over.

New Zealand First has introduced a bill to parliament that will define what a woman and man is in law.

For us to have to legislate this basic biological reality shows how much the ‘woke mind virus’ has infected our society.

It is astounding that legislation like this is even needed – but that is how woke our country, and most of the western world has become.

This bill is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the term 'woman' in law.

What is stunning, is that the representatives of “Rural Women NZ” have actually decided to come out against this bill.

They submitted to the select committee without even consulting their membership.

It is typical of so many elitist groups.  They state what their ideological position is, and if you disagree, you are wrong and have no ability to have a say, you get cancelled, and you are out.

You would think that understanding biology was pretty important in farming.

It would be amazing to see farmers trying to milk a bull. 

They are now trying to say that biological reality doesn’t matter on the farm.

But it seems now, when the representatives of Rural Women NZ leave the farm, the suffer from the same wokeness that is afflicting Wellington bureaucrats and the purple-haired Green Party weirdos.

What the mainstream media are refusing to report is that views like the leaders of Rural Women NZ are the minority.

There was a Curia poll conducted not so long ago which showed 51% of kiwis supported the bill, and just 29% were against it.

Did the media show that poll? No. This is the same polling company that the media regularly rely on and report for their political polls.

But no, they won’t report this poll because it doesn’t suit their left-wing narrative.

And that sort of behaviour from the mainstream media is just outright cheating.

New Zealand First is the only party that campaigned on keeping men out of women’s sports, keeping men out of women's and girl's changing rooms, and we have received two petitions to protect the term ‘woman’ in legislation.

We were told at the time, by politicians and many in the mainstream media, that we were going down a ‘rabbit hole’ and ‘on another planet’. 

Well, the pendulum is swinging back towards common sense and is proving us right, which begs the question, which planet are the rest of them on?

We are fighting back the cancerous social engineering being pushed in society by a woke minority.

But this issue is just one in a heap of concerning elements and the underlying creep of woke social engineering.

This leftist group-think, condoned by too many on the right, has been mostly hidden from society in the way it has implanted itself in New Zealand, in education, health, government departments, and universities.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need common sense brought back to our country.

We cannot underestimate the nature and importance of the war on woke.

It is not only things like DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in our public sector, but also in our education system.

New Zealand First set out in the election to get rid of the ‘Relationship, and Sexual Education’ guidelines in our schools – we have done that. 

We campaigned on ensuring the pathway of separatism and cultural Marxism was stopped with the likes of He Puapua and co-governance – we are doing that.

We campaigned on ensuring English is an official language, that our country’s name remains New Zealand, that English names are used as a primary name on all departments – we have done that.

We campaigned on ensuring we have fairness in women’s sports – that men cannot compete against women and girls – we have done that.

We campaigned to stop the use of Puberty Blockers for children – we have done that.

We will continue to be the voice of common sense and at the forefront of the war on woke on behalf of you and every other concerned New Zealander.

Our message to the bureaucracy and any other political party pursuing such policies is simple. Do you want to be part of the solution or do you want to remain part of the problem?

If their choice is the latter – to be part of the problem – then our response is - “get out of the way”.

Conclusion

On August 21 2025, we stood here on this stage, and asked you to give your support to New Zealand First so that we could get the chance to represent you in parliament.

We are asking you again to act, right here, right now, in your busy lives, to join our movement to save our New Zealand, to stand up to defend what New Zealand was, is, and could be.

In the coming campaign there will be many imitations. The ‘me too’s’ trying to climb aboard our vehicle of protest, construction, and eventual victory.

Ask yourselves, when they belatedly try and echo New Zealand First’s message, are any of these other voices authentic?

Ask, what is their track record on these matters?

As the Good Book says “By their deeds you will know them”

Strident idealistic promises you have heard before.  They are worthless without commitment, resolve and determination to make such dreams a reality.

In New Zealand’s history there have been politicians of different persuasions who deserve our respect. For the improvements they delivered to ordinary people.  Richard Seddon, Peter Fraser, Holyoake and others.

They did what is most difficult in politics – they did what is right.

The next few months to election 2026 will go by swiftly.

Let us together make one outcome happen.

Don’t let the next election be about “It’s our turn now”, or worse still, “Let’s change, they can’t be any worse than the last lot”.

In the words of that famous old Māori saying - “Not like the seagull, tossing and turning its head at every wave, but like the rock, steadfast against the surging sea”.

Please join us.

We have right on our side. 

And we, are going to win.