As New Zealand stands at the halfway point towards the 2026 election, let’s do a quick stocktake on the state of play.
The polls have remained tight throughout the entire period National, ACT, and New Zealand First have been in Government. While they tend to show the Coalition is slightly ahead, the ruling parties have struggled to present an inspirational vision for a united and prosperous future.
While restoring economic growth has been relentlessly championed by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon the situation they inherited from Labour was so dire that it was never going to be a quick fix.
Meanwhile Kiwis are continuing to vote with their feet with record numbers still leaving our country for greener pastures overseas. And while the search for better economic opportunity for their family is usually the driving force, for many the need to escape the growing racial divide has become almost as powerful.
Looking at the situation objectively, one has to wonder why the new Government has not already addressed the very concerns that caused voters to throw out Labour at the last election.
Put simply, voters had had enough of the Ardern legacy of delusional woke ambition that she is now peddling on the world stage as “empathetic” leadership. Most of all, they had had enough of the divisive racism that underpins the He Puapua agenda for tribal supremacy, that she imposed onto New Zealand without any mandate whatsoever under the guise of the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples.
Those concerns remain today, not only because those agendas have not been excised by the Coalition, but because they are growing stronger.
Government communications including letters, websites, adverts, signage, programmes and policies, continue to prioritise the Maori language instead of English, flouting Coalition directives and leaving Kiwis disaffected, confused, and afraid to speak out.
State broadcasters continue to use publicly funded roles to advance separatist agendas.
Children are still coming home from school with their heads full of propaganda – that colonisation was evil, that white people are racists, that sovereignty was never ceded, and that the only just future for our country is in “partnership” with Maori.
Even the hallowed halls of Parliament – the heart of our democracy – are now being trashed by a radicalised party that has weaponised the Maori seats to promote their form of anarchy.
It’s no wonder an increasing number of Kiwis are feeling disillusioned, with many packing their bags and heading abroad.
These, however, need not be terminal matters for the Coalition, if they had the resolve to put things right. Whether they have the courage to do so remains an unanswered question.
On the wider front, and to its credit, the Government is ramping up its legislative agenda to fulfil election promises. Clearly, getting “runs on the board” before the next election is a key imperative.
To date, over 90 Bills have been passed into law by the Coalition – many of the early ones repealing Labour legislation.
The latest Parliamentary Order Paper shows that over forty Government Bills are at various stages of the law-making process. Seven are awaiting their First Reading, after which they will be referred to a Select Committee. The balance of the Bills have been returned from Select Committees to Parliament ready for their Second Reading, Committee Stage of the House, and Third Reading before receiving the Royal Assent and becoming law.
In addition, more than thirty Government Bills are being dealt with by Parliament’s Select Committees, thirteen of which are currently open for public submissions. These are:
– Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) [Closing date: 12 June 2025]*;
– Public Works (Critical Infrastructure) Amendment Bill [13 June];
– Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill [18 June];
– Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Bill [23 June];
– Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill [23 June];
– Financial Markets Conduct Amendment Bill [23 June];
– Regulatory Standards Bill [23 June];
– Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Bill [23 June];
– Ngāti Hāua Claims Settlement Bill [24 June];
– Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Bill [25 June];
– Valuers Bill [27 June];
– Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment (Duty to Provide Financial Services) Amendment Bill [04 July];
– The Public Finance Amendment Bill [Closing date: 07 July 2025].
*Links to all Bills open for public submissions can be found through the NZCPR’s Parliamentary Business website page HERE.
Select Committees play a crucial role in the democratic process by engaging the public in the detailed scrutiny of proposed bills. After hearing public submissions and expert evidence, Committee Members deliberate on Bills and incorporate recommendations before returning them to Parliament to continue their journey into law.
Select Committee work can be extremely challenging, especially when the Bills in question deal with controversial matters.
The Health Committee is currently considering one such Bill. The Gene Technology Bill, which aims to modernise New Zealand’s gene technology regulations by introducing an enabling framework, establishing an independent Regulator, and removing GE labelling requirements, has sparked a range of concerns including over consumer protection and trade compatibility.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, the Chairman of the Methane Science Accord Owen Jennings, a former MP and Federated Farmers President, outlines some of the concerns being expressed over the implications of the Bill for farming:
“What is being proposed and rushed through will institute the most unrestrained and least regulated regime in the world. National wants economic growth. Opening up the agricultural sector to less regulated gene editing and the more wholesale use of GMO’s could be a quick way to get quantum leaps in production. But there are no guarantees, and the evidence for increased production from gene manipulation is scant. Yet the changes are being hustled through.
“The rush to force changes to the regulations by a typically reform-shy National is raising questions in the farming community. Why the indecent haste?
“Some in the scientific community, spurred on by green interests, see GMO’s as a major mitigation tool for reducing ruminant methane emissions although the proof is very disputable. Rather than face the reality that our ruminants are not causing any problem and that decisive boldness to state that clearly is required rather than more taxpayer funding thrown at research, we are getting a potentially dangerous backdoor mechanism. It’s shortsighted.”
With agriculture the mainstay of New Zealand’s economic recovery, such concerns need to be taken seriously. If indeed, as Owen suggests, it is a desire to curb the methane emitted by cows and sheep using genetically engineered grasses and inhibitors such as vaccines and boluses, that’s creating the need for undue haste, it’s time for a deep breath.
The reality is that the country’s so-called methane emissions problem is not actually a problem – it’s a calculation mistake. The mathematical models used by the government to claim that almost half of New Zealand’s emissions burden is caused by livestock methane, mistakenly attributes methane’s warming impact to be 28 times that of carbon dioxide, when the correct factor is 7.
This mistake was acknowledged by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2021, but was ignored, not only by the Ardern Government, but now – unbelievably – by the Luxon Coalition as well.
The reason is that if the real value of methane was used in our models, not only would New Zealand’s climate problem effectively disappear, but the huge government edifice that’s been built to deal with this non-existent problem, would crumble.
Removing barriers to biotech is clearly part of the Coalition’s strategy to release New Zealanders from the stranglehold of regulation that’s long been holding this country back.
In the face of impossible bureaucratic burdens and lengthy time delays – not to mention the death knell of progress: iwi consultation – it is easier for investors to walk away than invest in our country.
Turning this situation around by reforming the 900-page Resource Management Act that is widely regarded as being largely responsible for inhibiting growth in New Zealand, is proving to be a major challenge. Labour tried it, but since their new law was worse than the original, National is now attempting the task.
The problem is that the RMA replacements – a Natural Environment Act and a Planning Act – are not expected to be operational until just before the next election, which means the Coalition has had to find other ways to promote growth.
In the past, successive governments have attempted to by-pass the RMA in order to accelerate housing development to address the country’s critical shortage of housing.
The Coalition’s Fast Track legislation was based on the same concept of by-passing the RMA to enable a pipeline of projects to get underway in a fraction of the time expected under the normal consenting process.
Another new Coalition initiative to boost growth has just been announced, this time in the form of sweeping changes to sixteen National Policy Statements. These policy directives from central government, which aim to guide local authority decision-making, cover three main groupings: infrastructure and development, the primary sector, and freshwater. The proposed changes are open for public submissions until 27 July – full details can be seen HERE.
One such change which will allow the building of a ‘Granny Flat’ accommodation unit of up to 70 square metres on a property without the need for a resource consent – only compliance with the building code – can be seen HERE.
A similar change for Maori land, which would allow up to ten of the accommodation units to be built without a resource consent – along with a commercial activity of up to 100 square metres – can be seen HERE.
One of the most significant changes being proposed involves an update of the National Policy Statement on Freshwater. It asks for public feedback on whether the problematic Maori spiritual concept of Te Mana o Te Wai should be retained in a new directive or removed altogether.
With the incorporation of Te Mana o Te Wai leading to tribal demands for the co-governance of freshwater, the right of veto over water use, and extortionate payments for ‘cultural monitoring’ as a condition of water consent approvals, anyone concerned about such matters, should put in a submission HERE – and encourage others to do the same.
Running a country is difficult at the best of times. Having to pick up the pieces from a dangerously incompetent predecessor – that left almost all areas of government including education, health, law and order, and welfare in urgent need of reform, has made the job just so much harder.
Looking at the wider picture, all over the world, liberal democracies are being threatened by authoritarian forces. We experienced it ourselves just five years ago, when almost every single one of our democratic rights and freedoms were stripped away without warning by the government headed by Jacinda Ardern – the former Prime Minister, who is now, ironically, touting her book promoting her “caring” brand of leadership.
It was into the democratic vacuum she created, that Jacinda Ardern opened the door to tribal rule – a problem that continues to plague New Zealand at this halfway point in the election cycle.
As we look to the next election, voters will face stark choices: National, ACT and New Zealand First or Labour, the radical Greens and the toxic Maori Party – a choice between democracy or authoritarianism, freedom or oppression, the rule of law or anarchy.
For all of our sakes, let’s hope that in eighteen months’ time the Coalition has not only succeeded in growing the economy, generating jobs, and raising living standards, but that they have also successfully instigated what many Kiwis were hoping when they voted for the change in government at the last election: equality under the law in a colourblind society.
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THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
*At this half-way point to the next election, what do you see as the biggest problem New Zealand faces – the economy, health, education, race relations, other (please specify)?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| It is very frustrating that change is so slow so many of the initiatives that have been introduced, will not make a difference until well after the election. | Donald |
| The economy is a huge problem but one that can be fixed. On the other hand, if the tribal coup is not nipped in the bud, our democracy is doomed. | Murray |
| The Coalition has been so disappointing in not stopping the iwi power grab. It is getting worse, not better. If Labour wins the election and the Maori Party takes control, the country is doomed. | Penny |
| It’s time Chris Luxon showed leadership and demanded that race-based policies and procedures are either axed or replaced with ones that are needs based. Non-compliant staff should be given their marching orders. | Hugh |
| To see Jacinda Ardern flaunting her so-called achievements as Prime Minister when the country was left in such a mess is truly sickening. But it’s been interesting to hear her book has received many bad reviews. | Bryce |