National

ACT

NZ First

Parliamentary term

Improve the accountability of government by making a four-year term conditional on parliamentary select committees being truly independent of government and rebalanced in favour of opposition parties.

Four-year Parliamentary term

RMA

National promised to repeal the new resource management legislation and introduce a fast-track consenting regime.

ACT promised to repeal the new resource management legislation and replace it with separate Environmental Protection and Urban Development Acts.

NZ First promised to temporarily reinstate the Resource Management Act before replacing it with legislation modelled on Ireland’s Planning and Development Act and England’s Town and Country Planning Act to restrict third-party appeals, provide greater certainty, and replace the Environment Court.

SNAs

Narrow the scope of what can be designated a Significant Natural Area

Abolish Significant Natural Areas and set up a fund for councils and the QEII Trust helping landowners to put land into covenants.

For Biodiversity and Special Natural Areas: Put Property Rights into the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and require full commercial compensation where any right is affected or taken

Water

Repeal and replace the three waters reforms with a plan putting water services back in council hands, while refocusing the new regulator solely on water quality and requiring councils to deliver plans on water infrastructure.

Repeal and replace recent laws which gave different rights based on ethnicity, return water assets to councils, and allow councils to enter voluntary “shared services” agreements, gaining the benefits of scale, while retaining local ownership and control.

They also promised to establish 30-year central-local government agreements to plan water infrastructure upgrades tailored to specific regions, share GST revenue with councils to fund infrastructure upgrades, establish public-private partnerships to attract investment from financial entities such as KiwiSaver funds and ACC, and expand the exemption from domestic supply for a single dwelling to also include all small water suppliers supplying fewer than 30 endpoint users.

Deliver a freshwater plan that works for the productive sector and the environment by replacing Te Mana O te Wai in resource management planning and instead reinstate the ‘Four Wellbeing’ provisions.

Health

Abolish Māori Health Authority and reduce power of iwi-Māori partnership boards, replace with a "strong Māori health directorate" inside the Ministry of Health

Get rid of the [Māori Health Authority] and change the direction of the entire public service away from the race-based division that is failing so many New Zealanders.

Abolish the Māori Health Authority, and other race-based initiatives, returning New Zealand to a single health system for all based on need not race.

Education

Disestablish the Te Pūkenga Polytech mega-merger and restore local decision-making.

Review the New Zealand curriculum to remove critical race theory and de-colonisation.

Local government

Repeal law establishing Māori wards in local councils, reverting to system where a referendum is needed.

Repeal the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Act, which gave Ngāi Tahu appointed representation and decision-making powers on the Canterbury Regional Council.

Repeal recent laws relating to local government that provides different rights based on ethnicity.

Treaty of Waitangi

Wants to complete all Treaty settlements by 2030 with "those that are willing”.

Unclear what policy is on future of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Legislate the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi through a Treaty Principles Act and invite citizens to submit on it before putting to a binding referendum.

Respects the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process and the property and customary rights associated with it.

Withdraw New Zealand from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and end consultation on He Puapua, a report produced to guide New Zealand towards adhering to the declaration.

Co-governance

Does not support co-governing arrangements between the Crown and iwi in public services but does over natural resource management included in Treaty settlements.

The Act Party is opposed to co-governance and believes that it undermines the concepts of universal human rights and democracy.

NZ First opposes co-governance and believes that democracy and co-governance cannot co-exist.