Some of the more unusual policies from the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.
– 13 new Roads of National Significant and four major public transport upgrades.
– …boot camps for serious young offenders, and stronger sentencing so New Zealanders can feel safe.
– …an hour each of reading, writing and maths every day, banning cell phone use at school, and regular assessment and reporting to parents.
– …Cut health waiting times by training more doctors, nurses, and midwives, and giving Kiwis access to 13 more cancer treatments.
– …Reduce Core Crown expenditure as a proportion of the overall economy.
– … 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.
– 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.
– Commit to moderate increases to the minimum wage every year.
– Ensure Immigration New Zealand is engaged in proper risk management and verification to ensure migrants are filling genuine workforce needs.
– Commit to enforcement and action to ensure those found responsible for the abuse of migrant workers face appropriate consequences.
– Establish a National Infrastructure Agency under the direction of relevant Ministers, to coordinate government funding, connect investors with New Zealand infrastructure, and improve funding, procurement, and delivery to:
– 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:
– Commit to building a four-lane highway alternative for the Brynderwyns and investigate the use of private finance to accelerate construction.
– Replace the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater to better reflect the interests of all water users.
– 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.
– Incentivise the uptake of emissions reduction mitigations, such as low methane genetics, and low methane producing animal feed.
– Amend the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF) regulations to place a duty upon harvesters to contain and remove post-harvest slash
– 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
– Deliver longer durations for marine farming permits and remove regulations that impede the productivity and enormous potential of the seafood sector
– Liberalise genetic engineering laws while ensuring strong protections for human health and the environment
– Commit to training no fewer than 500 new frontline police within the first two years.
– Adequately resource community policing, including Māori and Pasifika wardens, Community Patrol New Zealand, and Neighbourhood Watch
– Amend the Sentencing Act 2002 and associated legislation to ensure appropriate consequences for criminals, including:
– Where appropriate, require prisoners to work, including in the construction of new accommodation in prisons or pest control
– 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 Coward Punch legislation which will create a specific offence for anyone who injures or kills someone with a coward punch.
– 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.
– Abolish the Māori 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.
– Repeal the Therapeutic Products Act 2023.
– Fund Gumboot Friday/I Am Hope Charity to $6 million per annum.
– Renegotiate the Crown funding agreement with St John with a view to meeting a greater portion of their annualised budget.
– Ensure Plunket is funded to do their job properly
– 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.
– 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
– Support to select committee a bill that would enact a binding referendum on a four-year term of parliament
– Ensure all public service departments have their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Māori.
– 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 (…)
– 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 Māori 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 the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation.
– Conduct a comprehensive review of all legislation (except when it is related to, or substantive to, existing full and final Treaty settlements) that includes “The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty, or repeal the references.
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