ACT’s commitment: Three burglaries? Three years in prison, minimum

ACT will take a Three Strikes for Burglary policy to the 2026 election, requiring a minimum three-year prison sentence with no parole for anyone convicted of burglary three times.

"Your home should be the one place where you feel safe," says ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee.

"It’s the place where you keep the things you've worked for, your family's memories, and the people you care about most. That sense of security should be absolute, but it’s undermined by every burglary in our neighbourhoods.

"In 2025, 184,000 New Zealanders were victims of burglary. Burglary is a recidivist crime, with the majority of people released from prison for burglary sent back to prison within two years. Nearly three-quarters are resentenced. Around one in four burglary victims have already been burgled before.

“Judges keep using their leeway to give burglars more chances, and the burglars keep reoffending.

"ACT says enough. If you keep breaking into people's homes, the warnings stop and real consequences kick in.”

• ACT will create a new Three Strikes regime for burglary. Anyone convicted of burglary three times would receive a minimum sentence of three years in prison, with no parole, no home detention, and no early release.

• The policy would apply both to someone facing their third conviction, or to someone facing a single conviction of three or more counts of burglary.

• An aggravated burglary would trigger a strike under both this regime and the existing Three Strikes regime for violent crime.

• The judge would still retain full discretion to impose any sentence between the three-year minimum and the 10-year maximum.

“This policy is not primarily about deterring crime. It is about preventing it. Imprisoning repeat burglars will protect New Zealanders from a small group of offenders who have shown, time after time, that they have no respect for other people's homes or property. They will not be able to victimise us from a jail cell.

"When someone does the right thing, gets up and goes to work to unlock their own potential, they shouldn’t have to worry about some deadbeat invading their home and taking their hard-earned property.

"ACT will unlock the potential of the justice system to protect victims, not make excuses for criminals.”

Editor's note:

ACT's policy, 'Three strikes for repeat burglars', can be found here.