One Law for All.
One Future Together.
One law for all means the same rights, the same duties, and the same protection under the law.
New Zealand should be a country where everyone is equal before the law, Parliament makes the law, Government is bound by the law, and the property people work hard for is secure.
These are basic foundations of a free and democratic country. But over time, vague Treaty clauses and expanding judicial interpretations have blurred who gets to make the rules.
ACT will:
Enshrine in the Constitution Act that Parliament makes the law, Government is bound by it, and every New Zealander is equal before it.
Protect your home, farm, business, and other property by adding property rights to the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
Stop courts using broad Treaty interpretations to impose obligations Parliament never actually legislated.
Make Parliament say clearly what it means when it refers to the Treaty, instead of leaving courts and officials to fill in the gaps.
One Public Service.
Previous governments spent years building separate tracks for different groups, and too many of those rules remain. ACT will remove them and build one public service with one standard for everyone.
ACT will:
Government jobs should go to the best candidate, whoever they are. But the law still tells public employers to shape employment policies around the aspirations and employment needs of particular ethnic groups. ACT will repeal those rules in section 73 of the Public Service Act and section 118 of the Crown Entities Act. Laws against discrimination and unsafe workplaces will remain. So will the rule that public service appointments must be based on merit.
Taxpayer money isn’t for running spiritual or religious activities at work. ACT will end the use of public time and public funds for this, whatever the tradition. Staff will remain free to practise their own religion, culture, or traditions in their own time, and workplaces can make reasonable arrangements for them.
ACT will make these changes straight away, then rewrite the Act so the public service stays politically neutral, hires on merit, treats people equally, and is judged on whether services actually reach the people who need them.
ACT will put into law that public services should go to the people who need them, whoever they are. If two New Zealanders have the same need, government should treat them the same. The Government has already told agencies to follow that rule. ACT will put it in law so people can challenge decisions that break it in court.
Job ads should ask whether you can do the work, not whether you know the right cultural concepts or share the right worldview. ACT will tell agencies to remove these requirements from job ads and position descriptions unless the knowledge is actually needed for the job.
Professional regulators exist to protect the public by setting standards for competence, safety and conduct at work. They should not decide which lawful political or personal views a New Zealander is allowed to hold.
ACT will:
Ban professional regulators from disciplining members for lawful expression outside their professional practice.
Require regulators to remain institutionally neutral on political and ideological issues.
Restrict mandatory training to matters directly connected to professional competence and public safety.
Strengthen judicial oversight so courts can rein in regulators that go beyond their legal powers.
Preserve regulators' ability to act against genuine professional misconduct, harm to clients or patients, and breaches of professional duties.
Our Record.
In Government, ACT has driven major changes toward equal rights, democratic accountability and a politically neutral public service.
ACT secured a Cabinet circular directing agencies to target services according to individual need instead of using ethnicity as a proxy.
The Government abolished the Māori Health Authority, removed race-based requirements from health law and repealed section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act so decisions focus on children's safety and wellbeing.
ACT secured the return of binding local referendums on Māori wards. The Government has also adopted the substance of Cameron Luxton's Member's Bill so unelected council appointees will no longer be able to vote or count toward quorum under the Local Government Act.
The Public Service Amendment Act reinforces political neutrality, merit-based appointments and professional competence, and removes statutory requirements to pursue demographic representation in public-service employment.
ACT secured the removal of the target requiring eight per cent of government contracts to be awarded to Māori-owned businesses. Public contracts should be awarded on value and performance.
The Regulatory Standards Act requires new laws to be assessed openly against principles including personal liberty, property rights, equality before the law and good legislative process. An independent Regulatory Standards Board can examine complaints and report publicly.
The Government halted Labour's proposed hate-speech expansion and agreed to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority after ACT challenged its attempt to extend broadcasting rules to podcasts and online media.
The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it has gone further than it would have without ACT.
