By Louis Collins
The Hansard team show off their festive decorating skills. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
It's a year since the coalition of National, ACT, and New Zealand First took the reins of government. In that time, they've passed 46 bills into law.
As often occurs with changes of government, much of the initial period is spent undoing things enacted under the previous holders of office.
Looking down that list of 46 bills, just over 20 percent include the word 'repeal' - a telltale sign of this kind of lawmaking, or rather law-undoing.
The Hansard team show off their festive decorating skills. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
The repeals
Here are some of those repeal bills.
- The Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Discount Scheme Repeal) Amendment Bill - as the name suggests, got rid of the Clean Vehicle Discount Scheme.
- The Fair Pay Agreements Act Repeal Bill - in a nutshell, returned union bargaining to an earlier state.
- The Land Transport Management (Repeal of Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill - scrapped the Auckland regional fuel tax.
- The Forests (Log Traders and Forestry Advisers Repeal) Amendment Bill - disestablished the registration system for log traders and forestry advisors, along with government intentions to deregulate across multiple industries.
- The Water Services Acts Repeal Bill - reversed multiple pieces of legislation that were passed under Labour's Three Waters reforms.
- The Therapeutic Products Act Repeal Bill - prevents Labour's changes to the regulation of medicines, alternative medicine and medical devices from taking effect in September 2026.
- The New Zealand Productivity Commission Act Repeal Bill - another deregulation effort, replaced the Productivity Commission with the Ministry for Regulation.
- Business Payment Practices Act Repeal Bill - reverses a law the previous government passed to address lengthy business-to-business payment times.
- The Resource Management (Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Repeal and Interim Fast-track Consenting) Bill - pressed 'Control-Z' on Labour's reforms to the RMA, and paved the way for National's own model of RMA reform (largely still in train).
- The Pae Ora (Disestablishment of Māori Health Authority) Amendment Bill - did what it says on the tin, and got rid of the Māori Health Authority, which had a pretty short shelf life of under two years.
Some of the doing and undoing from a new government, recycles settings that were in place the last time they had the keys to the Beehive: the three strikes legislation and charter schools are obvious examples of this. It makes for a rather repetitive pattern with changes of government: repeals of repeals of repeals.
Law and order focus
The prime minister is the chief among the ministers, and ultimately responsible for managing the Cabinet. Christopher Luxon's corporate managerial style wasn't surprising given his resume. The opposition criticised Luxon for wheeling out business jargon like 'KPI's' and 'deliverables'. In any case, the government has stuck with it, and split up its first year of lawmaking into themed quarters.
The third quarter of the year was dubbed 'the law and order quarter', and was the government's busiest portfolio in terms of lawmaking.
Spare a thought though for the Justice Select Committee, who had to trudge through these bills and examine them before they became law. 26 bills were sent to them for consideration in the first year, which is an astronomical number compared to the average - six per committee.
Some of the significant law and order bills that received royal assent this year were:
- The Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill - brings back the punishment system for offenders that was in place during the fifth National government.
- Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Amendment Bill - enacts firearms bans on "persons whose behaviour and actions pose a high risk of violence", which basically means gangs.
- Speaking of gangs, the simply named Gangs Bill - banned gang insignia in public places and gave police the power to issue a dispersal notice to gang members.
- The Sentencing Amendment Bill - made changes to how criminals are punished, including narrowing the use of sentencing reductions and adding new aggravating factors to sentencing.
Other big bills that became law this year have been a combination of proactive and reactive, and have varied in terms of how contentious they were as they passed through the various stages of the legislative process.
- The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill (No 2) - banned the sale of disposable vapes.
- The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme Agricultural Obligations) Amendment Bill - removed the inclusion of the agricultural industry from New Zealand's ETS.
- The Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is part of the RMA reform package - relating to aquaculture.
- The Resource Management (Extended Duration of Coastal Permits for Marine Farms) Amendment Bill - extended permits and pushed back the deadline for bringing marine aquaculture in line with iwi ownership and guardianship.
- The Racing Industry (Unlawful Destruction of Specified Greyhounds) Amendment Bill - made it illegal for owners of greyhound racing dogs to cull their animals as no longer economically useful. This law was in anticipation for a greyhound racing ban in 2026.
- The Fast Track Approvals Bill - has been highly contentious in a year of contentious legislation. It speeds up the consenting process for projects and includes 149 specific projects nudged across the first step of consent for action in sectors like mining, civil engineering, energy generation, and housing. It will receive Royal Assent before Christmas.
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