New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy with a long record of free and fair elections and of guaranteeing political rights and civil liberties. Concerns include discrimination against the Māori and other minority populations, as well as reports of foreign influence in politics and the education sector.

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s center-right National Party, together with its right-wing junior coalition partners New Zealand First and ACT New Zealand, introduced a series of policy initiatives that could weaken rights and protections for the Māori population, including reductions in the use or prominence of the Māori language in government communications and documents, and a law passed in February that eliminated the Māori Health Authority. In September, Regulation Minister David Seymour of ACT New Zealand announced draft legislation that would reinterpret key terms of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which is considered one of the country’s founding documents and a seminal guarantee of Māori rights. While the National Party and New Zealand First had agreed to put the bill forward after winning election in late 2023, they had not endorsed its passage, meaning it likely lacked the support necessary to become law.
• In January, the new government dropped the previous leadership’s proposal to extend suffrage to 16- and 17-year-olds for local council elections, ruling out such a change for national elections as well. The Supreme Court had found in 2022 that the minimum voting age of 18 contradicted the country’s Bill of Rights, which barred age discrimination against anyone 16 or older, but the finding did not require a legislative remedy from Parliament.
• In July, the government said it would back legislation requiring owners of major online platforms like Google and Meta to reach revenue-sharing agreements with producers of news content that appears on their sites; the move was aimed at bolstering the country’s news media, which had recently suffered job losses. Google warned in October that it could stop linking to New Zealand news content if the draft legislation were adopted.
• Possible breaches of campaign finance laws by members of multiple parties remained a concern during the year. In June, the New Zealand Electoral Commission referred National Party lawmaker David MacLeod to police for allegedly failing to declare some NZ$178,000 (US$110,000) in donations between 2022 and 2023.
• In August, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission released a report outlining concerns about the exploitation of migrant workers who enter the country on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV)—a temporary measure intended to fill labor gaps in certain sectors, such as hospitality, construction, and health. The commission found that such workers regularly faced exploitation, including withholding of wages, fraudulent extraction of recruitment fees, and unsafe or unhealthy living conditions. The report recommended a full review of the AEWV system.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.