{"id":624795,"date":"2026-10-08T23:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624795\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:02:14","slug":"enough-is-enough-new-zealand-first-wants-to-ban-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624795\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Enough is enough’: New Zealand First wants to ban fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand First has made a fresh push for a ban on backyard fireworks<\/a> after the leaders of National and Labour shot the idea down in a recent debate.<\/p>\n

The party wants to ban the public sale and private use of fireworks, blaming them for frightening animals, starting fires and causing havoc for emergency services.<\/p>\n

“Enough is enough,” the party said in its announcement.<\/p>\n

“The abuse and misuse of fireworks has far outgrown any of the benefits.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson said the legislation was already written and ready to be introduced to Parliament within the first 100 days of the next government.<\/p>\n

NZ First lodged a member’s bill proposing a ban in November last year.<\/p>\n

The proposed ban would also stop the manufacture and import of fireworks for private use, but professionally organised public displays would still be permitted.<\/p>\n

“This is not about being ‘nanny state’,” the statement said. “This is about bringing some common-sense into what is a desperately needed conversation about the future of fireworks in our community.”<\/p>\n

In Tuesday night’s TVNZ leaders’ debate, National’s Christopher Luxon and Labour’s Chris Hipkins both answered “no” when asked whether fireworks should be banned from public sale.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/p>\n

Tuesday night’s TVNZ leaders’ debate.<\/p>\n

TVNZ\/Harley Peters<\/p>\n

ACT leader David Seymour also opposed a ban. In July, he told media: “Just for a few days a year at the start of summer, let’s just keep something of the Kiwi childhood, please?”<\/p>\n

Also in July, Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick said restricting private sales was a “common sense position”, citing animal welfare and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n

Parliament’s Petitions Committee this term considered three petitions on the topic backed by more than 95,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Its report, released in April, concluded the evidence of harm made it difficult to recommend anything other than a ban.<\/p>\n

But in July, the coalition government rejected the recommendation, arguing a ban would remove access to a longstanding legal activity.<\/p>\n

It said existing rules struck an appropriate balance between preventing harm and protecting individual choice.<\/p>\n

At the time of the government’s rejection in July, NZ First leader Winston Peters vowed the issue would be back on the table after the election.<\/p>\n

Under current rules, fireworks can be sold to people aged 18 and over for just four days a year, from November 2 to 5. There is no nationwide restriction on when they can be used.<\/p>\n

This year’s Guy Fawkes celebrations will go ahead under the existing rules, just two days before the November 7 election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand First has made a fresh push for a ban on backyard fireworks after the leaders of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-624795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}