Labour\u2019s \u201cnews and updates\u201d page, which includes the party\u2019s press releases and speeches, also includes a search function. When \u201cpolice\u201d is entered as a keyword, the most recent press release that comes up is from June 2025.<\/p>\n
The Herald can find more recent press releases mentioning \u201cpolice\u201d that were emailed to journalists, but these don\u2019t contain new policies. These references are generally in press releases criticising the Government.<\/p>\n
There are no policies mentioning police on the Labour website. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
If \u201cjustice\u201d is searched for on Labour\u2019s website, an August press release comes up with the title: \u201cNational shuts the door on climate justice\u201d which relates to the Government\u2019s climate change tort law amendment.<\/p>\n
The Opposition party has made a pledge to repeal the Government\u2019s bootcamps \u201cand focus on evidence-based interventions\u201d. However, its press release on the issue doesn\u2019t expand on what those interventions are or could be.<\/p>\n
It also wants to create a new offence of corporate homicide, although this was announced as a workplace relations and safety policy.<\/p>\n
Labour doesn\u2019t appear to yet be proposing any new policing, sentencing, or corrections, initiatives, with overseas voting beginning on Wednesday and advance voting starting next week.<\/p>\n
Labour’s policy webpage didn’t bring up any proposals mentioning police. Photo \/ Labour website<\/p>\n
After the TVNZ leaders\u2019 debate earlier this month, in which Labour\u2019s Chris Hipkins admitted his Government had been too slow to address rising youth crime, the Herald asked him what law and order policies Labour was proposing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve set out a real focus on crime prevention,\u201d Hipkins responded. <\/p>\n
Asked what specific policies he had to do that, Hipkins said: \u201cWell, there are more policies to come during the campaign. There\u2019s still four-and-a-half weeks of the campaign to go\u201d. <\/p>\n
Two weeks on, Labour still is yet to release a specific law and order package. <\/p>\n
The party told the Herald in a statement: \u201cWe\u2019re campaigning on policies focused on the cost-of-living, jobs health and homes as a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur law and order and justice policies will be in the manifesto, and everything will be online for everyone to read. We\u2019re currently working on updating the website with our full suite of policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour responded to a Law Society survey \u2013 published last week \u2013 about key objectives in the justice portfolio. Its comment didn\u2019t include any specific policies. <\/p>\n
\u201cLabour wants our communities to be safe and equitable access to justice. Our vision is of a New Zealand that achieves real public safety rather than reactive policies that are not evidence based.\u201d<\/p>\n
National\u2019s justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith told the Herald there hadn\u2019t been a \u201cwhisper\u201d about law and order from Labour.<\/p>\n
He believed the party should be upfront about its plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it reflects the fact that they don\u2019t want to remind New Zealanders of where they\u2019re at on justice, which is out of touch with what people on the streets want, which is a continuation of a firm line,\u201d Goldsmith said.<\/p>\n
National has four law and order policies listed on its website, such as modernising sexual consent laws so there must always be a \u201cyes\u201d, rather than just the absence of a \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n
This is something Labour wanted to do this term<\/a>, noting there was a cross-party bill ready. However, there hasn\u2019t been a specific policy on this released by Labour during the campaign.<\/p>\n Other policies National is proposing include abolishing good character as a mitigating factor at sentencing of sexual offending, removing the right to silence when a child is murdered and establishing a dedicated police team for the Auckland Transport network.<\/p>\n The lesser focus on law and order at this election may reflect it is no longer seen as important an issue to New Zealanders as at previous elections.<\/p>\n For example, before the 2023 election, crime\/law and order peaked as a key concern of 40% of New Zealanders in the Ipsos Issues Monitor, one of the top issues of the time.<\/p>\n Since 2023, it has trended downwards as a concern. In the most recent Ipsos Issues Monitor, for September this year, it was the eighth-biggest issue, with 15% of respondents mentioning it.<\/p>\n Goldsmith believed it being a lesser issue was a \u201cmark of progress\u201d since three years ago when it was a \u201cpretty consistent number two, three [issue]\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were very worried about community safety, law and order, and now it\u2019s well down the ranks. But my message to New Zealanders, we can\u2019t take that for granted for a moment.<\/p>\n Parties\u2019 positions on law and order have been in the spotlight over the past week after members of the Green Party and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori were photographed posing with members of the Mongrel Mob,<\/p>\n Labour has said the Greens won\u2019t hold key law and order portfolios if they help form a future Government. Leader Hipkins has said \u201cgangs peddle misery\u201d<\/a> and committed to not funding any gang-led drug addiction programmes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s \u201cnews and updates\u201d page, which includes the party\u2019s press releases and speeches, also includes a search function.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,95,4731,120440,5903,71,25901,6721,311652,8307,111,43,139,69,2847,29691,3111,4762,10269,7254,29056,1355,1569,698,24688,102],"class_list":["post-635735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-and","tag-days","tag-distinct","tag-election","tag-from","tag-hasnt","tag-labour","tag-lacks","tag-law","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-order","tag-out","tag-party","tag-policies","tag-policy","tag-proposed","tag-starting","tag-starts","tag-until","tag-voting","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635735","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=635735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}National’s justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith (right) says Labour is quiet about law and order. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n