This campaign ACT has talked a lot about unlocking New Zealand's potential, we're really talking about unlocking the potential of New Zealanders.

The potential of a young Kiwi who wants to be the first in their family to go to university. A young tradie who wants to start their own business. A farmer who wants to develop more land and grow their business. Or a family who simply wants to build a better life for their children.

Every one of them has something to offer this country. Their success won’t depend on what ethnic group someone puts them in, who their ancestors were, or whether they hold the right political opinions.

It will depend on their talents, their effort, and the choices they make, and the opportunities available to every New Zealander.

That's why ACT believes so strongly in equal rights and one law for all.

New Zealand is a liberal democracy. That means the same rights, the same duties, and the same protection under the law.

It doesn't mean we're all the same. New Zealanders have different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, abilities, and aspirations. That's something to celebrate.

But we are united by something much more important than our differences. Our common humanity, and our equal right to live our lives as we choose.

That is the foundation of a free, prosperous and successful country.

When someone needs healthcare, the Government should ask how sick they are, not who their ancestors were.

When someone applies for a public service job, the question should be whether they're the best person for it, not whether they satisfy some demographic target.

When someone invests their life savings in a home, starts a business, or develops a farm, they should have confidence their property rights will be respected.

And when someone expresses a lawful opinion, they shouldn't have to fear losing their livelihood because a professional regulator disagrees with them.

Unfortunately, over many years, New Zealand has drifted from these principles.

Politicians and bureaucrats have increasingly divided people into groups, created different rules, and allowed vague laws to be interpreted in ways Parliament never intended.

Instead of focusing on what people can achieve, we have become increasingly obsessed with who people are.

ACT has been working to change that and over the past three years, we've made significant progress.

We secured the need-not-race directive, requiring Government agencies to focus services on individual need rather than treating ethnicity as a substitute for need. This needs to go further to ensure government departments abide by it. More on that in a moment.

We abolished the Māori Health Authority, removed race-based requirements from health legislation, and repealed section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act so the safety and wellbeing of children come first.

We've restored binding local referendums on Māori wards, and secured changes to stop unelected council appointees from exercising voting powers.

We've strengthened the Public Service Act to reinforce merit, competence and political neutrality, and ended the target requiring eight per cent of government contracts to go to Māori-owned businesses.

And through the Regulatory Standards Act, we've strengthened the scrutiny of new laws against principles including personal liberty, property rights and equality before the law.

None of these changes would have happened without ACT.

The Coalition Government hasn't gone as far as ACT would like, but it has gone further than it ever would have without us.

Now we want to finish the job. We will:

• Protect equal rights by putting parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and equality before the law into the Constitution Act.
• Protect your home, farm, business and savings by adding property rights to the Bill of Rights Act.
• Keep elected lawmakers accountable by stopping courts creating Treaty duties Parliament has not legislated and requiring clear Treaty obligations in new laws.
• Complete historical Treaty claims, end the Waitangi Tribunal’s contemporary jurisdiction and end the Tribunal when its historical work is finished.
• Ensure people with the same needs receive the same public services by making need, not race, the legal standard.
• Put competence first by removing race-based public-service employment requirements and cultural tests unrelated to the job.
• Limit the use of tikanga in court decisions to situations expressly authorised by Parliament.
• Protect freedom of belief by keeping spiritual practices voluntary and ending the use of public-service time and funding for them.
• Protect professionals’ livelihoods and free speech by stopping regulators punishing lawful opinions expressed outside professional practice.
• Finish the job on the four-year term legislation, so people can have their say at a referendum in 2029.
• Abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority to protect free speech and stop outdated broadcasting rules being extended to podcasts and online media.

Finally, equal rights require democratic accountability. ACT will make the Government smaller and more accountable, reducing it to 18 Ministers and 19 departments, with clear responsibility for spending and results.

All these policies are connected by one belief.

Every New Zealander is an individual with dignity, rights, and the potential to make a difference in their own life.

We won't unlock their potential by dividing people into competing groups, giving some special treatment, or allowing unelected institutions to make decisions that belong to voters.

That is what we’re campaigning for this election.

We're asking New Zealanders to Party Vote ACT to re-elect the Coalition Government and make it go further and faster on the issues that matter.

To unlock the potential of every New Zealander with one law for all and one future together.

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