Since coming into Government in 2017, we’ve worked hard to tackle the long term challenges facing New Zealand, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made on the big issues like child poverty, housing and climate change.
However, we know there’s more to do. That’s why, as we secure our COVID recovery, we’re committed to building on our progress so together, we can come out of the pandemic stronger than ever. Read more about our priorities.
Here are just some of our achievements so far.
Updated 7 December 2021.
Made all apprenticeships and targeted trades training free, supporting more than 175,000 people to upskill
Helping more than one million New Zealanders stay warm over the colder months through the Winter Energy Payment
Recorded improvements across all nine child poverty measures
Making Matariki a public holiday from 2022
Delivered more than 10,000 public and transitional homes, as part of our plan to deliver more than 18,000 extra places by 2024
Providing healthy, free school lunches to more than 200,000 students across the country
Banned single-use plastic bags to protect our environment
Increased the minimum wage to $20 per hour
Rolled out COVID vaccines to more than 3.7 million people
Upgrading almost every state school in the country through the School Investment Package
Lifting weekly benefit rates by between $32 and $55 per adult, to help break the cycle of poverty
Investing more than $700 million in transport projects to help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild
Passed the landmark Zero Carbon Act, with a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050
Made visiting the doctor cheaper or free for nearly 600,000 New Zealanders
Extended paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks
Fast-tracking key development and infrastructure projects to help get New Zealand moving
Taking mental health seriously, with the biggest investment in mental health of any Budget, ever
Removed fees from NCEA and NZ Scholarship
Making sure New Zealand history is taught in all schools and kura by 2023
Restored the right to vote for all eligible prisoners serving less than three years
Led the Christchurch Call, working internationally to eliminate extremist content online
Establishing a Māori Health Authority to commission health services, monitor Māori health and develop policy
More than doubled the funding for Search and Rescue, recreational boating safety and safety awareness to help save lives
Expanded the Flexi-wage initiative to support up to 40,000 people into work
Launched Hōkai Rangi, Corrections’ new operational strategy, to place greater emphasis on wellbeing and the wellbeing of whānau
Phasing out hard-to-recycle plastic items like food and drink packaging
Protecting people in financial hardship from high-cost loans that could trap them in debt
Boosted funding for air and road ambulances
Boosting funding to Tupu Aotearoa to support thousands of Pāsifika people into employment, training and education
Made significant business tax changes to reduce cashflow pressure
Restoring collective bargaining rights for screen sector workers
Building new rail workshops in Dunedin and Christchurch, creating hundreds of local jobs and supporting apprenticeships
Expanding the Pregnancy and Parenting Programme, so more women and whānau can access support for alcohol and drug issues
Safely reducing the prison population
Supporting councils to fully decarbonise the public transport bus fleet by 2035
Pursuing ambitious trade policy to help New Zealand businesses succeed overseas
Supporting Kāinga Ora to scale up land acquisition and boost housing supply
Expanding mental health support in schools across the country through the roll-out of Mana Ake
Secured a historic free trade agreement with the UK
Made the biggest ever investment in family violence and sexual violence support services
Providing healthy, free school lunches to more than 200,000 students across the country
Boosted funding for suicide prevention and services to support those bereaved by suicide
Cutting red tape to boost housing supply, by changing resource consent rules
Supporting a new programme to lead New Zealand’s plant protein sector development
Expanded Housing First to help more than 1,500 additional long-term homeless people into homes
Investing in climate and agriculture research and science
Made renting fairer by reforming the Residential Tenancies Act
Supported more than 2,800 rangatahi into employment, education or training through He Poutama Rangatahi
Launched a new digital support service to help small businesses take advantage of e-commerce
Better supporting Pacific people with new mental health and addiction services in Auckland and Wellington
Provided the largest funding boost for the Department of Conservation since 2002
Made the biggest ever investment in family violence and sexual violence support services
Set measures and targets for reducing child poverty, enshrining the former into law
Boosted funding to help Kiwi growers seize new opportunities and stay ahead of international competitors
Restored meal and rest breaks for Kiwi workers and strengthened collective bargaining
Introduced a Clean Car Discount to help Kiwi families switch to low-emissions vehicles
Supporting more Kiwis into their first homes by increasing income caps on First Home Grants and Loans
Partnering with iwi to accelerate housing projects
Stopped issuing new offshore oil and gas permits
Helping more than one million New Zealanders stay warm over colder months through the Winter Energy Payment
Delivering 1,000 additional new houses for Māori and funding repairs for whānau most in need
Established Aotearoa ki te Ao, a programme of work designed to support Māori trade opportunities
Started upgrading schools and hospitals to ensure they run on clean energy
Doubled the Resurgence Support Payment to help businesses with fixed costs through COVID
Strengthened counterterrorism laws, ensuring tools are available to intervene early and prevent harm
Phasing out the export of livestock by sea, to uphold New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare
Delivered the strongest ever protections to clean up our rivers and lakes
Put in place a new tax rate on the top 2% of earners to make sure all Kiwis are doing their bit
Rolling out a recovery plan for tourism communities, focused on the regions that need the most help
Committed to building deeper partnerships with Pacific nations and expanding our Pacific development programme
Improved access to healthy, affordable homes through investing in papakāinga and housing repair programmes
Working to secure a free trade agreement with the EU to expand our market opportunities
Established the independent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to provide system-level oversight
Committed to improving the Holidays Act to provide more certainty for employers and employees
Launched a new Cancer Action Plan and made the largest ever direct investment in new radiation machines
With the primary sector, launched Fit for a Better World – a roadmap to boost export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade
Introducing a Clean Car Import Standard to reduce emissions and Kiwis’ fuel costs
Launched and expanded Mana in Mahi, supporting employers to take on more than 4,000 apprentices
Increasing the number of Trades Academy places in secondary schools
Invested more than $120 million to improve recycling infrastructure
Launched the Housing Acceleration Fund to speed up the pace and scale of building
Made free period products available in all schools and kura, removing barriers to learning
Supporting Te Kīwai Fund, to remove barriers to tamariki and rangatahi Māori in the South Island participating in sport
Introduced learning support coordinators in schools to better support up to 300,000 children with diverse learning needs
Increasing housing supply and preventing homelessness through Te Maihi o te Whare Māori
Introduced legislation to ban harmful conversion practices
Progressed changes to enable councils to write off rates arrears on whenua Māori
Provided interest-free and low-interest loans to help more than 115,000 businesses stay afloat during COVID
Supported Air New Zealand to secure and maintain freight links with important markets through COVID
Re-entered the Pike River Mine drift to help families get closure and justice
Progressing major reforms to the health system to make healthcare accessible for all New Zealanders
Taking action to protect threatened indigenous freshwater fish
Putting our Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy into action to help make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child
Delivered on our promise to better protect security guards’ pay and working conditions
Backing Māori landowners by creating opportunities to make their land more productive
Reducing barriers to installing solar panels on residential and public buildings
Phasing out interest deductibility on residential property investments to level the playing field for first home buyers
Lifted the cap on gender affirming surgeries and increased funding for them
Upgraded our free trade agreement with China to build on the significant benefits of the existing FTA
Investing $57.3 billion in infrastructure over the next five years to secure our economic recovery
Supported more than 2,800 rangatahi Māori into employment, education or training through He Poutama Rangatahi
Funding a major redevelopment of Scott Base, which will create hundreds of jobs and safeguard our presence in Antarctica
Removed fees from NCEA and NZ Scholarship
Doubled sick leave entitlements, bringing benefits to both businesses and employees
Launched the Best Start payment, supporting parents with the costs of a newborn
Delivered pay equity for teacher aides
Working to improve kerbside recycling
Bringing in new vaping regulations to help smokers quit and stop young people starting
Backed New Zealand exporters during COVID, providing on-the-ground support to help them connect with overseas markets
Transforming the child care and protection and youth justice systems to improve outcomes for young people
Introduced new regulations to strengthen our animal welfare system
Making sure our approach to community water fluoridation is based on science and consistent across the country, to prevent tooth decay
Overhauling the Emissions Trading Scheme, to put a sinking lid on emissions for the first time
Investing in farmer-led projects to improve the health of rivers and wetlands
Designing a social unemployment insurance scheme to cushion the impact of job loss
Rolled out the National Bowel Screening Programme to nearly all DHBs
Scrapped National Standards, giving teachers more time with students
Extended free doctors’ visits for children to include 13-year-olds, reaching an extra 56,000 young people
Improved equal pay legislation to give employees in female-dominated occupations a clearer path to pay equity
Rolling out the Māori Pathways programme in our prisons, to reduce reoffending and improve outcomes for whānau
Took more than 60,000 newly prohibited firearms out of circulation through gun buy-backs
Extended the pay equity settlement for care and support workers to include mental health and addiction support workers
Acted on recommendations from the Commerce Commission market study into retail fuel to give Kiwis a fairer deal at the pump
Introduced the Families Package, the biggest boost in household income in a decade for thousands of families
Launched the Progressive Home Ownership scheme that will support thousands of families who couldn’t otherwise afford a home
Improving outcomes for New Zealanders with disabilities by establishing a new Ministry for Disabled People
Expanding mental health support in schools across the country through the rollout of Mana Ake
Backing more initiatives to boost New Zealand’s food and fibre sector workforce
Building new schools and classrooms for 100,000 students
Committed $1.3 billion to support Pacific nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change
Implementing our Healthy Homes Standards that require all rentals to be safe, warm and dry
Indexing Childcare Assistance income thresholds to increases in the average wage, benefiting around 1,000 families
Launched an independent review into Pharmac to ensure it’s working optimally to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders
Made record investments to rebuild our rundown hospitals and health facilities
Banned military-style semi-automatic weapons, magazines and parts
Implemented our Healthy Active Learning programme across more than 300 schools and kura, with a further 500 set to benefit by 2024
Introduced the Clean Car Discount to help Kiwi families switch to low-emissions vehicles
Agreed to strengthen our bilateral cooperation with the EU on emissions trading systems
Made sure families aren’t penalised if parents have an additional child while on benefit
Investing in roads, schools and hospitals through the New Zealand Upgrade Programme
Extended the bright-line test to 10 years, to dampen speculative demand and tilt the balance towards first home buyers
Invested significantly in rail, public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure
Brought back government funding for adult night classes, to give New Zealanders more opportunities to keep learning
Continued our commitment to Māori knowledge in science and innovation through Te Pūnaha Hihiko
Reinstated the Training Incentive Allowance for higher-skill courses, supporting around 16,000 people to retrain
Boosted funding for Pharmac to improve access to medicines for New Zealanders in need
Released a draft of the primary replacement for the Resource Management Act, bringing us one step closer to a more efficient and effective system
Helping employers keep and take on new apprentices through Apprenticeship Boost
Created more than 4,600 environmental jobs in our regions through our Jobs for Nature programme
Boosted funding for Whānau Ora to support more whānau in need
Delivered the largest ever funding boost for disability support services
Increased the number of teachers in our education system by around 2,000 over two years
Investing significantly in new and existing mental health and addiction facilities
Supporting businesses to convert their coal boilers to cleaner alternatives
Invested in iwi projects through the Provincial Growth Fund, to revitalise our regions
Established the Climate Change Commission to provide independent advice on climate action
Installed more than 250 rural mobile broadband towers to better connect our regional communities and businesses
Made changes to how councils set up local wards to ensure Māori communities have a voice at the table
Delivering targeted nationwide funding to services that provide mental health support to Rainbow young people
Laid the foundations for a new firearms registry so Police get better information on who has what firearms where
Supported more than 1.7 million jobs through higher alert levels with our wage subsidies
Almost doubled the number of adult cochlear implants delivered this year
Setting up a new mental health and wellbeing support programme for Auckland businesses affected by COVID
Supporting kōhanga reo, to ensure kaiako and kaimahi are paid fairly and facilities are in good condition
Made record infrastructure investments to resolve long-term challenges while managing the books responsibly
Boosted funding for te reo Māori initiatives in schools while growing the number of reo Māori teachers
Restarted contributions to the Super Fund, to help keep superannuation affordable
Recruited to achieve the largest and most diverse Police workforce in New Zealand history
Funding a major redevelopment of Scott Base, which will create hundreds of jobs and safeguard our presence in Antarctica
Boosted funding for GPs, pharmacies and Pharmac to help ease COVID-related pressures
Established a national energy centre in Taranaki to accelerate the development of new clean energy technologies
Secured one-way quarantine-free travel arrangements for RSE workers from parts of the Pacific
Supported our aviation sector to keep freight flowing during and post-COVID
Funding thousands more places in out of school care (OSCAR), to help low-income parents get to work or training
Created more than 4,600 environmental jobs in our regions through our Jobs for Nature programme
Rolling out the Māori Pathways programme in our prisons, to reduce reoffending and improve outcomes for whānau
Helping to drive the increased participation of women and girls in sport
Banning new low- and medium-temperature coal-fired boilers in manufacturing and production
Ramped up pest control and eradication to help make Aotearoa predator-free by 2050
Reducing the merchant service fees that banks charge businesses when customers use a credit or debit card to pay
Repealing and replacing the Resource Management Act to simplify and accelerate planning processes
Upgrading New Zealand’s water infrastructure, to keep our drinking water safe and beaches clean
Injected more than $2.1 billion into regional economies through initiatives like the Provincial Growth Fund
Making sure New Zealand history will be taught in all schools and kura by 2023
Boosted aid for our Pacific neighbours to help tackle COVID-19 and rebuild communities and economies
Strengthened laws for addressing family violence by creating new offences and making victim safety the primary consideration in bail decisions
Delivered the largest ever funding boost to primary maternity services, so kids can have the best start in life
Protecting New Zealand’s beef and dairy sectors by working collaboratively to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis
Stepping up our fight against rheumatic fever by expanding the Healthy Homes Initiative and funding vaccine development
Fast-tracked the consenting process for the much-needed rebuild of Dunedin Hospital
Made free period products available in all schools and kura, removing barriers to learning for young people
Supported insulation and heating retrofits to help keep Kiwi families warm
Backing creativity and productivity through a $300 million venture capital fund
Supporting drug-checking services to help keep people safe at large festivals and events
Making changes to help prevent migrant exploitation, protect migrants and enforce the law
Made voting easier by allowing people to enrol to vote on election day
Making sure all borrowers get the same protections, regardless of where they get their loans
Asked the Commerce Commission to carry out a market study into the grocery sector to see if Kiwis are paying a fair price at the checkout
Launched a new initiative to boost the Māori and Pāsifika midwifery workforce
Removed abortion from the Crimes Act, to make sure it’s treated as a health issue
Introduced the 105 Police non-emergency number, improving service for the public while taking pressure off 111
Increased funding for community law centres
Upgrading New Zealand’s water infrastructure, to keep our drinking water safe and beaches clean
Funded the refurbishment of 15 electric trains running between Hamilton and Palmerston North
Responded to the March 15 attack with a raft of initiatives to promote inclusion and safety for all New Zealanders
Rolling out a new frontline mental health service to make getting support easier
Working towards our goal of having one million New Zealanders speaking te reo Māori by 2040
Supporting certificated teachers on the lowest pay in early education and care to move closer to pay parity with their equivalents in kindergartens
Taking action to protect endangered Māui and Hector’s dolphins
Invested significantly in regional economies through initiatives like the Provincial Growth Fund
Started planting one billion trees, with more than 258 million already in the ground
Made the first year of study fees-free and will soon have boosted student loans and allowances by $75 a week
Removed abortion from the Crimes Act, to make sure it’s treated as a health issue
Expanded the Oranga Marae programme, supporting both the physical and cultural revitalisation of marae
Backed Kiwi research and development innovators and entrepreneurs with a substantial funding boost
Ramped up pest control programmes to protect farmers and our environment while creating jobs
Supported Māori communities in the face of COVID-19 with targeted support and advice for Māori businesses
Indexed main benefits to average wage growth for the first time in New Zealand’s history, to give those most in need a fair go
Funded more support for Kiwi kids with complex needs, as well as deaf, hard-of-hearing and low-vision students
Scrapped the sanction cutting benefit income to women who don’t declare the name of their child’s father
Declared a climate emergency to accelerate efforts to reduce our emissions
Launched our Trade Recovery Strategy to support businesses through the disruption of COVID-19 and adapt trade policy
Strengthened our national animal tracing system to help stamp out the spread of disease and protect our primary sector
Funded the removal of school donations to ease the pressure on Kiwi families
Rolling out a recovery plan for tourism communities, to re-set the industry on a more sustainable path
Rolling out more than 3,300 kilometres of road safety upgrades through the Safe Network Programme to help save lives
Upgrading rail, public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure around the country through the New Zealand Upgrade Programme
Delivering 1,000 additional new houses for Māori and funding repairs for whānau most in need
Made the wellbeing of people and our planet a key part of our economic approach
Replacing upper Waikeria prison with a modern design, including a 100-bed mental health and addiction facility
Supported more than 2,800 rangatahi Māori into employment, education or training through He Poutama Rangatahi
Making it easier for transgender, non-binary and intersex people to change their registered sex on birth certificates
Addressing food waste by redirecting food to those in need
Taking action to protect kauri trees from dieback disease
Supported more than 1.7 million jobs through higher alert levels with our wage subsidies
Lifted abatement thresholds for Working for Families tax credits, making 39,000 more families eligible
Established a $300 million venture capital fund to back Kiwi innovation
Making a record investment into critical transport infrastructure and services across Auckland
Scrapped the need for consents for low-risk building work, such as sleep-outs, sheds and carports
Pursuing ambitious trade policy to help New Zealand businesses succeed overseas
Lifted abatement thresholds so people on a benefit who are working can keep more of what they earn
Extended nurses in schools to give more young people easy access to healthcare
Made a record investment in public transport and walking and cycling improvements
Committed $50 million to helping councils fully decarbonise the public transport bus fleet by 2035
Supporting the transition to a cleaner agriculture sector with $37 million for integrated farm planning
Funding more public EV chargers around New Zealand
Working with farmers to deliver on a world-first agreement to measure, price and reduce agricultural emissions
Going hard against gangs and organised crime networks, seizing significant amounts of drugs, firearms and assets
Banned smoking in cars with children to protect young people
Set up the Suicide Prevention Office to drive action to save lives
Established Te Arawhiti, the Office for Māori Crown Relations, to help make the Crown a better Treaty partner
Quadrupling the size of our Green Investment Fund to help accelerate the use of low-emissions technologies across the economy
Reforming and investing in the Family Court to create a system that is safe and responsive to the diverse needs of the people using it
Invested in Te Huia commuter rail service, connecting Waikato and Auckland
Banned unfair letting fees and no-cause tenancy terminations
Released recommendations on the next steps for Auckland light rail, a necessary investment to ease congestion and future-proof our biggest city
Made it easier for Kiwis to buy their first home by stopping foreign speculators from buying houses here and driving up prices
Strengthened our health workforce by adding more doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health workers
Making it easier for transgender, non-binary and intersex people to change their registered sex on birth certificates