Patch 2024.06

June 2024 proposals

Proposed bills would bring back three strikes, allow charter schools, repeal therapeutic-products rules, expand Hauraki Gulf protections, and end marriages after family violence.

• Repeat serious offenders could face three strikes — The proposal would bring back tougher sentencing consequences for people convicted of repeat serious violent or sexual offending.
• Charter schools could return — The proposal would create publicly funded charter schools, allow State schools to convert, and change attendance data rules.
• Proposal to repeal therapeutic products law — The proposal would repeal the Therapeutic Products Act, leaving current medicines and dietary supplement rules in place temporarily.
• More Hauraki Gulf areas would be protected — The proposal would expand marine protection, banning removal of marine life in some areas and damaging seafloor activities in others.
• Marriage could end after family violence — The proposal would let protected people seek dissolution of a marriage or civil union without waiting two years apart.
• Social worker rules would be updated — The proposal would make 16 minor policy and technical changes to how social workers are registered and regulated.
• Proposal to regulate property managers dropped — The proposal was dropped; it would have set minimum entry requirements and regulated residential property managers.
• Local polls on Māori wards proposed — The proposal would restore binding local polls on whether councils have Māori wards or Māori constituencies.
• Agriculture would leave emissions trading scheme — The proposal would remove emissions reporting and payment obligations for agricultural processors and farmers from the emissions scheme.
• Overseas investment rules for rentals eased — The proposal would remove some barriers to overseas investment in large-scale build-to-rent housing developments.
• Courts could stop litigation abuse — The proposal would let judges stop people taking further court steps when they use proceedings to harass or harm others.
• Government spending authority renewed — The proposal would let the Government keep spending and investing before the main annual funding law is passed.