What we
stand for.

A productive, environmentally sustainable economy operated in the interests of all New Zealanders to ensure secure, well-paid jobs and a fair distribution of wealth.

As a wealthy but small country, Aotearoa New Zealand has been easy prey for the large, multinational corporations that have come to prominence globally over the past several decades.

Where once we were a “farm, forest, and mine” for Britain, unrestricted “free trade” since the 1980s has locked our country into these traditional low-value-add industries, alongside many developing countries.

Selling houses back-and-forth to one another and creating new tourism ventures is not the path to a modern, high-income society.

If we want to retain our first-world status, we need to expand our economic horizons through bold, long-term economic planning.

We must reduce our dependence on imports by focusing on producing locally where possible. We should also support the development of industries that can carve out a niche internationally.

Underpinning this vision of a productive, self-sufficient economy must be a high-quality, affordable transport system and a future-proofed national infrastructure.

Achieving this means returning to public ownership and control of key national and local assets, especially of water, electricity, telecommunications, railways, coastal shipping, ports, and airports.

Private and public-private models of asset ownership and management have consistently failed to deliver the high-quality, affordable services New Zealanders deserve, while the returns on these assets have been siphoned offshore.

Despite the promise of a better deal for New Zealanders through increased competition, the commercialisation of the formerly publicly owned electricity system since the 1980s has led to a doubling of the cost of electricity in real terms over the same period.

The Alliance was founded around the principle of public ownership and control.

We have consistently campaigned to prevent the sale of public assets and have called for the return of privatised assets to public ownership.

The intentional running-down by successive governments of a once-thriving freight and passenger rail service and domestically flagged coastal shipping industry in favour of the inefficient and environmentally degrading aviation and trucking industries has been a disaster for our country.

Our country’s rail and shipping industries have succeeded before – if we’ve done it once, we can do it again!

By ensuring workers’ rights are properly protected in legislation and by revitalising the trade union movement, we can ensure the pay and conditions of all workers, especially those in low paid and insecure jobs, are improved.

Aotearoa New Zealand has a low-productivity problem in no small measure because employers have little incentive to invest in labour-saving technology and processes; employers have been able to keep their profits high by working employees harder and longer for relatively little.

The Alliance will end the gravy train for uncompetitive employers: businesses will be expected to invest and innovate instead of taking a short-cut to profitability by short-changing their workers.

The government’s recent attack on pay equity, taking women workers in our country back 50 years, to fill a self-inflicted budget shortfall, highlights the gendered nature of inequality.

Any efforts to improve pay and conditions of workers must also aim to redress the structural gender and racial disparities in the labour market.

Free education for all, from primary through tertiary level.

Free education is a right not a privilege; it is the backbone of a vibrant civil society and a productive economy.

High quality and free health care.

All people have a right to good health care.

By providing all New Zealanders with a high-quality health service, free at all levels of care, we avoid the needless suffering and waste of taxpayers’ dollars that results from treatable illnesses worsening due to poor access to healthcare.

Affordable housing for all people.

Home ownership is key to New Zealanders’ financial security and provides them with many quiet dignities. All New Zealanders should be able to afford their own home.

An Aotearoa New Zealand free from the scourge of poverty, where all people enjoy a good standard of living.

People experiencing unemployment, temporarily or long-term (through disability, solo childcare, etc.), should be supported not demonised.

A high-quality public media.

With traditional, profit-driven media in decline, becoming increasingly sensationalist and captured by big business interests, the public lacks an impartial media platform that holds the wealthy and the politicians’ feet to the fire.

Only a properly funded, publicly owned media organisation can prevent the regression of Aotearoa New Zealand’s media into an echo chamber of the rich and powerful.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a core constitutional document in this land, and the basis for a shared future between tangata whenua and all other people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Land claims and other breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi must be redressed, Māori customary rights safeguarded, and Māoritanga and Te Reo Māori promoted as the first culture and language of Aotearoa New Zealand.

A prosperous economy and a stable society in the future requires a natural world in balance.

Environmental degradation and climate change pose an existential threat to every aspect of our society.

We must deploy a raft of adaptation strategies to adjust to the increasingly extreme weather brought about by a changing climate.

At the same time, we must do our bit in the global effort to mitigate climate change to prevent the worst-case scenario of untrammelled global warming.

A just transition to a net-zero economy is needed to support workers in fossil fuel-based industries to retrain for new well-paid, secure jobs.

Safe and secure communities.

Ultimately, it is only by ensuring our communities enjoy well-paid jobs and free education and health care that crime rates will reduce and our communities become safer.

A thriving national democracy requires healthy local democracy.

Those who know best what communities need are those that live in them. Local communities should own and control services such as water, waste disposal, and public transport.

Ensure a well-resourced and capable public service to deliver first-class services.

The public service is not a business; corporatised government departments led by CEOs are not able to deliver the free and frank advice that governments of both political stripes need to make evidence-based decisions.

The public service needs to return to a public good-centred model, with expertise developed in-house rather than farmed out to expensive consultancies, and leadership chosen from the ranks based on technical know-how and merit rather than business acumen and promises of (false) economy.

Play our part in world affairs by helping to build a better world for all, free of war, inequality and injustice.

The global political order is being reshaped by authoritarians – in the west and east – Aotearoa New Zealand must stand for democracy, peace, and justice for all.

Our country should be non-aligned, the defence force re-focused on defence of our region rather than foreign adventurism, and we should deepen our ties with our Pacific neighbours.