For our democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us. We need leaders who remove barriers to people engaging in our democracy, not create new ones.
But last year we saw the leaders of this Government choose to do exactly that.
The Electoral Amendment Bill, passed at the end of 2025, made significant changes to general election rules, including shifting the enrolment deadline to 13 days before election day. That means no more enrolling or updating your details on election day, something 110,000 people did on election day 2023.
Even the Government’s own Attorney-General Judith Collins has warned these changes breach the Bill of Rights and risk silencing tens of thousands of voters. She found that the reforms would likely be inconsistent with the right to vote and lacked sufficient justification.
Let’s be clear: this is voter suppression! It mirrors what far-right governments around the world are doing: consolidating power by discouraging democratic participation.In response, over 10,000 people from our community came together behind a petition calling on the bill to be dropped.
The Electoral Amendment Bill is just one of many that has been pushed through under urgency in this Government’s term. In just its first 17 weeks, it passed 14 laws under urgency—without full public consultation or proper scrutiny. That’s more than many previous governments did across an entire term.
Over the past two years we’ve also seen both Deputy Prime Ministers act in ways that undermine trust and integrity of democracy.
Throughout this Government’s term, senior Ministers have repeatedly spread disinformation, harassed others, and fuelled division for political gain. Such behaviour breaches both the spirit and the letter of the Cabinet Manual, which requires Ministers to act with integrity, respect and fairness at all times.
In December we supported former MP Louisa Wall and former Mayor of Pōneke Tory Whanau in delivering their petitions calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to take responsibility.
For our democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us. It is clear that in 2026, the ActionStation community will have to fight to protect it.