Act Party to campaign on new three strikes regime for burglary

The Act Party has promised to take a new three strikes regime to the election focused on burglary.

The party says its policy will require a minimum three-year prison sentence with no parole for anyone convicted of burglary three times.

The coalition Government re-instigated the existing three strikes regime this term, although only aggravated burglary is covered. Act’s policy promises to add ordinary burglary.

Anyone convicted of burglary three times would receive a minimum sentence of three years in prison, with no parole, no home detention, and no early release.

Act says it will apply both to someone facing their third conviction or to someone facing a single conviction of three or more counts of burglary.

An aggravated burglary would count as a strike in both the burglary three strikes regime and the old three strikes regime.

Judges would still retain full discretion to impose any sentence between the three-year minimum and the 10-year maximum.

The policy was launched by Act’s deputy leader Nicole McKee.

“Your home should be the one place where you feel safe.

“It’s the place where you keep the things you’ve worked for, your family’s memories, and the people you care about most. That sense of security should be absolute, but it’s undermined by every burglary in our neighbourhoods,” she said in a statement.

Citing Corrections’ 2024/25 annual report, McKee argued that burglary was a recidivist offence.

Data from that annual report showed that 56.8% of people released from prison for burglary are back behind bars within two years, and 73.3% are resentenced

“In 2025, 184,000 New Zealanders were victims of burglary. Burglary is a recidivist crime, with the majority of people released from prison for burglary sent back to prison within two years. Nearly three-quarters are resentenced. Around one in four burglary victims have already been burgled before,” McKee said.

“ACT will unlock the potential of the justice system to protect victims, not make excuses for criminals,” she said.

The coalition’s three budgets have each included funding for Corrections to deal with the growing prisoner population.

At the end of the current financial year, the annual Corrections budget will be $330 million higher than when the coalition took office.

McKee said the cost of the policy was hard to model but that it could cost up to $200m a year at the upper end.

McKee based this costing on about 1800 people being convicted of burglary last year of which 925 went to prison — although not all of these 925 people would be on their “third strike” if the policy went ahead.