Law and order was the issue that dominated the 2023 campaign. Two days out from this election it barely rates, yet the policies on offer would reshape what happens in the Invercargill and Gore courtrooms and at Invercargill Prison for years to come.

The Ipsos Issues Monitor put crime and law and order at 40 per cent of New Zealanders' top concerns just before the 2023 election, according to NZ Herald reporting from mid-October. By September this year the figure had dropped to 15 per cent, making it only the eighth most pressing issue. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith described that fall as a "mark of progress" for the Government.

That shift helps explain why Labour went into the campaign without a dedicated law and order package. NZ Herald found nothing under police, justice or corrections on the party's policy pages in mid-October; Labour said its priorities lay in household costs, work, health and housing. After a televised debate, leader Chris Hipkins said Labour's emphasis was on preventing crime and promised more detail later. The party has said it would scrap the Government's military-style boot camps for young offenders, and it has promised a new corporate homicide offence under its workplace safety policy.

At the other end of the spectrum sits NZ First. Winston Peters announced the party's package in West Auckland on 22 October, RNZ reported, promising a degrees-of-murder regime under which the time a murderer must serve before parole can be considered would double to 20 years, double the current 10,. Under that plan, a first-degree murder conviction, or the rape or murder of a child, would mean life behind bars with no prospect of parole. The party also wants judges bound to impose at least eight years without parole for a fatal coward punch, an inquiry into so-called stand your ground self-defence laws, a dedicated organised crime agency, and the abolition of the Serious Fraud Office in favour of a police division. Peters said the aim was a system in which "victims of crime are prioritised over offenders".

National's list, as summarised in RNZ's crime and justice policy guide, is narrower. It would remove good character as a mitigating factor when sentencing for any sexual offence, create a new offence for people who stay silent about what they know when a child under 12 is killed at a place where they were present, and fund a 50-officer police team for Auckland's public transport network at $7 million a year from Budget 2027. ACT's policies in the guide include $2 million for 20 relocatable noise cameras, a Working with Children Card to replace repeated police checks, and constitutional principles that would restrict courts from considering tikanga. The guide lists no crime or justice policies for the Greens, while Te Pāti Māori wants prisons phased out altogether by 2040 and replaced with programmes run by communities.

For Southland, several of those promises land close to home. Invercargill Prison is the region's only prison, and any move to lengthen murder sentences or to close prisons entirely would eventually be felt there. Budget 2026 already set aside $487 million to cope with prison population pressures, including hundreds of extra prison officers, as part of a $1.3 billion law and order package announced in May.

The coalition's headline promise of 500 extra frontline police within two years was officially missed last November. RNZ reported at the time that Treasury expected the target to be reached by September this year, with 10,449 full-time constables on the books in mid-November 2025 and about 313 recruits in training. Southland's officers are part of the Southern police district, which covers Otago and Southland and is headquartered in Dunedin.

The newest law to arrive on the beat is already in use. Police told RNZ on Tuesday they had issued 29 move-on orders since the power took effect on 25 October, most of them in Wellington, then Auckland and Canterbury, with 19 for disorderly, intimidating or threatening behaviour and none so far for begging or rough sleeping. Police did not give a figure for the Southern district.

Advance voting continues until Friday, and election day is Saturday 7 November.