Advocacy update – July 2026

In this update you’ll find information on:

• What’s new since the last update?
• Upcoming priorities
• Government decisions that impact you 

What’s new since the last update?

We’ve put the profession’s interests squarely in front of political parties in election year and are supporting members to understand and engage in the key election issues.

Key highlights:

Elections 2026
In June, Chief Executive Richard Templer held a series of interviews with senior politicians from six parties to get them to outline how their plans will affect engineering. Each politician brought their own personality and perspective to issues facing our profession. We are publishing recordings of the interviews on our website throughout July.

The New Zealand’s big infrastructure debate with Stuff is happening on Thursday 6 August.  This is an Engineering New Zealand initiative bringing together senior politicians to talk about how they will address New Zealand’s infrastructure challenge. We’re excited to partner with Stuff to deliver the event, with senior journalist Rebecca Wright MCing the debate.

You can watch the interviews and register for the live debate on our election page.

Budget 2026
The Government released Budget 2026 on 28 May. While it was considered a modest budget for constrained times, there’s still lot in it that affects the engineering profession. Read a summary of our top takeaways for engineers.

University Insights Report
A pipeline of new talent is crucial to the future of the profession. We identified that there needs to be much better data on what is happening in engineering education to inform decisions. As part of this work, we recently published the Engineering Education in New Zealand Report. The Report highlights encouraging growth in engineering graduates, while also revealing the challenges that continue to limit the pipeline of future engineers.

We’re hearing consistent concerns that students are struggling to secure their practical hours required to graduate and find employment after study. We’ve been actively highlighting this issue, including through RNZ's recent coverage.

We’re continuing to look at ways we can we can work with industry and universities to support new engineers, particularly in tough economic times. It’s critical that we support a pipeline of new talent into the profession as demand for engineers ramps up in the coming years and decades. We’re looking forward to sharing further updates as this work progresses.

Cross government and sector engagement
Recent meetings with key stakeholders from across the motu to advocate on your behalf include:

• Hon Simon Court, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Infrastructure and RMA Reform, to discuss challenges and opportunities for the delivery of large-scale infrastructure in New Zealand
• Geoff Cooper, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, to discuss how Engineering New Zealand can support implementation of the National Infrastructure Plan
• Gillian Blythe, Chief Executive of Water New Zealand, where we talked about how our organisations can best work together to advocate for a stable, long-term infrastructure pipeline
• Peter Harris, Chair of the New Zealand Standards Approval Board, to discuss opportunities for improving New Zealand’s outdated standards system
• Engineers Australia, where we discussed shared challenges across occupational regulation and mutual recognition of engineers working in, or planning to work in, Australia.

Upcoming priorities 

• Ministerial meetings:
• 30 July – meeting with Hon Chris Penk, Minister for Building and Construction, to discuss proposed Building Act amendments (read more on this below)
• 4 August – meeting with Hon Cameron Brewer, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, to discuss opportunities to reform New Zealand’s standards system.
• Submission on the Building Act Amendment Bill – the Building Act Amendment Bill proposes significant reform of the building system, including a change in liability settings for defective building work. We are focussed on engaging with experts to develop a high-quality submission for the Select Committee’s consideration – read the Bill here.  Consultation has now opened, submissions close 15 November.
• Other planned government reforms – we’re keeping a close watch on other planned government reforms of importance to the engineering profession, including proposed structural change to local government, new national directions for resource management, and proposed amendments to fire regulations.
• Briefings to incoming Ministers – work is already underway to brief the new Government on our profession’s priorities after the election in November. Central to this work is briefing new Ministers on the key issues and opportunities for engineers. We’re hosting a series of workshops with members from late July into August to hear your views on this important mahi – look out for our expression of interest email if you’d like to be involved.

Government decisions that impact you

There are a range of new government decisions that may impact you. We’re expecting the list to grow as the Government tries to progress as much work as possible before the election.

• Government response to the National Infrastructure Plan – After a huge effort from the Infrastructure Commission, the Government has officially responded to the National Infrastructure Plan. This is the last significant milestone before the Government begins implementing the plan’s recommendations. Read our summary of the Government’s response. We’ll continue to keep you updated as work on the Plan progresses.
• Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill passed – This legislation shifts the focus of the Act on to ‘critical risks’, makes changes to the approved codes of practice regime, and amendments that aim to reduce burden on small businesses (we were opposed to this change – read our submission on the Bill). These changes come into effect on 1 April 2027. Find detailed information about the changes on MBIE’s website.
• Earthquake Prone Building Bill progressing through Parliament – This Bill makes significant changes to how earthquake prone buildings are managed in New Zealand. The intention is to make a more proportionate and risk-based regulatory system for managing earthquake-prone buildings, regulating only high-risk building types in medium and high seismic zones (read our submission on the Bill). If the Bill passes (which is expected within the next few weeks), changes would come into effect on 1 July 2027. We are also expecting consultation to start on the methodology in the coming months – we’ll keep you updated when this opens.
• Emergency Management Bill (No 2) also progressing through Parliament – This Bill makes significant changes to New Zealand’s emergency management system, aiming to clarify responsibilities across national, regional and local levels, improve planning, and reduce disruption to essential services during emergencies. Select Committee has reported back on the Bill with some positive changes, including broader civil liability protection for good-faith preventive action, stronger links between emergency management and local government planning, and a potential pathway for more technical expertise on Emergency Management Committees (read our submission on the Bill). We’ll let you know once the Bill has passed.

If you want to know more about advocacy or want to get involved, get in touch at advocacy@engineeringnz.org.