Electoral (District Boundaries) Amendment Bill
This bill changes when New Zealand reviews and redraws the boundaries of electoral districts — the areas that decide how many MPs represent different parts of the country. Currently, reviews happen after each five-yearly census (a national population count). From 2030, reviews will instead happen once every two parliamentary terms (roughly every six years). The change is linked to a move away from the traditional full census to a new system using government data collected every year.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it, and the parts of the text that show it.
The bill changes how population data used for drawing electoral boundaries is collected, moving from a traditional full census to annually published government statistics.
replaces the existing requirement for electoral boundary reviews to be conducted after each periodical census (which are currently conducted every 5 years) with a new requirement to conduct an electoral boundary review during every second parliamentary term, from 2030
From 2030, the 5-yearly full enumeration census model will be replaced by ongoing data collection and publication on an annual basis.
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
This bill is open for public submissions to the Justice Committee. Anyone can tell the committee what they think, and you don’t need to be an expert. Submissions close 14 April 2026.
Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.