2025/26 Key operational and performance highlights

Vote: Building and construction

Building and construction portfolio

• Introduced an exemption from building consent requirements for new standalone dwellings of up to 70m² (such as granny flats).
• Recognised more than 130,700 overseas building products through WaterMark certification.
• Enacted the Building and Construction Sector (Self-Certification by Plumbers and Drainlayers) Amendment Act 2026, reducing compliance costs and consenting requirements.
• Progressed legislative changes relating to earthquake prone buildings, licensed building practitioners and electrical workers.
• Progressed legislation to introduce proportionate liability in the building and construction sector.
• Reduced the median age of open building determinations from 95 days to 22 days. No determinations were successfully appealed, meeting the target of less than 2%.
• Building consent authorities completed 98.3% of building inspections within three working days.
• Completed 369 investigations across the Electrical Workers and Building Practitioners schemes.
• User satisfaction with building control information increased to 77%, exceeding the 72% target and improving on the previous year.

Housing portfolio

Tenancy

• Launched Bond Hub and Pet Bonds, modernising tenancy bond services for customers, enabling legacy technology to be decommissioned, improving data quality, transparency and service delivery.
• Reduced tenancy mediation wait times by more than 50%.
• Settled 85.7% of dispute resolution mediations, meeting the 85% target.
• Completed Residential Tenancies Act 1986 compliance work on 8,151 properties.
• Compliance action taken by MBIE contributed to the Tenancy Tribunal awarding more than $746,000 in damages.

Emergency accommodation

• Activated the Temporary Accommodation Service for 6 weather events during 2025/26, while also continuing to support households still displaced by earlier events. MBIE contacted all registered Temporary Accommodation Service users within 5 working days, exceeding the 75% target.
• Approved 31 Temporary Accommodation Service properties for divestment, delivering ongoing community benefit.

Vote: Labour Market

ACC portfolio

• Updated Schedule 2 of the Accident Compensation Act 2001, adding 12 new or expanded occupational disease and exposure pairings to streamline ACC work injury claims.
• Supported the development of the Board-led ACC Turnaround Plan.

Immigration portfolio

• More than 1 million visa applications were decided for people to visit, work, study or live in New Zealand including:
  • More than 460,000 visitor visa applications
    (89% approved)
  • More than 103,000 student visas (90% approved)
  • More than 51,900 Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) (91% approved)
  • Approximately 44,000 working holiday visa applications (98% approved)
  • More than 17,800 Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) applications (99% approved)
• More than 1.7 million New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) requests were issued, including more than 101,000 eligible China and Pacific nationals able to travel from Australia with an NZeTA.
• More than 16,000 employers became accredited, or had their accreditation renewed under the AEWV policy, which brought the total number of current accredited employers to nearly 30,000.
• More than 1,500 refugees made New Zealand their home through New Zealand’s Refugee Quota Programme and the Community Refugee Sponsorship programme.
• 25 people were successfully prosecuted for breaching immigration laws, from 17 investigations.
• 167 infringement notices were issued for immigration offences, totalling NZD $641,000.
• Transitioned international student visas and family of temporary visa holder visas onto the Enhanced Immigration Online platform.

Social development and employment portfolio

• Partnered with the energy and space and advanced aviation industry to facilitate industry-led, government-supported strategic workforce plans.
• Set up monitoring of the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labour market.
• Provided advice to Ministers on key ministerial priorities (including a workforce planning mechanism) and emerging issues (including the labour market implications of rising fuel prices).
• Supported new initiatives and policies led by other portfolio Ministers that are important for labour market performance, including the ongoing work of the Youth Guarantee scheme.
• 19 Tupu Tai interns successfully completed a summer internship, exceeding the target of 15.

Workplace relations and safety portfolio

• Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 was passed, which will increase flexibility and certainty for business.
• Reforms to Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to better focus business on critical risks.
• New Employment Leave Act 2026 to simplify and clarify leave entitlements.
• Reduced Employment Relations Authority reporting processing times from 13 hours to 2 hours, improving efficiency by 80%.
• Delivered 48,911 interventions supporting employment relationships and standards with 86.4% of interventions resulting in a positive outcome or other resolution, establishing baselines for future reporting.
• Customer satisfaction with the quality and timeliness of employment relations services was 81.5%, exceeding the 80% target.

Vote: Business, Science and Innovation

Auckland portfolio

• Supported development of the Auckland City and Regional Deal to strengthen the partnership between central government and Auckland Council.
• Produced a consolidated view of government activity and investment across Auckland to improve transparency and public understanding.
• Coordinated cross agency engagement on Auckland's key economic, infrastructure and growth priorities.

Commerce and consumer affairs portfolio

Standards

• New trans-Tasman standards agreement implemented to strengthen the Single Economic Market.
• 25% increase in joint trans-Tasman standards activity since January 2026.
• 57 international technology standards adopted in New Zealand.
• Record 448 standards published, with 98% aligned to trans-Tasman or international standards.

Companies Office

• 62,000+ company registrations completed, bringing the total number of registered companies to 756,000+.

Insolvency and Trustee Service

• $14.2 million in dividends returned to creditors across personal and company insolvency procedures.

Measurement and Verification Services

• 710 fuel samples tested and 8,300+ standards verified to support industry compliance and quality.

Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ)

• 24,400+ trademark applications processed.
• 4,500+ patent applications processed.
• 1,450+ design applications processed.
• 69 plant variety rights applications processed.
• Met 80.5% of agreed quality and timeliness standards across intellectual property types, exceeding the 75% target.

Consumer Protection and Product Safety

• 182 product recalls published to help protect consumers.
• 20 voluntary recalls issued for 43,000 asbestos-contaminated coloured sand products.
• Button Battery Safety campaign reached 3.8 million people, with around 70% reporting safer behaviours.
• Toy Safety Week delivered with partner organisations to improve consumer awareness.
• Say Something youth campaign to encourage young people to actively resolve consumer problems reached 186,000 people on Instagram and generated 627,000 TikTok views.
• Fraud Awareness Week achieved a 56.5% increase in engagement and 200% increase in media coverage.

Consumer Data Rights – Open Banking

• Open banking implemented in four designated banks, with Kiwibank also starting rollout in May 2026.
• 11 fintech companies accredited to participate in the regulated open banking regime.
• Open banking services enabled for more than 50 organisations.

Economic growth portfolio

• Coordinated the Government’s Going For Growth programme, which brings together actions intended to support near-term economic growth and address New Zealand’s longer-term productivity challenge.
• Developed an all-of-government digital platform to improve business visibility and access to grants, funds and equity scheme.
• Launched the Scout fund, a pilot pre-seed fund by New Zealand Growth Capital (NZGCP) to provide initial commercialisation capital to promising New Zealand startups.
• Updated the International Screen Production Rebate to maintain New Zealand’s competitiveness and attractiveness for global screen productions.
• Supported new initiatives and policies led by other portfolio Ministers that are important for economic growth, such as planning reforms and fast-track, science system reforms, KiwiSaver settings, foreign investment, immigration settings, competition settings, trade agreements, and economic security and resilience.
• Led the Government’s fuel security response.

New Zealand Government Procurement

• Introduced the fifth edition of the Government Procurement Rules.
• Launched interactive government spend dashboards.
• Achieved 78% satisfaction with all-of-government contracts, exceeding the 70% target.

Emergency management and recovery portfolio

• GeoNet’s rapid detection and analysis of the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake tsunami in July 2025 provided critical early warning, supported the national response, and enhanced New Zealand’s tsunami preparedness.

Energy portfolio

• Managed the Middle East Fuel Response, including establishing New Zealand's strategic diesel reserve of approximately 90 million litres of diesel and delivering a Fuel Response Plan.
• Supported work to increase electricity generation and storage capacity through easing regulatory constraints, enabling the rapid delivery of a development pipeline of 2,800 megawatts across geothermal, wind, solar, and battery projects. The pipeline is expected to add around 4,500 gigawatt hours (GWh) of annual generation between 2026 and 2029.
• Responded to the Government’s Independent Review of Electricity Market Performance and delivered the Government’s Energy Package.
• Progressed the procurement process for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
• Progressed a regulatory framework for dry years including consulting on the Winter Energy Reliability Obligation.
• Passed the Offshore Renewable Energy Act 2026, which will enable offshore wind developments.
• Continued growth in distributed energy resources, with around 80,700 rooftop solar installations connected nationwide, including around 18,600 solar-plus-battery systems as of August 2026, supported by measures such as an increased voltage range on electricity networks, increased solar export limits, removing requirements for building consents for rooftop solar, and launching a Solar on Schools programme.
• Supported the Gas Transition Loan Guarantee Scheme to enable businesses to reduce reliance on gas.
• Completed the update of the Electricity (Hazards from Trees) Regulations 2003, to reduce the effect of big storms on electricity lines.
• Passed the Gas (Market Transparency) Amendment Act 2026 to collect and publish information to improve gas market transparency.
• Published the Wood Energy Strategy and Action Plan and the Government Statement on Biogas to support the development of domestic bioenergy markets.

Media and communications portfolio

• Reviewed the Postal Deed of Understanding between the Crown and NZ Post.
• Supported the introduction and select committee consideration of two telecommunications amendment Bills.
• Opened radio spectrum in multiple bands to increase the availability of satellite services in New Zealand.
• Supported competition in mobile and fixed wireless access services through allocation of spectrum in the 2300 megahertz and 2600 megahertz bands to the three mobile network operators.
• Advanced the renewal of around 1,000 AM and FM radio licences.
• Resolved 118 radio spectrum interference cases.
• NZ Relay service quality levels were met or exceeded 99.6% of the time.

Public service and digitising government portfolio

Government Property Office

• Reduced Wellington office footprint by 28,000m².
• $13.7 million in annual savings expected by mid-2027.
• Introduced new government property standards and guidance.

Regional development portfolio

• $5.39 billion approved for 2,865 regional development projects.
• Economic modelling undertaken in June 2026 estimates these regional development investments supported an estimated 62,000+ full-time equivalent (FTE) roles.
• 145 Regional Infrastructure Fund projects approved, with $1,061.7 million committed.
• 12 flood resilience projects completed.
• Supported administration of the $200 million Gas Security Fund with 14 expressions of interest received.
• $80 million allocated to three projects to support critical minerals extraction and semi-processing.
• $60 million committed to drilling New Zealand’s first superhot deep geothermal well.

Resources portfolio

• Published New Zealand’s Geothermal Strategy, with a goal to double the use of geothermal by 2040.
• Export revenue from minerals grew to $2.5 billion in 2025 (+71% on 2023), and minerals jobs increased 5.5% on 2024, under the New Zealand Minerals Strategy.
• $243 million royalties collected from permit activity.
• Passed and implemented the Crown Minerals Act 1991 reforms to accelerate minerals development and reopen petroleum exploration and production.
• Repealed the ban on new gas activity, with six Open Market Applications accepted as complete for new gas opportunities.
• 605 mineral permit applications received, up 24% on the previous year.
• 73% of minerals permit applications decided within 120 days.
• MBIE conducted annual review meetings for 89% of petroleum permits and licences, against a target of 60%; up from 76% in 2024/25.
• Iwi were consulted on all relevant applications within their Rohe and provided with at least 20 working days to respond.

Science, innovation and technology portfolio

• Progressed the largest science system reform in more than 30 years, with $1.9 billion science, innovation and technology funding system to strengthen innovation and economic impact.
• Delivered more than $380 million through the research and development (R&D) tax incentives.
• Supported 162 startups through incubator and accelerator programmes, 1,655 through coaching programmes, and 213 organisations through New to R&D Grants.
• Supported the establishment of Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Technology Advisory Council to advise on system strategy and investment priorities.
• Published the Science Investment Plan setting science, innovation and technology (SI&T) investment priorities for 2026-2036.
• Research Funding New Zealand established, creating a single decision-maker for science and research funding.

Small business and manufacturing portfolio

• Nearly 114,000 businesses registered to receive eInvoicing, with over 1 million eInvoices received by businesses during the year.
• 118,000 businesses used Business Connect to access 96 government services.
• The New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) reached 1 million registrations.
• Expanded the Regional Business Partner Network AI Advisory Pilot from 51 to 150 Small and Medium Term Enterprises (SMEs).
• Business.govt.nz achieved 1.9 million website sessions and a customer satisfaction rating of 4.5 out of 5.
• Provided manufacturing support through Advancing Manufacturing Aotearoa and expanded the Digital Manufacturing Light programme to help SMEs adopt productivity-enhancing technologies.

Social development and employment portfolio

• Highlights are covered under Vote Labour Market.

Trade and investment portfolio

• Launched Invest New Zealand to support efforts to attract high-value foreign investment.
• Progressed work to reduce trade barriers and strengthen market access for exporters.

Space portfolio

• Granted 27 permits and licences as well as 11 variations.
• Supported 16 orbital launches during the year (third in the world by territory of launch).
• Implemented a new, world-leading ground-based space infrastructure (GBSI) regulatory system to protect New Zealand’s national security and other national interests.
• Launched a pilot scheme, the Kiwi Space Activator, to put New Zealand space and advanced aviation company technology into orbit or high altitude.
• Reduced processing times for payload permitting decisions to 5.91 weeks to 30 June 2026 compared with an informal target of 12 weeks at the start of the year.
• 20 research organisations and companies joined New Zealand’s largest delegation yet at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney in October 2025.

Tourism and hospitality portfolio

• Implemented Tourism Growth Roadmap to support the Government's goal of doubling tourism export earnings over 10 years.
• Developed the Tourism Policy Statement to set a clear, long-term direction for tourism in New Zealand.
• Delivered Major Events and Tourism Package and invested $35 million from the International Visitor Levy in demand generation, regional tourism infrastructure and system capability.
• Strengthened international tourism connections with China and the United States of America through ministerial visits and delegations.
• Launched the Government-Industry Cruise Forum to bring together Ministers, government agencies and industry to strengthen New Zealand’s position as a cruise destination.
• Worked with industry to implement the extended timeframe for the self-contained vehicle certification system to come fully into effect to ensure more vehicles met the warrant requirement to freedom camp.
• Introduced three new tourism datasets: Tourism Volumes and Flows, the Domestic Visitor Survey and the Tourism Sentiment Survey.
• Supported hospitality and visitor-sector initiatives, including preparations to bring the Michelin Guide to New Zealand and the 2026 Hospitality Summit.

South Island portfolio

• MBIE supports the South Island ministerial portfolio by providing departmental advice, fortnightly reports, and managing official information releases.

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