Election 2026: Q&A with Act Party’s Northland candidate Mark Cameron

I think we have a lot to do in Northland. We’ve got fantastic potential. And I think if we can look at ways to protect property rights, get a bit of Government out of people’s lives, we’re all going to be the better for it.

What do you believe are the biggest law and order challenges in Northland at present, and how would you address them?

I think recidivist crime is a big problem. We’ve also got a youth crime issue in Northland. A lot of vagrancy, a lot of kids not in school.

So I think if we address attendance in schools, really look at vagrancy from organisations, working with young people is hard.

I think the police do an exceptional job and I know Mark Mitchell is over it, but it’s just one of those things we get to keep challenged by having young people especially not in schools. And I think it’s a good place to start.

What will you do to ensure the Brynderwyns alternate route progresses and is funded?

The roads of national significance. Gracious me, put a firecracker up the backside of politicians. Like, why is Northland the poor cousin the whole time?

And I’ve worked with politicians, Peeni Henare and others that are from this part of the world and they are as frustrated as I am.

So we really are vocal about the kind of funding necessary to unlock Northland and create economic opportunities.

How are you planning to address the health staffing crisis, which is leading to unsafe care in hospitals?

One of those things where we’ve actually got to get middle management out of the way. Doctors and nurses do a bloody good job. I’m a renal patient. I know this firsthand.

Medicines, you’re working with Pharmac to expedite medicines that are used in other jurisdictions. Medsafe signs them off, so let’s get the Pharmac funding.

We spend $33 billion a year on health and middle management has got to get out of the way so doctors and nurses can get on with it.

With rising living costs pushing more children and families into hardship, what is your target for reducing child material hardship by 2029 under the Child Poverty Reduction Act?

We do have a portion of New Zealand society that struggles, especially children. Quite often there is continual hardship by parents living in welfare.

We’ve got to get parents back into material income. Get jobs going. Get economic activity and opportunities growing.

There’s an old adage, rising tide lifts all boats. And I genuinely believe it. It wasn’t said 50 years ago for no reason, and it won that president the election in the United States.

It’s exactly the same here. We’ve got to get people into work. That creates opportunity. That reduces hardship.

What concrete partnerships and economic strategies will you establish or continue to strengthen with local businesses, iwi, and training providers to create direct pathways into local jobs, ensuring our young people don’t have to leave the region to build a viable career?

I think we’ve got to get kids and tools and trades joined together. We get that opportunity via the schools. The schools create the pathway and have viable partnerships with business. I think it’s fantastic. I’ve seen it before.

As to the stay in Northland thing, that only comes on the back of work opportunities. And I’ve actually gone through select committee and studied this stuff with other politicians, had people come in and say the biggest issue is job retention.

So I think there’s a combination of many things. Embolden businesses to be productive. Get out of their way. Minimise the taxable footprint so that they can get on with getting on. And reduce the red tape.

Housing affordability and availability remain major issues in the Far North. If elected, what practical steps would you take to address the housing shortage in the Far North, particularly in communities north of Kerikeri?

Two things. One, reform of the RMA. That is ridiculously onerous. We spend over $2 billion a year consenting ourselves to do stuff, including building houses.

The other thing is get parallel jurisdiction. [For instance] if we’re using those materials in jurisdictions similar to our own, building materials that is, think of Canada, the UK, Australia, we should be able to consent that kind of material here.

And if we can, we’ve got parallel jurisdiction and by virtue of that, we’ve got materials that are used all around the world. Let’s build houses.

What specific actions would you advocate for to improve the resilience and reliability of Northland’s transport network?

That’s the fundamental reality of everything in Northland, is roading. Without roading, we’re stuffed.

We’ve got to create an environment where we get rid of this nonsense about the oil and gas ban. I mean, the oil and gas ban has really hurt the production of cement, hurt the production of bitumex. Let’s get that sorted for a start.

The other thing is actually have a procurement programme that acknowledges that we need these materials and we need the land to build the roads. And it all comes back to RMA in the end.

Northland has one of the country’s highest road tolls. What role should driver education play in reducing deaths and serious injuries, and what measures would you support to improve road safety across all age groups and communities?

Without pointing fingers, I think the young people have a real issue. So I think that driver training programmes in schools would be a fundamental reality that would grow a better outcome.

I also know that topography in Northland is difficult.

So having better designed roads, and that costs money, I appreciate that, but better designed roads where we accommodate the type of rainfall, topography, etc, that we have in New Zealand and in Northland would create better outcomes. And it’s something that needs to be addressed.

How will you make it easier and more cost-effective to operate a small business?

Review employment law, review some of the red tape in and around, as I say, RMA.

Quite often building buildings is difficult. And then you’ve got all the other silly laws that we put in front of small business that make it incredibly onerous. Tax law especially.

If we had a flat tax rate, imagine what we could do. I mean, the tax rates the way they are now seem to oppress business productivity.

You talk to the average business owner, they’re pretty sick of it all. And I think if we had a flat tax rate and got rid of the red tape, just let people get on with getting on.

The New Zealand Principals’ Federation is calling for a permanent, statutory Curriculum and Assessment Council, to break the cycle of what principals have described as disruptive education reform and give schools more stability to support children’s learning. Would your party support the establishment of this?

Charter schools have been fantastic. Attendance rates are up, especially in charter schools. Why aren’t we looking at that model more and more in New Zealand?

It’s been such a success where it’s been implemented. Schools have gravitated across to that model. Why aren’t we researching how we can do something similar to that across New Zealand and get the kind of 70-80% attendance rates that we’ve got?

The curriculum is always changing because people interfere at every election. Leave it alone. Kids be kids. They are, after all, exactly the same that they were in the 70s and 80s, and we’ve interfered with that. I think we’ve got to stop it.

With the current challenges facing areas like the Whangārei CBD, what specific actions would you take to improve law and order and deliver real, measurable change in this space?

I think cops on the beat is a fantastic thing. In the good old days, we saw it all the time. Two gentlemen or a couple of ladies in their blues doing their job, and it really quelled a lot of the nonsense, petty crime.

That is always seen as a good thing. And again, get kids back in school. In the 70s and 80s, we had a lot of kids in school.

Now, attendance rates are in the 50th percentile sort of area. That’s not good enough.

And I think if we can reduce petty crime – and we’ve got the new things like move along orders – I think we’re going to clean up the streets and people are going to feel safe again.

If elected, will you support the Government’s proposed 12-month maximum repayment window for outgoing retirement village residents, or will you vote to shorten it to three months to ensure families aren’t left waiting a year for their capital?

I know the books are pretty tight and we’ve got to get them back in the black.

Yes, the Government is in a fiscal difficult position in this regard. And how quickly those funds can be returned to the actual owners is a difficult question, and I actually am not going to answer that.

I don’t know what the methodology is that’s correct. But I know in the end it comes back to property rights.

If it’s their stuff and they earned it, they deserve to have it back. And I think in a fair window, 12 months seems like a pretty long time.

The coalition Government has proposed changing Treaty obligations across 19 pieces of legislation. If elected, will your party support stronger, enduring protection of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, or should the Crown’s Treaty obligations be able to change with a parliamentary majority?

I think the Parliament is sovereign, right? So Parliament by virtue of its election result has the capacity to make the decisions that it makes on the back of what the constituency wants.

And I think in that regard, if people are saying they want full and final settlement of Māoridom issues to do with settlement agreements, and full and final means full and final and then we certainly disband the Waitangi Tribunal has been one postulation.

The question is, is what New Zealand wants. And if they want that, they’ll vote for that. If they don’t, they won’t. And I think ultimately the constituent is the ruler here.

Local maps show the proposed Conservation Amendment Bill could leave high-profile ecosystems around Cape Rēinga, Waipoua Forest and the Poutō Peninsula vulnerable to development, swap or sale. If elected, will you oppose provisions making it easier to dispose of or exchange conservation land, and how will you protect Northland’s natural landscapes from being commercialised?

I fly up and down the country and have done for six years. It’s essentially empty. That’s the first thing I’d say.

Yes, we have to protect land, but we’ve also got to have an environment where we allow economic activity. If we don’t do that, then we don’t have rights to complain.

We’ve got a country with very little money and ever increasing more pressure on economic activity. So we have to balance that.

To answer your question, we need to preserve what is unique to Northland, but not so much that we ruin opportunities for economic growth because they go hand and glove together.

As local MPs, what specific actions would you and your party take to improve the safety, wellbeing and equality of rainbow communities in Te Tai Tokerau and address the harm caused by the Gender Definition Bill?

Just let them be who they are. This is not the role for politicians to decide what people define themselves as. That’s the first thing I would say.

And, you know, the law being what the law is, freedom of movement, self-determination, is something that we’re very big on in our party.

So if people happen to be part of the rainbow community, gay, lesbian, what have you, what they define themselves as is not our affairs.

What is your stance on the Disability Support Services Bill?*

We’ve got to get indoor-outdoor access, wet-floor showers installed. We’ve really got to help especially the elderly, and it does come back to funding.

I know that, and I’ll circle back, we spend $33b on health a year, and a lot of it is locked up in middle management and bureaucracy. That’s just crap.

We’ve got to get that out of it and let people start investing in Northlanders, especially the disability community.

Let’s give them some bloody money so they can get in and out of their house, and moreover go to some of the local shops.

What will you do to make farming more viable in Northland rather than add costs and red tape?

Bugger off to the naysayers and the interfering people in Wellington. They don’t know what’s best. Farmers know what’s best for their environment. We’re a great group of Kiwis.

After all, as I said in my valedictory, the country would be on its knees without farmers. And I think the best thing to do is figure out what the problem is via the farmers.

Engage the farmers, and I think you get a better result.

And localism is far better than centralism when it comes to understanding freshwater and physical outcomes. Farmers live it every day, so leave us alone.

*Note: The Disability Services Bill has passed into law and is now the Disability Support Services Act 2026.

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.