ACT Pushes Three Strikes For Burglars

ACT wants repeat burglars locked up for three years, no exceptions.

The party will take a Three Strikes for Burglary policy to the 2026 election. Anyone convicted of burglary three times would face a minimum three-year prison sentence — no parole, no home detention, no early release.

ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee announced the policy, pointing to figures showing 184,000 New Zealanders were burglary victims in 2025. The majority of people released from prison for burglary are sent back within two years. Nearly three-quarters are resentenced. Around one in four victims have been burgled before.

"Judges keep using their leeway to give burglars more chances, and the burglars keep reoffending," McKee said.

The policy would apply to anyone facing a third burglary conviction, or to someone convicted of three or more counts of burglary in a single case. An aggravated burglary would also trigger a strike under both this regime and the existing Three Strikes regime for violent crime. Judges would retain full discretion to sentence anywhere between the three-year floor and the existing 10-year maximum.

McKee framed it as prevention over deterrence.

"This policy is not primarily about deterring crime. It is about preventing it. Imprisoning repeat burglars will protect New Zealanders from a small group of offenders who have shown, time after time, that they have no respect for other people's homes or property. They will not be able to victimise us from a jail cell."

She was blunt about the politics of it too. "Your home should be the one place where you feel safe. It's the place where you keep the things you've worked for, your family's memories, and the people you care about most. That sense of security should be absolute, but it's undermined by every burglary in our neighbourhoods."

The recidivism numbers are the crux of ACT's argument. If the existing system keeps releasing the same offenders back into the same neighbourhoods, the case for a hard floor is at least coherent.

"When someone does the right thing, gets up and goes to work to unlock their own potential, they shouldn't have to worry about some deadbeat invading their home and taking their hard-earned property," McKee said.

"ACT will unlock the potential of the justice system to protect victims, not make excuses for criminals."

The policy will not take effect unless ACT wins sufficient influence in the 2026 election to legislate it.