A powerful message is emerging from New Zealand voters ahead of the election — stop governing only for the next three years and start planning for the generations that come next.
New polling shows 82 percent of New Zealanders support legislation requiring governments to consider the long-term consequences of their policies on future generations, providing momentum to a rangatahi-led campaign seeking fundamental changes to how political decisions are made.
The Tomorrow Together campaign is calling for a Future Generations Act, inspired by legislation introduced in Wales, which would embed intergenerational fairness into government decision-making.
The proposal would require politicians and public institutions to consider how decisions made today could affect people decades into the future, particularly across major issues such as housing, climate change, infrastructure, employment and the cost of living.
For rangatahi behind the campaign, the argument is straightforward: political decisions made within a three-year electoral cycle can create consequences that their generation will carry for decades.
Support crosses political divides
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the polling is that support does not appear confined to one side of politics.
Backing includes 90 percent of Green voters, 89 percent of ACT voters and 87 percent of New Zealand First voters.
That level of cross-party voter support is significant in an increasingly competitive political environment.
While those voters may disagree strongly over what policies governments should pursue, the polling suggests broad agreement on one principle — governments should consider consequences extending beyond the next election.
The campaign has also attracted interest from young MPs across National, Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori, giving the proposal a potentially unusual degree of political reach.
A three-year cycle versus a 30-year problem
Many of New Zealand’s biggest challenges cannot realistically be resolved within one parliamentary term.
Major infrastructure can take decades to plan, fund and construct.
Housing shortages develop across generations.
Climate decisions made today can shape environmental conditions for decades.
Education and employment policies can influence a person’s opportunities across an entire lifetime.
The cost of servicing government debt can also extend far beyond the politicians who approved the original spending.
Tomorrow Together argues those realities require a political framework capable of looking further ahead than the next election.
A Future Generations Act would not necessarily dictate which policies a government must adopt.
Instead, its purpose would be to require decision-makers to systematically consider the long-term effects of their choices and the interests of people who will inherit those consequences.
Economic frustration among young people
The campaign is gaining momentum against a backdrop of widespread concern about the economic prospects facing younger generations.
Separate polling suggests 71 percent of New Zealanders believe the economy is working poorly or very poorly for young people.
That sentiment reflects a broader debate about whether rangatahi today can expect the same opportunities previous generations experienced.
Housing affordability, rents, wages, employment security and the cost of everyday essentials have become defining economic issues for younger New Zealanders.
For those unable to afford a first home or establish financial security, decisions around land use, infrastructure, taxation and housing supply can have consequences stretching across much of their adult lives.
That makes intergenerational fairness more than an abstract political concept.
It becomes a question of who benefits from decisions today and who ultimately carries their costs tomorrow.
A kaupapa familiar to te ao Māori
For Māori, the principle of thinking across generations is hardly new.
Concepts of whakapapa, kaitiakitanga and responsibility to mokopuna inherently connect decisions made by one generation with the wellbeing of those who follow.
Environmental management provides a particularly clear example.
Decisions affecting an awa, ngahere, whenua or moana today can determine whether future generations inherit thriving taonga or are left attempting to repair decades of degradation.
The same principle can be applied to housing, health, education, infrastructure and economic development.
A long-term approach also raises important questions about how Māori perspectives and Te Tiriti responsibilities would be reflected within any Future Generations Act.
If legislation is intended to protect people who do not yet have a political voice, the design of that system will matter just as much as its ambition.
Wales provides a model
Tomorrow Together is looking internationally for inspiration, particularly to Wales, where legislation has established a framework requiring public bodies to consider the wellbeing of future generations.
The attraction of such a model is its attempt to make long-term thinking part of ordinary government processes rather than relying on individual politicians voluntarily taking a generational view.
New Zealand governments already produce long-term strategies and forecasts in various areas.
But the rangatahi-led campaign is seeking something stronger — a legislative expectation that intergenerational consequences become part of how decisions are routinely assessed.
Can long-term thinking survive short-term politics?
The challenge is that governments still have to respond to immediate pressures.
Families struggling with grocery bills cannot wait decades for economic relief.
Businesses need certainty now.
Hospitals, schools and housing require investment today.
A Future Generations Act would therefore have to balance the needs of people experiencing hardship in the present with the interests of those who will inherit the consequences.
There is also the question of accountability.
If a government were legally required to consider future generations, what would happen when it failed to do so?
Would decisions face independent scrutiny? Would an institution represent future generations? Would ministers simply have to demonstrate that long-term consequences had been considered?
Those details would determine whether such legislation fundamentally changes government behaviour or becomes another requirement sitting inside policy documents.
Rangatahi asking politics to look further ahead
The campaign nevertheless arrives with one major advantage — unusually broad public support for its central principle.
At 82 percent, the polling suggests New Zealanders across political affiliations recognise a problem with decisions being dominated by short electoral horizons.
The challenge for political parties is now whether they are prepared to translate that sentiment into legislation.
Young New Zealanders will live longest with decisions being made today about housing, climate, infrastructure, debt, employment and the economy.
Many of their children and mokopuna will live with them even longer.
The Tomorrow Together campaign is therefore asking politicians to redefine who counts when governments make decisions.
Not only today’s taxpayer.
Not only today’s voter.
Not only the people who will cast ballots at the next election.
But also the generations who cannot yet vote, lobby Parliament or demand change — and who will nevertheless inherit the Aotearoa today’s political leaders leave behind.
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