The New Zealand Outdoors Party is a registered political party in New Zealand. The party is led by co-leaders Alan Simmons and Sue Grey and seeks to protect New Zealand's environment and "outdoors heritage."
Principles and policies
The New Zealand Outdoors Party aims to protect the environment and New Zealand's "outdoors heritage", and advocates for clean, full and unmodified rivers, greater protection from development for the conservation estate, large game animals to be managed by all hunters for recreation and conservation benefit, removal of ecologically destructive trawling practices within the inshore fishery and a Futures Commission to determine environmental limits to the growth of population, tourism, economy and infrastructure.
History
The New Zealand Outdoors Party was launched in September 2015 by co-leaders Alan Simmons and David Haynes with the aim of protecting New Zealand's environment and outdoor heritage. In its December 2016 newsletter, the party stated it was "pushing hard" to get to 500 members so that it could register. In a letter to Rural News, Simmons claimed the party "has possibly more members than some parties already in Parliament", though did not give figures. On 22 July 2017 the party applied for registration with the Electoral Commission. Registration was granted on 11 August 2017. The party stood four electorate candidates in Nelson, Taupō, Maungakiekie and Hutt South. The same four candidates were also on the party list for the 2017 general election. During the 2017 general election, the Outdoors Party gained 0.1% of the party vote and failed to win any seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives. In March 2020 the party formed an alliance with the Real NZ Party, resulting in the founder and leader of Real NZ, David Moffett, being appointed to the party's board. The party subsequently received a broadcasting allocation of $51,821 for the 2020 election. In June 2020, supporters of the party harassed and threatened a young Asian woman after she wiped out chalk slogans saying "it's okay to be white" and "all lives matter". One supporter screamed at the woman to “go back to her own country”, while another said "she wasn't born here, she came here to create shit". Party co-leader Alan Simmons joined the confrontation and reprimanded the woman for her language, saying "you shouldn't be using language like that, a little girl like you". Party member Tracy Livingston, who was also present, tried to ease tension, telling those filming the event that the young woman was "not the enemy" and that everybody was "naturally racist". Party co-leader Sue Grey later told media that the people in the video were not members of the party, that the party did not condone their actions, and that two of the people in the incident had since apologised to her. Simmons also spoke to media afterwards, saying he had "protected the girl" from harm.
