Shane Jones targets Zespri and regional councils in pitch to voters ahead of 2026
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones has accused the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit industry of "medieval slave practices" and called for a review of the laws giving Zespri its export monopoly, in a speech that also signalled NZ First will campaign on abolishing regional councils and distancing the party from National's regional government reforms.
Speaking to about 130 people at the Victory Christian Centre in Lower Hutt, Jones said: "I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of what I've seen up in the kiwifruit industry: medieval slave practices." RNZ
Jones said the United States was calling out New Zealand as responsible for goods and services linked to slave labour, pointing to what he described as serious cases in the Bay of Plenty involving exploited migrant groups. He said the industry was "riddled with cases of mediaeval labour practices, egregious taxation practices," and traced US allegations of slave labour to migrant gangs, the Zespri company, and orchard owners.
Zespri is the single company legally allowed to export New Zealand-grown kiwifruit to most overseas markets, under legislation that gives it a monopoly. After the meeting, Jones told reporters the industry was losing its social licence — meaning public trust and acceptance — and called for the next government to review that legislation. RNZ
Zespri has pushed back. A spokesperson said the company had extensive systems in place to keep wrongdoers out of the industry and remove them when found. RNZ
The US angle is not new. Trade Minister Todd McClay rejected the US administration's justification for newly reimposed 12.5 percent tariffs on the basis of "forced labour" in New Zealand, saying in July: "It doesn't exist in New Zealand." RNZ The NZ Herald reported last May on an illegal migrant allegedly exploited as a "money mule" to funnel more than $3 million through his bank accounts, withdrawn as cash in an alleged kiwifruit tax-evasion scam. NZ Herald
Jones argued more systemic change was needed than simply giving the Labour Inspectorate — the government agency that checks workplaces are following employment law — more resources. He pointed to Casey Costello's anti-corruption model as his preferred approach. He said all government agencies, as the IRD were already doing by issuing a "red alert," should join forces to root out potential slave labour cases in kiwifruit, and that those involved should be "501'd out" — a reference to the Australian deportation mechanism — to where they came from. RNZ
Jones has a track record of targeting Zespri. In June, he said the company's kiwifruit licence system unfairly excludes multiply-owned Māori land. NZ Herald A government minister — identified in separate reporting as Jones — accused Zespri of failing to allow Māori landowners to enter the kiwifruit industry, a claim Zespri rejected. Produce Plus
The Lower Hutt speech ranged well beyond kiwifruit. Jones criticised the India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and what he termed "blockchain migration," and said NZ First would campaign on abolishing regional councils. He said National's approach to its regional shakeup never had NZ First's backing and that the mandate for it should be tested at the election. RNZ
The remarks came as the 2026 general election campaign takes shape, with RNZ reporting the speech in its election-2026 politics coverage. Earlier in August, Jones used his official Instagram account to attack National directly, saying the party had promised to fix the cost of living but made it worse, and that while New Zealanders were struggling, National was fighting over its own jobs. Instagram
The broader context here is that the speech does several things at once for those watching the coalition. It puts clear distance between NZ First and National on regional government reform — an area where the two parties had been presumed to be broadly aligned under their coalition agreement. It revives Jones's long-running campaign against Zespri's export monopoly, now reframed through the lens of US forced-labour allegations and migrant exploitation. And it signals that NZ First intends to run an independent, populist-tinged campaign rather than a quiet incumbent's pitch.
The Zespri monopoly, granted under specific legislation, has long been a target for free-market critics. Jones's framing — tying it to labour exploitation, tax evasion, and the exclusion of Māori landowners — broadens the attack well beyond the usual competition-policy arguments. Whether that framing holds up under scrutiny is another question. McClay's flat rejection of the US forced-labour claims puts Jones at odds with his own coalition colleague on the underlying point.
The "501'd out" language is pointed. It borrows the name of Australia's deportation mechanism and applies it to people Jones says are involved in exploitation within the kiwifruit sector. That blending of immigration enforcement with labour-market regulation is likely to draw scrutiny from both the industry and human-rights advocates.
Zespri's response — that it has systems to identify and remove bad actors — addresses the operational question but not the political one. Jones is not asking whether Zespri can police its own supply chain. He is asking whether the legislation that gives Zespri its monopoly should exist at all, and whether a coalition partner will campaign to dismantle it.
What is unclear is whether NZ First's coalition colleagues in National and ACT share any appetite for reopening the Zespri legislation or abolishing regional councils in a potential second term. Jones's speech makes both positions explicit campaign commitments for his party. Whether they survive coalition negotiations is the question that will matter after the vote.
