Parliament has quietly reopened submissions on the Lifejackets for Children and Young Persons Bill<\/em>, and the reason is simple: experts keep telling MPs the bill doesn\u2019t go far enough. What started as a rule for kids under 15 may now expand to mandatory lifejackets for everyone<\/strong> on small recreational boats six metres or under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a big shift, and the Transport and Infrastructure Committee wants to know whether the public is ready for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill\u2019s sponsor, Upper Harbour MP Cameron Brewer, says reopening submissions is the right call. Changing the scope this much, he says, deserves a fresh read from the people who actually spend time on the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s the uncomfortable truth driving the rethink: Water safety groups have been blunt: if lifejackets were worn, not stored, many of these tragedies would become survivable mishaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brewer isn\u2019t committing to a position yet, and National won\u2019t take a caucus stance while the bill is still in committee. For now, they want to hear from the public \u2014 boating clubs, families, fishers, weekend warriors, anyone who knows how fast \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d can turn into \u201cwe never saw him again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Submissions are open for six weeks and close at 11.59pm on 15 April 2026<\/strong>. This isn\u2019t just a policy tweak. It\u2019s a question about who we are on the water \u2014 and whether we\u2019re finally ready to choose survival over stubbornness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Zealand loves the water \u2014 but the water keeps taking too many of us. Parliament has quietly reopened submissions on the Lifejackets for Children and Young Persons Bill, and the reason is simple: experts keep telling MPs the bill doesn\u2019t go far enough. What started as a rule for kids under 15 may now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[830,113,831],"coauthors":[380],"class_list":{"0":"post-10739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-life-jackets","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-water-safety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10742,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739\/revisions\/10742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10739"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
We lose an average of 17 people a year to boating fatalities \u2014 and most of them are middle\u2011aged men who never expected to end up in the water.<\/strong> The average victim is 50. Calm day, short trip, lifejackets stowed under a seat\u2026 and then something goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kiwis can make their views known directly to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n