The fireworks ban debate has arrived just as the market it targets is fading. Fireworks imports fell to $1.16 million in the year to September 2026, down 57% from $2.7m a year earlier and 77% below the 2024 high of nearly $5.0m. That is the third-lowest annual figure since records began in 1990, lower even than Covid-disrupted 2021.
Against the 2016 peak of about $6.5m, today’s import trade is roughly one-fifth the size it was a decade ago. No law did that. Customers did.
The market voted before the politicians did
Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen puts the slump down to cost-of-living pressure and shifting attitudes on noise, animal welfare, fire risk and environmental impact. The long trend backs him. Average annual imports ran at $4.43m through the 2010s versus $2.72m so far this decade.
Retailers saw it coming. The Parliamentary Petitions Committee’s final report notes Countdown quit fireworks in 2019 and The Warehouse followed in 2021, both citing consumer preference rather than any regulatory push. When the country’s biggest discount general retailer walks away from a category, the commercial verdict is already in.
For the importers and specialist sellers still in the game, this is a shrinking, seasonal niche squeezed into a four-day retail window from 2 to 5 November, unchanged since 2001. Now it also carries live political risk.
A bill already drafted, an election two days away
NZ First has a private member’s bill ready to ban public sale and private use, with professional displays still allowed, and says it would introduce it within the first 100 days of the next government. Leader Winston Peters is not framing it as a liberty question. “It’s not a freedom issue,” he said in October. “It’s a right to peaceful and harmonious living for both the community and for animals.”
Public opinion is on his side. A 1News Verian poll this month found 58% support a ban on public sales, with 31% opposed. Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins both said no at the TVNZ leaders’ debate, but NZ First’s kingmaker leverage means a ban could easily become a coalition bargaining chip after polling day.
The SPCA is pressing every party. Senior scientific officer Dr Alison Vaughan said Guy Fawkes falling just before the election was deliberate leverage: “we really want this to be on the agenda and high up on their priorities.” She also warned that stockpiling means fewer imports will not necessarily mean less harm this year.
The harm is happening outside the shop window
This is where the ban case gets weaker on its own evidence. The committee recorded 1,627 police calls about fireworks in 2024, but only 386 fell inside the legal sales window. The other 1,241 came outside it. There is no rule on when fireworks can be set off, which means much of the nuisance is a use-and-enforcement problem, not a retail one.
The same report logged 166 fireworks fires in 2024, a sharp rise, and 286 new ACC injury claims, down 55 on 2023. Those are real costs for rural businesses, insurers and emergency services. But a measure aimed at four days of legal retail does little about months of misuse from stockpiled or illicit product.
In July the Government rejected the committee’s ban recommendation, despite nearly 100,000 petition signatures and backing from Fire and Emergency NZ and vets. Its formal response warned of “implementation risks” for legitimate operators and the need for new enforcement frameworks, calling the status quo “proportionate.” That is a defensible position, though not a popular one.
Who pays for the displays everyone wants
The overlooked commercial question is what happens to public displays. Both the SPCA and NZ First say they want more managed, notified events. Yet the industry has long argued that backyard retail sales underpin the economics of firms that also run professional shows. Strip out retail and those operators either shrink, exit, or come knocking on council doors for funding.
MBIE put the public benefit of retail fireworks at around $30 million in material before the committee. Some of that value sits in community events that support food vendors, schools and local clubs. A ban written without a plan for displays risks swapping private spending for ratepayer spending.
What happens next
If NZ First lands in government, a ban is likely on the table within months, and importers should plan as though this Guy Fawkes could be among the last legal retail seasons. If it doesn’t, the market will keep shrinking anyway. Either way, the smarter policy would target when and where fireworks are used, enforce the rules already on the books, and protect the display model everyone claims to support. The market has already solved most of the retail problem. Parliament’s job is to fix the part it hasn’t.
Sources
- RNZ: Fireworks imports slump as calls grow for sales ban (2026-11-01)
- Infometrics: Fireworks imports fizzle out ahead of Guy Fawkes (2026-10-30)
- RNZ: ‘Enough is enough’: New Zealand First wants to ban fireworks (2026-10-09)
- RNZ: Government rejects calls to ban public sale of fireworks (2026-07-29)
- Government Response to the Report of the Petitions Committee on Requests to ban the public sale of fireworks (2026-07-23)
Join the discussion
Add useful context, ask a good question, or challenge an idea — keep it specific and respectful.