This Government bill repeals and replaces the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, following the 2018 He Ara Oranga inquiry report. Its stated objectives are to shift compulsory mental health care towards an approach based on people's rights and recovery, enable responsive and culturally appropriate needs-based care, support the safety of individuals and others, ensure people with decision-making capacity are not compelled into care, minimise the use and duration of compulsory care, and add safeguards and monitoring. The bill has passed all stages.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, second reading, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
This bill repeals and replaces the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, the main law for treating serious mental illness without a person's consent. It moves to a rights-based, recovery-focused framework built on supported decision-making — helping people make their own choices rather than having decisions made for them — and aims to reduce the use of compulsion, seclusion and restraint. It strengthens the role of whānau and family, recognises Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori perspectives, while still allowing compulsory assessment and treatment where necessary. It affects patients, their families and mental health services.
The bill responds to long-standing criticism, including from the 2018 mental health inquiry, that the 1992 Act was outdated and overly focused on control. Supporters say it modernises the law, protects patients' dignity and autonomy, and curbs coercive practices that disproportionately affect Māori. Critics fear higher thresholds for compulsory treatment could make it harder to help people lacking insight into their illness, that real change needs major workforce and funding investment, and that less compulsion may shift risk onto whānau.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.