Where the parties stand: Law and Order & Health

LAW AND ORDER

Alliance: Ban semi-automatic rifles and pump action shot guns. Register all guns and gun owners. Introduce restorative justice, not longer prison sentences. Victims Compensation Board for crime vicims.

Labour: Volunteers to help police in rural areas. Make repeat serious offenders prove they deserve bail. Allow police to fingerprint child offenders from age of 10 and deliver instant punishments with parental consent for minor crime. Close loopholes for stolen goods.

NZ First: Increase police numbers, tougher sentences and bail laws, focus on youth justice and victims' rights.

National: Allow police to take compulsory blood samples from burglary suspects and seize property from gangs and drug dealers. Tighten bail laws, put electronic tags on serious young offenders.

Act: Make violent criminals serve at least 80 per cent of their sentences, doubling average prison sentence. Build more prisons. Tougher bail and parole laws, crackdown on petty crime, youth crime, property crime. Overhaul courts system.

Greens: Decriminalise cannabis, $29 million extra for community policing. Put non-violent offenders in rehabilitation centres, not prisons.

Mauri Pacific: Give Maori common lore equal standing with existing New Zealand law.

United: Target domestic violence, road safety, early intervention for young offenders. Mobile reserve of up to 200 police for emergencies.

Christian Heritage: Death penalty for murder in cases with two reliable eyewitnesses. Prison inmates pay part cost of their upkeep. Stronger controls on pornography and prostitution, no more casinos, drinking age of 20 with no exceptions.

HEALTH

Alliance: Free doctors visits and prescriptions for everyone. Reduce surgery waiting times to six months maximum. Guarantee a 24-hour hospital with an hour's drive for 90 per cent of New Zealanders. Abolish Health Funding Authority, stop state funding of private hospitals, bring back elected hospital boards.

Labour: Scrap surgery booking system, reduce waiting times, scrap Health Funding Authority, bring back health boards with majority of elected members.

NZ First: Free doctors visits and prescriptions for all children under nine. Nationwide screening for all babies until 12 months, screening for Hepatitis B, asthma and diabetes. No asset and income testing for long-stay elderly hospital patients.

National: Continue to increase health spending. Keep current structure of health system. Keep free doctors visits and prescriptions for children under six.

Act: Scrap free doctors visits and prescriptions for children under six. Cut waiting lists by sending public patients to private hospitals. Voucher system, allowing people to buy state-subsidised private health insurance. Keep health spending at present levels.

Greens: Include alternative health providers in public health system. Community health services with elected representatives.

Mauri Pacific: Let Maori and Pacific Island people run own health services. Run early intervention clinics in poorest schools. United: Supports public hospitals and public funding of health. Make rural health a priority. New drug strategy.

Christian Heritage: Free health care for all children until they leave school and for their mothers, if not working. Tax deductions on private health insurance. Stop "more than 99 per cent" of abortions by removing mother's mental health as suitable grounds.