New Zealand First is promising to abolish student loans if the student agrees to work in New Zealand, and would return GST to the regions.

Photo: RNZ

Leader Winston Peters launched the party's election campaign in Palmerston North this afternoon.

New Zealand First also promised to address issues affecting the regions by returning GST collected from tourists to the councils where the tax was collected.

Mr Peters said students who agreed to work in New Zealand for as long as they had studied would have their student loan abolished under the party's policy.

It would also return 25 percent of royalties collected by the government from mining, petroleum and water activities in the region.

The party is also promising to recruit 1800 extra police officers, and invest more in regional rail.

Mr Peters said the policies would make a big difference.

Photo: RNZ / Benedict Collins

"It'll mean they'll get their fair share of the wealth. These people create the greatest wealth in the country and they're not getting their fair share of it.

"My plan intends to return that wealth to them, rather than have a bunch of shiny dairy-herd people around the bureaucracy and elsewhere making a fortune without regard to who creates the wealth in the first place."