An autonomous sanction regime is back on the cards in Parliament, after National MP Gerry Brownlee's proposed law was pulled from the ballot this week.
Brownlee said it would give "great weight to our claim that we run an independent foreign policy".
If passed, it could mean that New Zealand could bypass the UN Security Council veto-power, but it is a bill that had already failed in 2017 .
"New Zealand at the moment takes a multi-lateral view of any sanctions that might be applied to rogue states or individuals who are engaged in activities we would not ordinarily approve of," Brownlee told 1 NEWS.
"Where you get a situation with the Security Council with a veto being exercised by any of the members, New Zealand doesn't have its own provisions at the moment to be able to apply sanctions.
"At the moment you have both Russia and China sitting there with US, UK, any of those could stop something. In a case where New Zealand sees a problem and it's been vetoed, we should still have the legal tools to be able to put in place some sanctions and this would give us that tool."
He said current decisions made "do tend to allow us to skirt around some of the positions we should take".
In March, the EU, UK, US and Canada launched coordinated sanctions against Xinjiang against human rights abuses in the treatment of Uyghurs.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told media at the time New Zealand could not follow as it does not have a domestic sanctions regime, but joined the call for an independent observer to collect information in Xinjiang.
Mahuta this week said the Government would consider it.
"Caucus will consider the Bill and we'll have a full discussion I expect but I'm in no position to make a comment," she said.
"Autonomous sanctions are often used as a last port of call, many countries who have autonomous sanctions regime have domestic legislation that enables other actions to be taken. "
She had spoken to MFAT and other Ministers about advice around different forms of sanction legislation.
Goliz Gharaman said the Green Party did not support autonomous sanctions.
"The moment we set a precedent for nations to unilaterally sanction based on what they feel are their values is the moment we do undermine a rules based order. We shouldn't do that.
"I would rather New Zealand work as a principled independent voice for reform of that system rather than to set a bad precedent of people going off and sanctioning who they want based on, for example, economic interest."
She said that UN reform had "never seriously been attempted so I think we can start that work in good faith".
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