Our 54th Parliament has officially risen.

After three years, what do we actually have to show for it?

Promises kept? Promises broken? A stronger economy? A restoration of social cohesion?

I think the general feeling is that we're probably not much better off than we were three years ago. But maybe, at the very least, we slowed the rapid downward trajectory.

National promised to focus on the basics and get New Zealand back on track. ACT promised equality before the law and a government that responds to people based on need, not race. NZ First promised to take on the grifters.

Beyond the political theatre, the haka and waiata, the foul language and shoplifting controversy, what did our 54th Parliament actually achieve?

From where we sit, there were some genuine wins for civil liberties, some genuine losses, and plenty of unfinished business.

PILLAR only entered the fight in the final year of this Parliament, but we got to work pretty quickly.

We made formal submissions on five major policy and legislative issues, provided advice or drafting assistance across at least five more, and drafted two pieces of legislation of our own.

We challenged expanded police surveillance powers and saw additional privacy safeguards introduced.

We pushed back on the Move-on Orders Bill, and the Select Committee ultimately pursued a less rights-restrictive approach.

We raised concerns about new telecommunications powers and saw some of those concerns addressed through the legislative process.

We also pushed back against blanket restrictions on young people's access to social media. Not because we don't think kids need protecting; they absolutely do. But because we believe we can protect children without building the infrastructure for mass digital identification and surveillance.

And somewhere along the way, we stopped just responding to legislation and started writing it.

Our Digital Bill of Rights proposes a framework to protect privacy, expression, encryption and due process as more of our lives and government move online.

And our Foreign Influence Transparency Bill went one step further. National MP Tim van de Molen adopted it and lodged it in Parliament as a Member's Bill.

There were losses too.

Some legislation went further than we believe a free society should tolerate. Some of the safeguards we fought for weren't adopted. And some of the biggest questions around privacy, speech, policing and government power are still sitting there waiting for the next Parliament.

But if there's one thing the 54th Parliament reinforced for us, it's this:

Civil liberties cannot be left to politicians to protect on their own.

PILLAR began this Parliament on the outside.

We end it by helping shape the laws being debated inside it.

And we're only getting started.