Independent public-opinion data2026 election cycle / Public beta
CAMPAIGN GUIDE · NEW ZEALAND 2026

Compare the parties.

See the proposals, follow the funding and read the evidence.

7 parties67 selected policy summariesChecked

Proposals and forecasts are party claims. Our checks trace the sources and arithmetic; coalition agreements may change delivery.

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FOLLOW THE FUNDING

How would they pay for it?

Read the funding plans alongside the promises. Coverage labels describe the documents we could check, rather than rating a party’s economic credibility.

Reviewed
What these checks tell you

We check published documents and arithmetic. A matching sum does not independently validate growth, tax yields or savings. Amounts retain their stated periods, and unresolved source differences stay visible.

New: National’s 12 October fiscal plan review ↓
NationalPlan tables reviewed

New fiscal plan: commitments within allowances

The 12 October plan’s tables reconcile: $16.4507bn net operating commitments leave $7.5493bn for other pressures. Its surplus and debt headlines use Treasury’s existing forecast.

Our assessment & checks

Our assessment

Analysis
Strengths
  • The new consolidated operating and capital schedules reconcile and distinguish new commitments from existing baselines. They make the proposed use of Budget allowances easier to scrutinise, with no arithmetic error found.Evidence
Trade-offs & risks
  • The remaining $7.5493bn operating and $14.1565bn capital allowances must cover other needs. Welfare and aid reductions affect recipients; the $506.1m net KiwiSaver tax offset also depends on forecast assumptions.Evidence 1Evidence 2
Open questions
  • Explain the included $140.2m KiwiSaver employer-cost revision, test the tax-offset model and bridge the $296m student-loan valuation charge to the unchanged Treasury forecast. No confirmed funding hole was identified; forecast assumptions still need evidence.Evidence 1Evidence 2Evidence 3

Plan details

Party’s funding approach
Recurring $2.4bn operating Budget additions, $17bn base capital allowances, $431.2m net aid savings, $583m net welfare savings and a $506.1m net KiwiSaver tax offset. Existing-baseline commitments are not all additional costs.
Budget balance
The launch’s $4.0bn surplus in 2028/29 and $11.7bn in 2030/31 match PREFU’s OBEGALx, excluding ACC. The paper does not supply a new whole-government forecast; ordinary OBEGAL is lower.
Debt measure and target
PREFU net core Crown debt excluding NZ Super Fund: 43.9% of GDP in 2027/28, falling to 39.5% in 2030/31. Dollar debt rises until $232.763bn in 2029/30 before falling; a lower ratio is not an immediate dollar reduction.
What this review establishes
All operating rows, annual columns and capital allocations checked: no addition or subtraction error found. Matching arithmetic does not validate delivery. “No new taxes” does not freeze all existing taxes or levies; PREFU includes planned fuel-excise and road-user-charge increases from 1 January 2028. Tax relief is conditional, without a funded cut or indexation schedule.
Still to resolve
Explain the $140.2m Crown-employer KiwiSaver revision and tax-offset model; bridge the current-year student-loan cost to PREFU; allocate remaining service pressures and capital needs; test savings and health assumptions. No confirmed funding hole was identified in the checked documents.

Published arithmetic

All figures are NZ dollars. A matching sum does not validate the forecast assumptions.

Medicines package: net operating cost2027/28–2030/31; capital reported separately

Pharmac and bowel-screening costs less the aid reduction equal $351.1m net operating cost; $41.5m capital is separate. A further $45.6m MFAT saving in the narrative is not shown in this net-cost table and needs reconciliation.

Calculated $351.1m · Published $351.1m · Matches or is within rounding
Visitor-levy reset operating cost2027/28–2030/31; reset starts 1 July 2027

The four annual amounts add to $105.1m. This is the net operating effect of the levy reset, not a new annual tax cost.

Calculated $105.1m · Published $105.1m · Matches or is within rounding
Net operating commitments2026/27–2030/31: five fiscal columns

All eighteen policy rows and five annual-column totals were checked separately and reconcile to $16.4507bn. Negative tax offsets and savings remain signed; matching arithmetic does not verify their assumptions.

Calculated $16,450.7m · Published $16,450.7m · Matches or is within rounding
Unallocated operating envelopeFour new Budget rounds; includes the current-year student-loan charge

Recurring $2.4bn Budget additions create a $24bn envelope. Deducting all five columns leaves $7.5493bn for other service pressures and initiatives. The current-year $296m cost needs an accounting and forecast bridge; it is not an equivalent cash payment.

Calculated $7,549.3m · Published $7,549.3m · Matches or is within rounding
Unallocated capital envelopeAllocations per Budget 2027–2030, not annual construction expenditure

The $17bn base allowances less $2.8435bn listed commitments leave $14.1565bn, matching the rounded $14.2bn headline. All nine capital entries were checked. Treasury’s extra $100m Chorus proceeds in Budget 2027 are a scope difference requiring reconciliation, not missing funding.

Calculated $14,156.5m · Published $14,200m · Matches or is within rounding
Health spending headline2027/28–2030/31; operating only

Health cost pressures, Pharmac and bowel screening total $15.3523bn, matching the rounded $15.4bn headline. Most maintains services against cost pressures. The 88% comparison excludes capital and uses commitments after the KiwiSaver tax offset but before aid and welfare savings.

Calculated $15,352.3m · Published $15,400m · Matches or is within rounding
Sources reviewed
National: fiscal plan released 12 October 2026 PDF p. 1: allowances; p. 2: operating schedule; p. 3: capital and tax assumptionsAll three pages and both tables visually checked. The paper allocates forecast allowances; it does not provide a revised whole-government cash/debt model or independent assurance.
National: 12 October fiscal-plan launch Dated 12 October 2026: $470m average, health share and forecast claims
National: Budget Responsibility Rules PDF pp. 1–3: fiscal rules and financing approach
National: no-new-taxes commitment General election commitment
National: International Visitor Levy Specific commitment to no increase for at least three years
National: visitor-levy reset (PDF) PDF p. 2: 1 July 2027 start and four-year operating costs
National: medicines and earlier care (PDF) PDF pp. 4–5: existing funding, aid offsets and cost table
National: original KiwiSaver policy paper PDF pp. 1–2: original costs, exceptions and uncertain tax receipts; pp. 3–4: family and over-65 contributions
National: paid parental leave paper PDF pp. 1–3: staged extension, costs and explained KiwiSaver top-up revision
National: student-loan policy paper PDF p. 3: valuation versus cash; pp. 4–5: collections and five-year net cost
National: welfare policy paper PDF pp. 2–3: eligibility and baseline costs; p. 4: net savings and model assumptions
National: First Home Loan expansion paper PDF p. 2: $4–6m within existing baselines; no clear fiscal period
National: Mill Road paper PDF p. 2: Stage One, route protection and additional NLTF costs
National: Belfast–Pegasus and Woodend paper PDF p. 2: $800m Budget allocation and additional NLTF costs
Treasury: PREFU 2026 Published 29 September 2026; printed pp. 8, 70, 101, 120, 130: baseline, risks, allowances and debt; PDF p. 50: transport
NEW DOCUMENT REVIEW · RELEASED 12 OCTOBER 2026

National’s fiscal plan, checked.

The published tables add up. The main questions concern delivery within tight allowances, revised KiwiSaver assumptions and the bridge to Treasury’s forecast.

Read the three-page plan
$16.45bnNet operating commitments2026/27–2030/31 · five fiscal columns
$7.55bnUnallocated operating envelopeStill needed for other service pressures
$14.16bnUnallocated capital envelopeFour Budget allocations · not annual spending

No confirmed funding hole was identified in the checked documents. A matching sum does not independently validate tax receipts, savings or delivery.

See the arithmetic and headline definitions

We checked 18 operating rows, all five annual columns and 9 capital entries against the displayed table. Blank cells count as zero; tax offsets and savings stay negative.

Our sums of annual operating cells · NZ$ million · 2026/27–2030/31 · each matches its printed row total
ItemOur sum
Health service cost pressures14,570
Additional Pharmac funding604
Earlier bowel screening178.3
KiwiSaver payment at birth360
KiwiSaver during parental leave121.9
Extra government KiwiSaver contributions385.2
Crown employer contribution costs423
Net KiwiSaver tax offset-506.1
Student-loan package, after recoveries372.6
Longer paid parental leave327.5
DOC funding after visitor-levy changes105.1
School-lunch programme extension451.8
Auckland transport policing28
Additional QEII Trust funding17.2
Election-costing unit1.2
Provision for future announcements25.2
Foreign-aid reduction-431.2
Welfare package, including initial costs-583
Net policy commitments16,450.7
Cumulative Budget envelope24,000
Unallocated operating7,549.3

Four new Budgets add recurring $2.4bn increments: $2.4bn + $4.8bn + $7.2bn + $9.6bn = $24bn across the plan. Capital allowances total $17bn; listed allocations total $2,843.5m, leaving $14,156.5m, rounded to $14.2bn in the paper.

Headline checks · our calculations from the published entries
ClaimCalculation and scope
$15.4bn health$14,570m pressures + $604m Pharmac + $178.3m bowel screening = $15,352.3m. Most addresses existing service pressures.
88% for health87.9% of operating commitments after the KiwiSaver tax offset, before net aid/welfare savings. Capital is excluded.
$470m per year outside health pressures($16,450.7m − $14,570m) ÷ 4 = $470.175m. This includes $296m in the current year. The four future columns alone average $396.175m.
KiwiSaver package$1,290.1m gross costs − $506.1m net tax offset = $784m. The offset already allows for reduced income tax.

What still needs explaining?

Forecast scopeThe surplus figures are Treasury’s existing forecast.

The launch uses PREFU’s OBEGALx figures, which exclude ACC. The three-page plan allocates Budget allowances; it does not publish a revised whole-government cash and debt model.

Treasury shows OBEGALx of $4.016bn in 2028/29 and $11.693bn in 2030/31; OBEGAL including ACC is $2.062bn and $8.879bn. Staying within allowances can preserve that baseline, but the allocation arithmetic does not verify delivery. Debt’s GDP ratio peaks at 43.9% in 2027/28, while dollar debt rises until $232.763bn in 2029/30. The fall in the ratio is not an immediate fall in dollars.

Delivery riskUnallocated allowances still have work to do.

The remaining operating and capital envelopes must cover later service pressures and investments. They are not spare cash or an independently demonstrated surplus.

The first future year leaves $588.5m operating. National explicitly assigns later allowances to education, social services, police pay and infrastructure. PREFU also discloses defence pressure of around $4.8bn across expenses and capital over the next two Budgets, rather than solely capital. Treasury already assumes baseline savings and underspending. Health’s first three increases follow Treasury’s non-binding indication; the further $1.55bn increment in 2030/31 has no explained estimate in this plan.

Costing revisionKiwiSaver assumptions need a clearer reconciliation.

Crown-employer costs are $140.2m higher than the standalone paper. The new plan also counts a $506.1m net tax offset that the earlier paper deliberately excluded.

The original 2028/29–2030/31 employer costs are $84.3m/$94.2m/$104.3m; the plan uses $126m/$141m/$156m. The extra cost is included, so it is not missing funding. Page 3 identifies the tax offset as ESCT less reduced income tax, not gross ESCT receipts. The earlier paper warns that revenue depends heavily on new contributors’ income profiles. Ask for the changed employer assumptions and the tax model; double counting has not been established. The parental top-up’s separate $12.6m increase is explained in the later parental-leave paper by the longer entitlement.

Timing questionThe current-year student-loan charge needs a forecast bridge.

The table puts $296m in 2026/27 with no future-Budget allowance in that column. The printed remaining amount is therefore −$296m.

The student-loan paper describes this principally as a change in the loan book’s accounting value. It is not a $296m cash payment to borrowers; slower repayments also affect cash and debt on a different path. The plan deducts it from the overall allowance envelope, but supplies no explicit bridge to the unchanged Treasury forecast. The $470m annual headline divides costs across five fiscal columns by four Budget rounds. That arithmetic works; its period needs explaining.

Savings assumptionsAid and welfare savings are policy estimates.

The plan uses $431.2m net aid savings and $583m net welfare savings. The main welfare saving is lower payments to long-term Jobseekers, rather than predominantly employment exits.

The welfare paper estimates $572m from lower payments, using PREFU recipient numbers, inflation indexing and a one-fifth offset into other assistance. Its employment-support model scales an existing programme and assumes a lower success rate, without publishing that exact rate. Implementation, hardship effects, collection yields and the tax-offset assumptions still need testing. A matching table does not certify those outcomes.

Coverage and definitionsA missing separate row does not prove a policy is unfunded.

First Home Loan expansion, drug tests, some health services and other changes are explicitly assigned to existing baselines. Other pressures use future allowances.

The First Home Loan paper puts $4–6m within baselines, with no clear period; drug tests use around $1.5m annually from MSD baselines. Several screening commitments are already funded. The medicines narrative’s further $45.6m MFAT efficiency saving remains absent from the identifiable tables: they count fewer savings, not an unfunded expense. Road allocations partly rely on the National Land Transport Fund for additional costs; $100m for Mill Road route protection does not fund construction of Stages Two and Three. PREFU’s Budget 2027 capital total includes $100m of additional Chorus proceeds; National shows the $3.5bn base. That scope difference needs a bridge, not a missing-money allegation.

What if the net aid and welfare savings do not arrive?

Setting their combined $1,014.2m net saving to zero, with all other entries unchanged, reduces the unallocated operating envelope from $7,549.3m to $6,535.1m. This is an illustrative allowance calculation, not a forecast deficit.

Manual review . Original tables and relevant policy papers checked; underlying models and a party clarification were not supplied. Submit a source or correction.

Before comparing budget and debt targets

Labour’s net debt includes NZ Super Fund assets; National’s and ACT’s net core Crown debt excludes them. OBEGAL includes ACC, while OBEGALx excludes ACC. Annual tax-package revenue, multi-year spending and capital investment also measure different things.

Treasury’s definitions and current baseline

A manual review as at . “Not located” refers to the sources checked, not proof that a document or policy does not exist. Coalition negotiations may change any party’s package.

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