National Party cost breakdown

• National's announcements this week were largely clarifications of existing policy. Its party 'pledge card' contained no new spending announcements.
• National's planned reforms to Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) are to be funded from existing baselines, so their total remains unchanged in week 4.

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The National Party has announced $1.99 billion in new spending over the next four years. This is equivalent to $960 per household.

Social spending

National's Baby Boost, a $1,500 payment based on 60,000 births a year, is costed at $360 million over four years, taking National's own costings at face value.

A parental leave top-up adds an additional $109.3 million cost, and extending paid parental leave from 26 to 30 weeks a further $327.4 million.

On KiwiSaver, National would lift the Government's own contribution ($385.2 million), extend KiwiSaver to those on parental leave ($121.9 million), and increase the Crown's KiwiSaver cost as an employer ($282.8 million). All of these figures are taken from National's own costings.

On health, National's only new spending is $70 million over four years to finish the fit-out of Christchurch Hospital with 96 new beds, again using National's own estimate.

Economic development

National's economic development commitments are smaller and mostly transport-related. A new Rolleston intermodal freight hub is costed at $50 million, and a four-lane Queenstown road at $25 million, both taken from National's own figures.

The party has also flagged that Queenstown Gondola solutions could draw on National Land Transport Fund money. Based on a reported $400 million project cost and an assumption that half of that would come from the NLTF, we've costed this at $200 million.

National's Home Energy Fund, providing low-rate loans for solar, is costed at $7 million as a one-off Crown equity investment.

Twenty-three new trade missions over the term are costed at $1.4 million, using the midpoint of the cost of comparable China and Brazil trade delegations.

$5 million has also been costed for National's proposed Commerce Commission investigation into breaking up Foodstuffs.

Government Services and Administration 

National has promised to establish a dedicated Auckland Transport Police Team, recruiting an additional 50 officers at a cost of $28 million or $14 per household.

National's proposal for a referendum on MMP has also been costed at $16.6 million.

Note on baseline spending: This total does not include commitments National has said are already provided for in Budget 2026. This covers 100 new classrooms and the redevelopment of 14 schools in the South Island, and the completion of the new police station in Greymouth. As these are treated as baseline spending rather than new commitments, they have not been included in the total above.

(t) policies where we’ve taken parties’ costings at face value. 
(o) uncosted policies that we have had to cost ourselves.
(d) policies where we have disputed parties’ own costings.

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