New Zealand First cost breakdown

Week 3 update:

• New Zealand First this week unveiled their 'Make New Zealand Healthy' policy package.
• Despite containing 15 individual policies, this announcement was completely uncosted.
• We have estimated the cost of these policies collectively to be $2.1 billion, or $1,019 per household. We would welcome New Zealand First reaching out to clarify their costings.

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The New Zealand First has announced $49.4 billion in new spending over the next four years. This is equivalent to $23,841 per household. The majority of this is driven by a single policy: a one-off buyback of Bank of New Zealand.

Economic development
NZ First has not put a figure on the BNZ buyback itself, so we've costed it by applying the NAB profit multiplier (16.19x) to BNZ's reported $1.5 billion net profit for the year to September 2025 — arriving at $24.3 billion — plus a 10% premium, for a total of $26.7 billion.

NZ First's other major economic development commitment is its flagship $100 billion, 30-year infrastructure fund. Spread evenly over 30 years, the four-year share of this comes to $13.3 billion, taking the party's own costings at face value. The party has also pledged a one-off $15 million grant towards restoring Christchurch Cathedral, addressing what it says is a $45 million shortfall, and wants electricity gentailers to separate their retail and generation arms — a change we've costed at $273 million, based on the 2011/12 Telecom/Chorus break-up cost, adjusted for inflation and doubled to reflect the added complexity. The party has also committed $1 billion to a subsurface development survey, taken from its own costings. Altogether, NZ First's economic development commitments total $41.3 billion over four years.

Government services and administration
The largest item is $6.3 billion to lift the Government's own KiwiSaver contribution as an employer, which we've calculated by applying a 4.5 percentage point increase (from 3.5% to 8%) to the Government's $35 billion wages and salaries bill. NZ First has also committed $16.6 million to hold a referendum on the Māori seats and $15.4 million for a COVID-19 vaccine inquiry, both costed against comparable past referenda and Royal Commissions of Inquiry. Government services and administration commitments total $6.3 billion.

Social spending
NZ First's Kiwi Kids Grant is costed at $1.6 billion over four years, taking the party's own figures at face value. A related $1,000 KiwiSaver kick-start for every newborn, based on 60,000 births a year, adds a further $240 million. New Zealand First estimate their 'Superannuation for citizens only' policy might save $2.1 billion over 2029 and 2030.

NZ First's 'Make New Zealand Healthy' policy package was completely uncosted by the party. We estimate this to cost $2.1 billion over four years, or $1,019 per household. A breakdown of these policies can be found below.

Social spending commitments overall total $1.7 billion.

(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.