Every policy in the Bribe-O-Meter falls into one of three buckets. Where a party has done its own costing that looks like it stacks up, we take them at their word. Where a party has announced a policy but never not costed it, we've build one ourselves from publicly available data. And if a party's own number don't look believable, we publish our own instead.

Most policies fall into the first bucket. This page covers the rest.

Labour

• Cap public transport fares, disputed. Labour costs this at $260 million a year. Using New Zealand Transport Agency farebox revenue and usage data, we cost this at the midpoint of $141,705,972 and $182,529,576 a year. More detail on these calculations can be found at www.taxpayers.org.nz/labours_fare_cap_numbers_dont_add_up
• Reverse income related rent charges. Labour has opposed the Government's changes to narrow the gap between low income private renters receiving the Accomodation Supplement and social housing tenants, calling it "cruel." We cost this reversal at $542 million. More detail can be found in Budget 2026 Summary of Initiatives on page 36. 
• Reinstate the Pay Equity Regime. Labour has pledged to reinstate Pay Equity but they have not provided a costing. We have costed this at $10.97 billion, using Treasury's own projected cost of pay equity. More detail can be found in Budget 2025 Summary of Initiatives on page 80.
• Reverse future public service savings. Labour has opposed these savings. They have stated that "Labour will make different choices." The cost of reversing these savings equates to $2.75 billion over four years. More detail can be found in Budget 2026 Summary of Initiatives on page 64.
• Forego dividends to Future Fund. Labour has promised to put a number of Crown owned companies into a "Future Fund," with its dividends kept in the Fund to grow its size. They have also indicated an additional $200 million capital injection into the Fund. They have said that they will not release details about the Fund until after the election. We have used the Crown's stake and dividends of Mercury, Meridian, Air NZ and Transpower. We have used dividends from these companies to estimate a $2.78 billion cost.

National

• 23 new trade missions. National has not provided a cost. We have costed $1.4 million using the midpoint cost of comparable 2024 trade delegations to China and Brazil. 
• Queenstown Gondola solutions accessing NLTF funds. National has flagged this could draw on National Land Transport Fund money but they have not costed it. Based on a reported $400 million project cost, we've assumed 50 percent NLTF co-funding and costed this at $200 million.

The Greens

• Tens of thousands of new public homes. The Greens have not provided a cost. We have costed this policy at $9.4 billion over four years. We have calculated this policy based on the number of houses that can be feasibly built each year. We have used Kainga Ora's Statement of Performance Expectations for 2026/27 on page 30. At an average cost of $720,000 per dwelling, 3264 dwellings each year, yields $2,350 million per annum, or $9.4 billion over four years. 
• Certified Rental Warrant of Fitness. There is no direct Green figure in 2026. Built from the Greens' own Budget 2025 document on page 28.
• Comprehensive bus lanes in all cities. There is no direct Green's figure in 2026. $1.2 billion costed using the party's own opex and capex to expand public transport services, figures from their Budget 2025 policy document on page 25.
• Nationwide rapid rail. There is no direct Green's figure in 2026. Built from the Greens' 2025 policy document on page 25 & 26, covering several named rail links. This includes their costed $11.7 billion light rail and $5.5 billion for additional rail links.
• EV subsidies. There is not direct Green's figure in 2026. We have costed this policy at $337 million on the assumption of reintroducing the Clean Car Discount scheme under the previous Labour Government. More information can be found in Clean Car Discount scheme financial reports.
• Free school lunches for all kids in all schools, disputed. The Greens cost this at $1.82 billion in their 2025 Budget document. Applying the same per-kid cost to the full national school kid population puts the real figure at $2.182 billion.
• Free tertiary education up to first degree. The Green's have not provided a direct cost. We have costed $8 billion over four years, using 257,000 students at an average $8,000 tuition fee.
• Student loan write-off over time. The Green's have not provided a cost. We have costed $16.222 billion, taken from the Student Loan Scheme's own 2024–25 outstanding balance as a one-off balance sheet impact. More information can be found on Inland Revenue's Annual Report 2024-25 on page 154.
• Universal student allowance to cover basic needs. The Green's have not provided a figure. Our own estimate is $14.4 billion over four years. This calculation is based on the average per-recipient payment and typical historical participation. Universalising the allowance at the benchmark rate would cost $3.6 billion each year. 
• Increase funds for Pharmac. The Green's have not provided a direct figure. We have costed $720 million over four years, assuming a 10 percent increase to the 2026/27 Medicines budget. More information about Pharmac's medicine budget can be found in Vote Health in Budget 2026 on page 3.
• Increase benefits to "liveable rates." The Green's have not provided a figure. We have costed $27.604 billion over four years, using Welfare Advisory Group (WEAG) figures adjusted for inflation. More information can be found in the 2019 WEAG report.
• Extend ACC to all injuries, disability and illness, regardless of origin, self-costed. No Green figure exists. Costed at $96 billion over years, based on a 1988 Royal Commission on Social Policy estimate that such an extension would cost roughly four times the existing scheme. No such analysis has taken place since. The four times the exisiting cost has been carried forward. More information can be found this report.
• Work towards writing off MSD debt. The Green's have not provided a figure. We have estimated debt to be at least $1.37 billion across 449,733 people, using figures in MSD's Annual Report 2025. We calculated this by multiplying the average debt of $3,040 across 449,733 people with overpayment debt. 
• Expand free apprenticeship programmes. The Green's have not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed $200 million over four years, based on an additional 20 percent of Budget 2026's apprenticeship allocation of $250 million. More information can be found in Budget 2026 Summary of Initiatives. 
• Paid parental leave to 65 weeks. The Green's have not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed $6.6 billion over four years for an additional 39 week entitlement. We have based this on $811 per week for an average of 56,000 parents. 
• Introduce a price on agricultural emissions. The Green's have not provided a figure. We have costed a figure close to $50 million each year, coming to $200 million over four years. This figure is based on a calculation derived from Horticulture New Zealand, with an operational cost of $48 to $53 million each year. 
• Expand funding for Jobs for Nature. The Green's have not costed this policy. We have costed $1.25 billion on the assumption of reinstating the previous government's funding. More information can be found in this Offical Information Act Request on page 7.
• Restore the Ministry for the Environment. The Green's have not provided a direct figure for this policy. We have estimated a re-establishment cost of $90 million over four years. Taking an average of Treasury forecasts for MfE appropriates from 2025/26 to 2027/28 gives a yearly departmental output of $150m. Assuming rolling MfE into MCERT led to overhead savings of 10 percent - or $15m per year - unwinding these savings would therefore lead to additional fiscal costs of $15m per year. Add this to an assumed reestablishment cost of $30m, mirroring the MCERT establishment costs, gives a 4-year overall fiscal impact of $90m.
  
• Increase funding for the EPA and community environment groups. The Green's have not provided a figure for this policy. We estimate $13.5 million over four years, using a conservative 10 percent uplift of the EPA's 2026/27 budget. More information can be in Budget 2026 Vote Environment on page 107.
• Public Service pay increase. The Green's have not provided a figure, despite this being the party's flagship public service commitment. We have costed a pay increase estimate of 10 percent at $15.52 billion over four years, by applying that percentage to the $38.8 billion public sector wage bill. More information can be found here from the Public Service Commission, under Personnel expenditure in Core Crown and Total Crown. 
• Establish "KiwiMart" by forcing Foodstuffs and Woolworths to divest 120 stores. The Greens have costed this policy at $2.8 billion, with $1.3 billion to acquire the stores and distribution centres, and $1.5 billion to capitalise KiwiMart as an ongoing cost. We have calculated a $4.23 billion cost (adjusted to quarter two 2026 prices) for purchasing 120 divested stores (31% of locations), and additional warehouses, using the cost estimated by a MBIE study in 2022, on page 50. Consulting work done by Northelia, referenced by the Greens, notes that a new entity would have $700 million losses until it breaks-even, at a higher market share. This equals $87.5-140 million each year. We have used the midpoint of $113.75 million to derive an additional cost of $455 million over four years. In total, we have estimated an overall cost of $4.68 billion. 

NZ First

• Buy back the BNZ, disputed. NZ First costs this "at least $7.5 billion." Using BNZ's net profit to September 2025 of $1.49 billion and National Australia Bank's valuation multiplier of 16.19, plus a 10 percent premium, we've costed it at $26.7 billion. Over three times NZ First's own number.
• $1,000 KiwiSaver payment at birth. NZ First has not provided any cost. We have costed $240 million by using $1,000 multiplied by an estimated 60,000 births a year.
• Separate the electricity retail and generation arms. New Zealand First has not provided any figure. We have used the 2011/12 Telecom/Chorus breakup cost as a suitable proxy, adjusted for inflation and doubled for added complexity, totalling $273 million.
• Referendum on the Māori seats. There is no figure provided by NZ First. We have costed this policy on the price of the 2020 cannabis and euthanasia referendum, adjusted for inflation, totalling $12.9. More information can be found in the Electoral Commission's 2021 Annual Report on page 22.
• Increase KiwiSaver contributions from 3.5% to 8% (Government as employer cost). NZ First has not provided a cost. We have instead costed $6.3 billion over four years. We have calculated this policy based on the public sector's personnel wages found in the Financial Statements 2025. 
• COVID vaccine inquiry. NZ First has not provided an associated figure with this inquiry. We have instead costed this on half the cost of the earlier Royal Commission into the government's COVID response. More information on the Royal Commission's cost can be found here on page 10.
• Restrict superannuation to NZ Citizens. New Zealand First has quoted a saving of just over $1 billion each year. We have used a figure sourced from an Official Information Act request, noting that 42,852 resident holders who became residents after age 50, cost the Crown $1.07 billion each year. We used this to derive a saving of $4.28 billion over four years.

ACT

• Baseline Pharmac budget increase. ACT gave a range, but not an exact figure. We've used the midpoint of ACT's own year-by-year numbers to land on $1.925 billion over the next four years. More information can be found in ACT's Pharmac policy document. 
• Pharmacy diversification. ACT has not provided a figure. We have costed this policy at $92 million at a minimum over four years, based on a 2023 pilot scheme, with the true cost likely higher given ACT's broader policy. More information can be found in the 2023 Minor Health Conditions Service Pilot Report on page 6.
• Public Service consolidation. ACT has not provided a figure on the total saved. We have assumed no net cost to the taxpayer, once accounting for redundancies. 
• Ban on spiritual practices in the Public Service. ACT has not provided a saving for this policy. We have used a conservative estimation of 10 percent participation in practices such as waiata and karakia in the public service to derive a saving of $14 million over four years. 
• More rural police officers (100,000 extra patrol hours). ACT has not provided a costed figure. We have costed 56 additional police officers at an annual cost of $86,597, to make up the 100,000 hours. Plus, an 30 percent overhead. More information on police remuneration can be found here. 
• Three-strikes law for burglary. ACT only gave a $200 million maximum cost parameter, not a specific dollar figure. We have costed this policy using ACT's own maximum estimate of 952 extra offenders caught. We have used the cost each day of $552 from The Audit Office. The overall total does not include the additional cost of extra beds, which would expand the capital cost of the policy further.
• Scrap the Zero Carbon Act. ACT has not provided a cost for this policy. The Climate Change Commission's (CCC) functions would not be needed if the Act is repealed.  The savings from abolishing the CCC would equate to $59.2 million over four years. More information on the savings can be found in Budget 2026 Vote Environment on page 107.
• Restore Industrial carbon assistance to 90%/60% rates. ACT has not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed this policy at $65 million over four years. Using current volumes, restoring EITE assistance from 85%/55% back to 90%/60% would add roughly 240,000–370,000 free units a year to industrial allocation, worth an estimated $12–20 million annually at a $50–55 carbon price (we have used the midpoint at $16.25 million each year, or $65 million over four years) — though this is a lower-bound, single-year snapshot: it excludes the compounding cost of freezing the 1% annual phase-down (which would keep widening the gap between ACT’s settings and the status quo each year) and the effect of the “up to 100% in exceptional cases” provision, which isn’t specific enough in the document to cost. More information on the current number of industrial units can be found here.
• Return 100% net carbon auction revenue to households, as a Carbon Tax Refund. ACT has not provided a cost for this policy. We have used the projected ETS receipts for 2027-31 found in BEFU 2026 on page 93. As a result, the overall cost is $407 million over four years. 

Opportunity Party

• Make all public transport free. TOP costs this at $150 million a year. Actual NZTA fare revenue data puts the real figure at $324.5 million a year, more than double TOP's own number. More information can be found in State of Public Transport in New Zealand on page 9. 
• Support growth in the number of te reo teachers. TOP has not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed this policy based on an additional $14.7 million allocated in Budget 2025 for 51,000 exisiting teachers to build their Te reo Māori knowledge and tikanga skills. More information can be found here. 
• Reinstate the 2025 smokefree legislation. TOP has not provided an exact figure for reinstating this legislation. We have used Treasury's own calculation, reflecting the tobacco excise revenue Treasury expects to forgo due to this legislation, totalling $1.5 billion. More information can be found in this Official Information Act request from Treasury, dated February 2024.
• Support offsite builders who take on apprentices. TOP has not provided a figure. We have costed $31.2 million over four years, doubling support of current offsite construction apprentice numbers of 1,300 learners in 2025. More information about the number of learners can be found here, and the figures on the apprenticeship scheme can be found here.
• Support high-emitting sectors to reduce emissions and adapt. TOP has not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed this policy using the previous government's GIDI fund of $650 million over four years. More information can be found through the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority. 
• Citizens' Assembly. TOP has not provided a figure. We have costed this policy from a comparable Scottish assembly, adjusted to NZD. More information can in the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland costs and Ministerial Papers.
• Parliamentary Commissioner for the Citizen Vote. TOP has not provided a figure. We have costed this policy at $1.6 million over four years, using the existing Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment's remuneration for a comparable proxy, plus an additional 30 percent for support staff.

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