Bribe-O-Meter Workings

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 not costed it, we've built one ourselves from publicly available data. And if a party's own numbers don't look believable, we publish our own instead.

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

Labour

  • Cap public transport fares, disputed. Labour costs this at $260 million. 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 each year, for a four-year total of $648 million. More detail on these calculations can be found here. 
  • Reverse income related rent and accommodation supplement changes. Labour has booked these changes as a $73.4 million saving over the 2028-31 period, when in fact they are a $73.4 million cost. More information can be found here. NB: the $90m figure in the press release spans the 2027-2031 period.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Establish an Office of AI and AI online safety regulator within DIA. Labour has not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed the policy at $29.2 million over four years, using the annual $7.3 million expenditure of NetSafe, an organisation that has similar online safety functions. More information about NetSafe's total expenditure can be found on page 40. 
  • Make price gouging illegal. Labour have not provided a costing. We have assumed the cost will mirror Opportunity's similar plans to strengthen the Commerce Commission, and replicated their costings.
  • Make grocery prices fair. Using the 2025/26 cost of grocery regulation of $7.286m (the last year this was reported separately), we applied an uplift of the same percentage (29.4 percent) as the general Commerce Commission above. p. 37
  • Rainbow healthcare strategy. We adjusted the $4.698 million allocated to gender-affirming primary care and intersex health services in Budget 2022 for inflation. This gives a figure of $5.4 million.
  • Independent FENZ review. We have used this figure on the cost of the 2025 early childhood education funding review.
  • Firefighter ACC reforms. Costed at $26.7 million over four years. This assumes the expanded mental injury test results in new accepted claims equal to 1 percent of FENZ’s roughly 14,900 personnel each year, at an average cost of $44,735.44 per claim.
  • Progressively raising foreign aid towards 0.7 percent of Gross National Income. Labour has committed to 'progressively increase' aid 'towards 0.7% of GNI as fiscal conditions allow', with no rate or date specified. We have assumed a progressive linear rise from 0.27% of GNI (OECD, 2025 preliminary) to 0.7% by year four, applied to gross national income grown at an assumed 4% a year from $405.2bn (Stats NZ, year ended March 2024). Costed at $5.5bn, or $2,662 per household; the ongoing additional cost of raising the rate to 0.7% would be about $2.3bn a year by 2031. 
  • Lobbying register and donation restrictions. Opportunity's 'clean up politics' package is costed at $208 million over four years. Removing their costings for the anti-corruption body which forms part of the package gives a costing for lobbying and donation controls of $48 million over four years. This costing has been applied to Labour's policy.
  • School lunch reforms, disputed. Labour’s fiscal plan funds its return to locally made school lunches at $590.8 million, but only until 2030: $146.2 million in 2027/28, $295.4 million in 2028/29 and $149.2 million in 2029/30, with nothing in 2030/31. We have assumed the funding will continue into 2030/2031 at the 2029/2030 rate. This gives a four-year total of $740 million, or $357 per household.
  • ‘Fair Go’ consumer protection law. Labour has announced a new ‘Fair Go’ law but has not provided a cost. We have costed only the enforcement. In 2024/25, enforcing the Fair Trading Act and the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act cost $20.33 million (p. 52). We have assumed that enforcing a Fair Go law would add 10 percent to that, or about $2 million a year, giving $8.1 million over four years. The true cost could be higher if the law creates new functions beyond enforcement.
  • Restore 43 rural school bus routes. Labour has said it will restore the routes National cancelled ‘where possible’, but has not provided a cost or timeframe. We have costed 43 routes at about $64,200 each a year, or $11.0 million over four years from 2027/28. This uses the Ministry of Education’s 2026/27 directly resourced bus rates (a base of $90.91 a day, $3.964 a km and $176 a quarter for admin, excluding GST), an average route of 30.68 km each way (p. 75), and 190 school days. 
  • Redress for abuse in state care. Labour has promised to expand redress for survivors of abuse in state care, but its fiscal plan neither mentions nor costs it. Official costings released to the Taxpayers’ Union under the Official Information Act put expanded redress packages at up to $1.025 billion over four years, in addition to the Government's current funding track. More information can be found here.
  • Reintroduce Fair Pay Agreements. Labour has said it will reintroduce Fair Pay Agreements, but has not provided a cost. We have used the $35.8 million of Budget 2021 funding to implement the Fair Pay Agreement and screen industry bargaining systems, operating and capital, adjusted for inflation to $45.3 million over four years. This assumes the system restarts in 2027/28 on the 2022 design. The screen industry share is not split out, so this is likely an upper bound. We have deducted the cost from the $968 million ‘future announcements’ allowance in Labour’s fiscal plan, so it does not change their total. More information can be found here (p.1).
  • Benefit indexation (higher of inflation or wage growth). Labour has pledged to raise benefits by whichever is higher, inflation or average wage growth, but has not costed it and it is not in their own fiscal plan. We have costed this using Treasury’s forecasts of inflation, wage growth and benefit spending in the PREFU 2026 (pages 86 and 122). This gives $1.16 billion over four years, or $561 per household. More information can be found here. (NB - the figure in this press release is higher than the figure used in Bribe-O-Meter. This is due to the PR matching the timelines in Labour's fiscal plan, which are slightly longer than those in most other fiscal plans and the Bribe-O-Meter itself).
  • Rent-to-buy. Labour would let eligible Kāinga Ora and community housing tenants rent to buy, with $100 a week going into a trust account as a deposit credit. Kieran McAnulty told Heather du Plessis-Allan there are 1,100 people currently paying market rent under Kāinga Ora, but that it “wouldn’t be limited to them”. We have costed 1,100 tenants at $5,200 a year for four years, or $22.9 million, which is likely a floor. More information can be found in Labour’s policy release.
  • Expand First Home Loans. Labour would lift the First Home Loan income cap to $300,000 but has not provided a cost. National’s policy document puts the fiscal impact of this change at $4 million to $6 million. We have used the midpoint of $5 million over four years.
  • Marae emergency preparedness and resilience funding. Labour’s manifesto promises to fund marae emergency preparedness and resilience, but gives no amount. As a proxy we have used the $30 million 2022 Budget allocation for the Māori Climate Platform. More information on the previous scheme can be found in Te Ao News.

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.
  • MMP referendum. We have costed this policy on the price of the 2020 cannabis and euthanasia referendum totalling $12.9 million, before inflation-adjusting this figure. More information can be found in the Electoral Commission's 2021 Annual Report on page 22.

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. Built from the Greens' own Budget 2025 document on page 28.
  • EV subsidies. 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 schoolkid population puts the figure at $2.182 billion.
  • Free tertiary education up to first degree. The Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 four 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. Four times the existing cost has been carried forward over four years. More information can be found in this report.
  • Work towards writing off MSD debt. The Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 Greens 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 Official Information Act Request on page 7.
  • Restore the Ministry for the Environment. The Greens 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 appropriations 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 Greens 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 found in Budget 2026 Vote Environment on page 107.
  • 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. 
  • Unoccupied commercial lease auctions. The direct cost to the crown of this policy has been assumed to just be the cost of the proposed tribunal. We took the $17.878 million cost of the tenancy tribunal, and assumed that the commercial tribunal would deal with only one tenth as many cases (at one tenth of the cost). pp. 41 and 66
  • Lobbying register and donation restrictions. Opportunity's 'clean up politics' package is costed at $208 million over four years. Removing their costings for the anti-corruption body which forms part of the package gives a costing for lobbying and donation controls of $48 million over four years. This costing has been applied to the Greens' policy.
  • Protect 30 percent of the Hauraki Gulf by 2030. The Greens have not provided a cost. We have costed this at $52.5 million over four years, scaling up the Department of Conservation’s $10.5 million funding to establish the current protected areas (about 6 percent of the Gulf) five times to reach 30 percent.
  • Regulate AI. The Greens’ AI policy sets five goals but gives no costing. We have costed it the same way as Labour’s Office of AI and online safety regulator, using NetSafe’s $7.3 million a year as a proxy, for $29.2 million over four years. This is our assumption. We would welcome more detail from the Greens.
  • Paid placements for nursing, teaching and social work students. The Greens would pay students $380 a week while on placement, but have not provided a cost. We have costed $289 million over four years. For nursing ($138.6 million), we divided the minimum clinical hours (1,000 for registered nurses, 700 for enrolled nurses) by 30-hour weeks (as cited by the Greens) and multiplied by the 2025 final exam sitters (2,480 registered, 365 enrolled) (p. 16) and $380. For teaching ($125.4 million), we used Education Counts’ 2025 completions (3,190), with placements of 120 days (bachelor's) or 80 days (graduate and postgraduate), 8-hour days and 30-hour weeks. For social work ($25.2 million), we used the Social Workers Registration Board’s 2024 report of 1,036 students on placement (p. 18) for an average of 60 days.
  • Placement relocation payments. The Greens would pay $1,500 to students who need to relocate for a placement, but have not given eligibility rules, numbers or a cost. We have costed $21.2 million over four years: 14,142 placements a year (7,071 students across nursing, teaching and social work, at a conservatively assumed two placements each). A quarter of placements are assumed to involve relocations.
  • Apprentice equipment grant. The Greens would give a $2,000 grant per apprentice over the duration of the apprenticeship, but have not provided a cost. We have costed $178.5 million over four years: $2,000 for each of 59,720 apprentices in the first year, then $2,000 for each of 9,840 new apprentices in each of the three years after.
  • Employer apprenticeship completion bonus. The Greens would pay employers a $2,000 bonus for completed apprenticeships. We have assumed one bonus per completion, at 12,930 completions a year (2025), costing $103.4 million over four years.
  • Reinstate the pay equity regime. The Greens’ fiscal plan includes $4.48 billion over four years for pay equity ($1.07 billion in 2027/28, rising to $1.17 billion in 2030/31). We have costed reinstating the regime at $10.97 billion over four years, using Treasury’s projected cost of pay equity, as for Labour and Opportunity. The plan’s figure is about 41 percent of Treasury’s. More information can be found in the Greens’ Fiscal Plan 2026 and the Budget 2025 Summary of Initiatives, page 80.

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 totalling $12.9 million, before inflation-adjusting this figure. 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 the average cost of phase 1 and phase 2 of the Royal Commission into the government's COVID response. More information on the Royal Commission's cost can be found here on page 10.
  • 10-Year welfare stand-down for visa holders. Using MSD OIA data on the number of recipients of each benefit by visa type, we excluded payments made to refugees and calculated the remaining overall cost. Special Needs Grants are recorded separately and were not included in this dataset. To estimate these costs, we used OIA data on 'special need' grants paid to non-citizens in Auckland and multiplied the figure by three to estimate the nationwide total, and added this to the earlier figure.
  • Make New Zealand Healthy. This policy package comprised 15 separate items, which were uncosted. We have broken down this policy as follows:
  • Regulate combat sports, including a Combat Sports Commission. NZ First has not provided a cost. We have scaled up the cost of the New South Wales Combat Sport Authority (A$2.882 million in 2024/25), converted to New Zealand dollars, giving $14.2 million over four years. This is before fees, and includes no set-up cost. More information can be found here.
  • Defence spending path to 3 percent of GDP. NZ First’s defence policy paper sets an indicative path for defence investment of 2.5 percent of GDP in FY2028, 2.7 percent in FY2029 and FY2030, and 3 percent in FY2031, but gives no dollar figure. We applied each year’s share to the Treasury’s forecast of nominal GDP in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU), then subtracted the PREFU’s forecast defence spending (operating expenses plus net capital expenditure). That gives an uplift of $7.8 billion in 2027/28, $9.3 billion in 2028/29, $10.4 billion in 2029/30 and $13.0 billion in 2030/31, a total of $40.55 billion, or $19,571 per household. More information can be found in NZ First’s defence white paper (section 16) and the PREFU 2026 (nominal GDP on PDF page 92, defence expenses on page 131, net capital expenditure on page 124).
  • Abolish the Serious Fraud Office and replace it with a Police division. NZ First has not given a figure. The SFO’s function and funding move to Police, so we count neither a saving nor a cost. 
  • Ensure police have the resources to do their job. NZ First says it will ensure police have the resources to do their job, but gives no figure and no specific commitment. We have used ACT’s costing of its rural policing plan as a proxy for an unspecified uplift. ACT’s plan totals $38 million (p.10). We would welcome more information from New Zealand First on what their plan entails, as this is lacking in detail.
  • Dedicated organised crime agency with a responsible minister. NZ First would establish a dedicated agency for organised crime, with a responsible minister, but gives no figure. We have used the Serious Fraud Office’s 2026/27 appropriation of $17.375 million a year as a proxy for a comparable small specialist agency, giving $69.5 million over four years from 2027/28. More information can be found in the Vote Serious Fraud Estimates of Appropriations 2026/27 (page 163).
  • State pays victims’ reparation immediately and recovers it from offenders. NZ First would have the state take responsibility for paying reparation to victims immediately and recovering it from offenders, but gives no figure. We have used ACT’s equivalent plan as a proxy. ACT expected to pay out $25 million a year and aimed to recover 80 percent of it from offenders, leaving a net cost of $5 million a year, or $20 million over four years. ACT’s release dates from 2022. More information can be found in ACT’s 2022 plan.
  • Game development rebate uplift. NZ First would lift the game development rebate rate from 20 percent to 40 percent, the cap per studio from $3 million to $10 million, and the appropriation from $40 million to $45 million by 2028. NZ First measures this as $5 million a year more than $40 million. The 2026/27 Estimates show $35.4 million for the scheme and $1.742 million for administration, a total of $37.142 million, so the uplift to $45 million is $7.858 million a year, or $31.4 million over four years. We have assumed the $45 million includes administration and applies from 2027/28. More information can be found in the 2026/27 Estimates for Vote Business, Science and Innovation (Vol. 1, pages 47 and 213).
  • Home burglary treated as aggravated burglary. NZ First would treat burglary of a home or private dwelling the same as aggravated burglary or home invasion, but gives no figure. We have costed it as sentencing parity for people sentenced from 1 July 2027. Stats NZ records 1,877 adults convicted of burglary in 2025. We have assumed two-thirds are home burglaries (about 1,250 a year), based on a Ministry of Justice study. A burglar who is imprisoned today spends about 1.3 years in custody, which we get by dividing the burglars in prison by the number imprisoned each year. We have scaled that by 1.4, the ratio of the maximum penalty for aggravated burglary (14 years) to burglary (10 years), giving 1.8 years. Each extra prisoner-year costs $190,895, which is $523 a day, the Department of Corrections’ average cost of a prison sentence. The extra custody builds as new cohorts are sentenced: about 160 extra prisoner-years in 2027/28, 610 in 2028/29, and 910 in each of the last two years, 2,586 in total. If the share of home burglars imprisoned stays at today’s 49 percent, the cost is $150 million over four years. If every one is imprisoned, it is $838 million. We have taken the midpoint, $493.7 million, or $238 per household. Once every cohort is through, that is about $174 million a year. This excludes the cost of new prison beds. The two-thirds share comes from 2005 data on recorded offences rather than convictions, the ratio of maximum penalties is only a proxy for how much longer sentences would be, and $523 a day is an average that includes fixed costs, so the true marginal cost is lower. More information can be found in Stats NZ’s conviction data, the Ministry of Justice’s burglary research, Corrections’ prison statistics and the Department of Corrections’ 2025/26 Annual Report (page 36).
  • Parole eligibility raised to 75 percent of sentence for long-term offenders. NZ First would raise standard parole eligibility to 75 percent of a sentence for long-term offenders, but gives no figure. We have costed it on the 1,101 people paroled a year from determinate sentences (the Parole Board’s 2025/26 figure), and excluded the 70 on indeterminate sentences, which have no fixed term to take 75 percent of. No sentence-length data is published, so we have assumed an average sentence of four years. The average parole order runs for 669 days (1.8 years), so on a four-year average sentence we assume people are released after serving about 54 percent of it. Under NZ First's policy they would serve 3 years, which is 0.83 years, or 304 days, more each, at $190,895 a year ($523 a day, the Department of Corrections’ average cost of a prison sentence). Today, someone sentenced to four years would be released after about 2.2 years under these assumptions. So the extra custody is the 0.8 years after the point where they would otherwise have been let out. Roughly one cohort-year of extra custody therefore falls inside our window: nothing in the first two years, then 366 extra prisoner-years in 2029/30 and 917 in 2030/31. The total is 1,283 prisoner-years, or $245.0 million, $118 per household. This number is sensitive to the assumed sentence length. This excludes the cost of new prison beds. More information can be found in NZ First’s law and order announcement, the New Zealand Parole Board’s annual reports (2025-26 report, page 7) and the Department of Corrections’ 2025/26 Annual Report (pages 36 and 37).
  • Ten-point rail policy. NZ First has costed most of its ten rail points and says four are already funded in the PREFU or Budget 2026. We have taken it at its word on the new money of $585 million, including $100 million for the Kaimai Tunnel, $130 million for new Te Huia trains and $300 million for level crossings. Christchurch passenger rail has also been costed at $4 million a year over four years, plus 'low millions' for commercial finance. We have taken this to mean $18 million over four years. NZ First has not costed Te Huia’s operating costs, so we have used the 60 percent NZTA share (Waikato Regional Council) of the five-year trial’s $29.3 million approved operating budget (Te Huia funding partners), or $14.1 million over four years. The total of this package over and above existing baseline funding is $617.1 million, or $298 per household.

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. However, they have stated that this $1.925 billion is an increase as a portion of the health budget, meaning the net-cost would be zero. More information can be found in ACT's Pharmac policy document. 
  • Public Service consolidation. ACT’s plan proposes 19 departments and 18 ministers, with chief executives appointed and removed by ministers, but gives no separate cost or saving. It says only that consolidation will support the non-frontline cut, so we have assumed that the savings from this are found within the 'non-frontline cuts' budget line-item.
  • Ban on spiritual practices in the Public Service. ACT has not provided a saving for this policy, and it is not in the fiscal plan. Our earlier estimate, assuming 10 percent participation in practices such as waiata and karakia in the public service, was a saving of $14 million over four years. We have assumed it sits inside ACT’s non-frontline public service cut, so we count no separate amount.
  • 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, which we previously costed as a saving of $59.2 million over four years. We have assumed this is part of the environmental savings (excluding the ETS) in ACT’s fiscal plan, so we count nothing separately here. ACT has not confirmed this. 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. This policy is not in ACT’s fiscal plan. There may be overlap if ACT’s ‘net’ carbon auction revenue is already net of this assistance.
  • One-stop consenting shop. ACT has not provided a cost for this policy, and it is not in the fiscal plan. We have assumed no net cost, on the basis that the new agency recovers its costs from applicants. However, part of the cost may shift from councils to the Crown.
  • Remove the ETS auction floor. Any extra revenue is given out through ACT’s carbon tax refund.
  • Referendum on four-year parliamentary terms. ACT has pledged a referendum on four-year parliamentary terms in 2029 but has not provided a cost. We have costed it at $16.55 million, the same as National’s MMP referendum, based on the $12.9 million cost of the 2020 cannabis and euthanasia referendums adjusted for inflation. More information can be found in the Electoral Commission’s 2021 annual report.
  • Use of spare seats and extra buses on school bus routes. ACT would let children use spare seats on existing school bus routes, with extra buses where needed, but gives no figure. Given the pledge for extra buses where needed, we have assumed the cost to be a quarter of Labour's policy to restore 43 bus routes. At $64,200 a route a year, this would cost $2.76 million over four years. More information on Labour's policy can be found in the Labour section of this page.
  • Remembrance Army. ACT has promised up to $1 million to help the Remembrance Army restore neglected service graves. We have taken ACT at its word, and taken the top end of this range.

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 existing 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 be found 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.
  • Establish an Industry Energy Resilience Fund (IERF). TOP has not provided a cost over the next four years, but has stated the fund would be capitalised by a $1 billion green bond raised against a conservative projection of ETS auction revenue. We have costed this policy over the next four years at $407 million, using projected ETS receipts over four years found in BEFU 2026 on page 93. 
  • Refund GST collected on construction to councils. Opportunity has not provided a cost for this policy. We have costed it at $15.9 billion over four years, using Inland Revenue data on the GST collected on construction activity, which comes to about $4.0 billion a year. We have assumed the refund applies to all of it, with no growth over the four years.
  • Reinstate the pay equity regime. Opportunity’s disability position statement gives no figure. We have costed this at $10.97 billion over four years, using Treasury’s projected cost of pay equity, as for Labour. More detail can be found in the Budget 2025 Summary of Initiatives on page 80.
  • Appoint a Future Generations Commissioner. TOP's policy page does not provide a figure. We have costed this on the equivalent Welsh body, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, which spent £2.077 million in 2025/26, or $4.9 million a year ($19.5 million over four years). We have not scaled this for population. More information can be found in the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales annual report 2025-26, page 92.
  • Establish an independent council for curriculum and assessment. TOP has not provided a figure. We have costed it using Labour’s equivalent council, at $500,000 a year, or $2 million over four years. Labour funds its council by reprioritising existing education baselines, but TOP has not said how it would fund theirs, so we have counted the cost. This is likely to be low for a permanent statutory body.

Te Pāti Māori

  • Toi Māori authority at parity with Creative NZ. Te Pāti Māori has not provided a figure. We have costed it using Creative NZ’s 2025/26 budgeted total revenue of $70.8 million a year, $283.1 million over four years.
  • Toi Māori artists income programme. Te Pāti Māori has not provided a wage. We have costed 1,000 artists at a time, working 30 hours a week at the $23.95 adult minimum wage with no on-costs, running all four years, or $149.4 million.

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