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Evidence · NZ Election 2026

Every question, every answer, every source

Everything the study collected, as it was collected on 5 October 2026. Read any answer in full, or download the tables behind every figure in the study.

questions
174
voters the questions were written as
32
answers collected, of 820 planned
815
answers compared like for like
800
pairs of national and town answers
124
answers with sources recorded
774
answers that showed a link
304

01

Every question, with its answers

Each question was written as a voter would ask it and went to all four assistants. Some were also asked from a town. Open a question to read every answer to it in full.

Showing 20 of 174 questions

Show all 174

02

The tables behind the study

Every figure on the study page comes from these tables. They are CSV files, which open in any spreadsheet.

  • Questions

    nz-election-2026-questions.csv

    One row per question.

    Question id, report reference, question, voter, issue, towns it was also asked from, answers per assistant

    174rows

    Download questions (CSV)

  • Answers

    nz-election-2026-answers.csv

    One row per answer, with its full text.

    Answer id, question id, assistant, town, words, parties named, showed a link, websites recorded as sources, compared like for like, full text

    815rows

    Download answers (CSV)

  • Sources by answer

    nz-election-2026-sources.csv

    One row for each website recorded as a source of an answer.

    Answer id, question id, assistant, town, website, publisher type

    4,216rows

    Download sources by answer (CSV)

  • Checks against official sources

    nz-election-2026-checks.csv

    One row per statement checked.

    Check, answer id, assistant, what the answer said, verdict, what the source says, source, date

    17rows

    Download checks against official sources (CSV)

  • Who to vote for: coding

    nz-election-2026-guidance.csv

    One row per answer to the eight questions that asked who to vote for.

    Answer id, question id, assistant, what the answer did, the words that show it

    32rows

    Download who to vote for: coding (CSV)

  • Location and national answers

    nz-election-2026-towns.csv

    One row per question asked both nationally and from a location, for each assistant.

    Question, town, assistant, both answer ids, parties named nationally and from the town, same parties

    124rows

    Download location and national answers (CSV)

Use these tables to trace findings back to the original questions and answers. The full text of each answer is also on this page, under its question.

03

Read in full and checked

Some answers were read in detail or checked against official sources. Those appear on the study page, beside the findings they support.

ChatGPT · No location

I work in a small town rather than farming. My family drives long distances for services, and local jobs and healthcare are limited. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What would parties do about fuel costs for people who have few public transport alternatives?

For someone who must drive long distances, the main 2026 differences are:

For your circumstances, the key comparison is therefore direct fuel-tax relief versus targeted assistance for people who have no practical alternative to driving.

Ask anything

ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.

Captured 5 October 2026 · shown as ChatGPT gave it, not a verified account

Gemini · No location

I work in a small town rather than farming. My family drives long distances for services, and local jobs and healthcare are limited. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What would parties do about fuel costs for people who have few public transport alternatives?

For households living in small towns and rural areas where long-distance travel is essential and public transport options are sparse, the cost of fuel hits household budgets particularly hard. Ahead of the 2026 general election, different political parties are approaching transport, regional access, and cost-of-living pressures through distinct lenses.

Here is an overview of how major political parties generally position themselves regarding regional transport, driving costs, and alternatives:

1. National and Right-Leaning Parties (ACT, NZ First)

  • Focus on Roads and Infrastructure: Their primary strategy for regional and small-town New Zealand centers on upgrading highways, improving road resilience, and building Roads of National Significance. The argument is that better, safer, and more efficiently maintained roads reduce vehicle wear-and-tear and travel times for regional motorists.
  • Cost of Driving: These parties typically resist broad fuel tax increases that disproportionately burden rural motorists who have no viable alternative to driving. Some parties have historically emphasized securing strategic fuel reserves or examining market competition to keep fuel prices in check.
  • View on Public Transport: They tend to view heavy investment in urban mass rapid transit as less relevant to rural and small-town communities, preferring to direct transport funding toward roading networks that service all vehicle types.

2. Labour and Center-Left Parties (The Green Party, Labour)

  • Targeted Cost-of-Living Relief: While much of their public transport policy focuses on urban caps (such as Labour’s proposed weekly caps of $20 in main centers and $10 elsewhere), they also propose broader social support measures. For instance, the Green Party’s transport platform emphasizes expanding fare-free schemes for specific groups (like students, community services cardholders, and beneficiaries) to free up household income.
  • Regional and Flexible Services: Recognizing that traditional fixed-schedule buses do not work well outside major cities, some progressive policies advocate for funding interregional, rural, and on-demand public transport or community-led transport initiatives.
  • Transition Support: Left-leaning parties also champion incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) and e-bikes to help insulate households from international oil price shocks, though access to charging infrastructure remains a challenge for many smaller towns.

Summary for Small-Town Commuters

  • If you favor National or NZ First, the emphasis is on keeping roads safe, maintaining infrastructure, and avoiding policies that penalize drivers who rely entirely on cars.
  • If you favor Labour or the Greens, the emphasis leans toward broader cost-of-living assistance, exploring decentralized or on-demand regional transport alternatives, and transitioning away from fossil fuel dependency over the long term.

Are you looking for specific party manifesto details regarding regional health access or infrastructure funding in smaller centers?

Ask Gemini

Gemini is AI and can make mistakes.

Captured 5 October 2026 · shown as Gemini gave it, not a verified account

Google AI Mode · No location

I work in a small town rather than farming. My family drives long distances for services, and local jobs and healthcare are limited. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What would parties do about fuel costs for people who have few public transport alternatives?

For people living in small towns and regional areas who rely heavily on private vehicles for long-distance travel due to limited public transport and local services, the major political parties approach the cost of driving and transport infrastructure through different funding models and priorities.

The primary positions and proposals from the political parties regarding fuel costs, road user charges (RUC), and regional connectivity highlight distinct philosophies:

  • National Party: Focuses heavily on roading infrastructure, maintenance, and economic growth through transport connectivity. Rather than broad fuel tax subsidies, National prioritises investment in highway networks and regional roads to ensure that transit between towns remains efficient. Their approach to the broader transition to electronic Road User Charges (RUC) for light vehicles is tied to maintaining sustainable funding for state highways and local roads without leaning into punitive motoring costs, though they generally favor traditional user-pays and capital-supported infrastructure.
  • Labour Party: Has emphasised cost-of-living relief, previously pledging interventions such as freezing or deferring fuel excise and road user charge increases to cushion motorists from pain at the pump. For regional and small-town New Zealanders, Labour’s approach targets temporary relief on excise taxes during high-inflation periods, paired with funding support for regional council initiatives and health access transport schemes.
  • Green Party: Focuses its primary transport relief on expanding and subsidising public transport (such as free travel for community service cardholders, students, and children, and capping other fares at $2). While their metro-centric policies heavily target urban congestion, for regional areas, the Greens lean into supporting intercity passenger rail options and local shared-transport initiatives to reduce absolute reliance on private fossil-fuel vehicles over long distances.
  • ACT Party: Advocates for a strict "user-pays" model, leveraging electronic road-user charges, tolling, and private capital to fund and build infrastructure. ACT is generally skeptical of broad government subsidies or artificial freezes on fuel taxes, arguing instead for broader income tax reduction frameworks to let individuals keep more of their earnings to absorb cost-of-living expenses like fuel, alongside market-driven efficiencies for infrastructure delivery.
  • New Zealand First: Places a strong emphasis on regional development, domestic fuel security, and strategic public ownership of transport networks. They typically champion regional infrastructure resilience and advocate for measures that protect provincial and small-town communities from disproportionate cost burdens, viewing transport as a critical lifeline for regional equity rather than just an emissions-reduction target. [Kiwi Coaches]

As the general election approaches, the debate largely centers on whether relief should be delivered directly at the pump through tax freezes (favoured by parties like Labour), through broader economic tax cuts (favoured by ACT), or by transforming wider transit and regional rail alternatives (favoured by the Greens), balanced against the shift toward electronic road user charges for all light vehicles.

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Captured 5 October 2026 · shown as Google AI Mode gave it, not a verified account

AI Overviews · No location

I work in a small town rather than farming. My family drives long distances for services, and local jobs and healthcare are limited. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What would parties do about fuel costs for people who have few public transport alternatives?

AI Overview

For the 2026 New Zealand general election , political parties are sharply divided on how to manage fuel costs, particularly within the context of a global fuel crisis and high pump prices. Because you live in a small town with limited jobs, public healthcare, and no public transport, your driving is an absolute necessity rather than a choice.

The primary policy platforms directly addressing fuel taxation and long-term travel costs for motorists include:

National Party & ACT (The Coalition Government)

The coalition partners have pivoted toward smaller, incremental fuel tax updates and systemic funding changes rather than sudden price hikes:

  • Capping Immediate Fuel Tax Increases: National and ACT cancelled the massive 12-cent per litre petrol excise hike originally slated for January. Instead, they introduced a staggered 5-cent increase every six months starting in January 2028.

  • Transition to Electronic Road User Charges (E-RUC): The coalition is progressing legislation to entirely replace the petrol excise tax with distance-based E-RUC for all 3.5 million light vehicles. This means you would pay based on the exact weight of your vehicle and the distance you drive, rather than a tax bundled into the price of fuel at the pump.

  • Targeted Crisis Relief: Under the National Fuel Response Plan, the government has slightly boosted regional mileage rates and the Family Tax Credit to offset global fuel price spikes for rural and working families.

Labour Party

Labour’s strategy relies heavily on cost-of-living relief, price monitoring, and strict limits on tax increases:

  • Three-Year Fuel Tax Freeze: Labour has committed to a complete freeze on all fuel excise duty increases for an entire three-year parliamentary term. They argue this provides instant cost certainty at the pump for drivers who cannot avoid long commutes.

  • Banning Price Gouging: Labour has pledged new legislation targeting dominant energy and fuel companies, giving the Commerce Commission the teeth to penalise fuel retailers if regional pump prices significantly exceed supply costs over a sustained period.

  • Public Transport Caps: While you noted you lack alternatives, Labour's platform includes a regional public transport fare cap ($10 maximum per week outside the main centers) if you ever travel to nearby hubs for services.

Green Party

The Greens oppose freezing fuel taxes because they argue it starves the National Land Transport Fund of critical road maintenance money. Instead, they advocate for:

  • Fossil Fuel Crisis Relief Packages: Direct financial support and clean energy loans (like their proposed SolarSaver scheme) to lower overall household utility bills to offset what you spend at the pump.

If you would like, let me know:

  • What type of vehicle you primarily drive (e.g., diesel, petrol, or EV/hybrid) to see how the E-RUC shift affects you?

  • Which specific regional services or healthcare issues matter most to your family?

I can tailor a closer look at the parties' wider small-town health and infrastructure plans.

Ask anything

Captured 5 October 2026 · shown as AI Overviews gave it, not a verified account