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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

We own a home with a mortgage, have school-age children and rely on two wages. After mortgage payments, rates, power and groceries, there is little buffer. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What are the parties proposing about household costs, and which proposals would actually apply to a working family like ours?

For a working homeowner with children, the biggest differences are taxes, groceries and power; mortgage rates are mostly indirect policy.

For your household, the crucial numbers are combined income, home/land value, mortgage balance, and weekly grocery/power/transport spending; those determine which proposals would actually change your budget.

Ask anything

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

Gemini · No location

We own a home with a mortgage, have school-age children and rely on two wages. After mortgage payments, rates, power and groceries, there is little buffer. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What are the parties proposing about household costs, and which proposals would actually apply to a working family like ours?

For a dual-income household with a mortgage, school-age children, and a tight buffer after covering fixed costs (mortgage, rates, power, and groceries), the financial squeeze is a central theme of the 2026 New Zealand General Election.

Major political parties are pitching different approaches to household budgets. Understanding which proposals actually apply to your situation involves separating broad tax or macroeconomic promises from direct cost-of-relieving policies.

Major Party Approaches to Household Costs

  • National: Focuses on fiscal restraint, keeping income taxes low, and managing inflation through government spending control rather than introducing new taxes. Their policies lean toward broad economic management, easing supply constraints, and targeted adjustments (such as expanding the income thresholds for first-home buyer loan schemes, though you already own your home).
  • Labour: Emphasizes direct cost-of-living relief targeting everyday essentials. Their 2026 package includes interventions like three free GP visits a year, free prescriptions, a weekly cap on public transport fares ($20), and measures targeting supermarket pricing and grocery costs. They are also proposing a capital gains tax on commercial and residential properties (excluding the family home).
  • ACT: Campaigns heavily on a "no new taxes" platform, prioritizing a faster path to a government budget surplus through deeper public spending cuts. They generally oppose market interventions like price controls or subsidies, arguing they inflate costs elsewhere.
  • Green Party & Te Pāti Māori: Focus heavily on systemic interventions, including wider wealth/capital taxes for high-net-worth individuals, increased public housing, and—in the Greens' case—stringent renter protections like annual rent caps (which apply to tenants rather than mortgage-holders).
  • NZ First: Emphasizes cost-of-living relief, law and order, and infrastructure/regional support, while opposing new property or capital taxes.

Proposals That Directly Apply to Your Working Family

Since you already own a home (meaning policies on rent caps or first-home grants do not directly apply) and rely on two wages, the policies that would most tangibly impact your buffer include:

1. Healthcare and Pharmacy Costs (Labour)

  • The Proposal: Providing three free GP visits per year for everyone alongside free prescriptions.
  • Impact on You: With school-age children, doctor visits and winter prescriptions can create unexpected spikes in your monthly expenses. Free GP visits and prescriptions directly reduce out-of-pocket health spending for families.

2. Transport and Public Transit Caps (Labour)

  • The Proposal: Implementing a $20 weekly cap on public transport fares.
  • Impact on You: This applies directly if you or your children use public transport to commute to work or school. However, if your household relies entirely on private vehicles for commuting and school drop-offs, this specific policy offers little relief, as major parties have fewer direct subsidies for petrol outside of broader excise tax adjustments.

3. Grocery and Energy Costs (Cross-Party Focus)

  • The Proposal: Labour is campaigning on stricter measures to curb supermarket "price gouging" and increase competition at the checkout. Meanwhile, various parties have proposed energy funds or mechanisms to address rising household electricity and utility bills.
  • Impact on You: Because power and groceries consume a fixed, non-negotiable portion of your post-mortgage income, any effective policy that structurally lowers food or energy inflation would immediately free up breathing room in your tight buffer.

4. Income Tax Thresholds and Cost of Living Adjustments

  • The Proposal: Parties differ on whether to adjust personal income tax brackets for inflation or provide targeted family tax credits.
  • Impact on You: For middle-income, dual-earner families, bracket creep (where wage increases push you into higher tax brackets without increasing real purchasing power) heavily impacts your net monthly pay. Policies focused on tax threshold adjustments directly influence your take-home pay before your mortgage gets clipped.

Suggested Next Steps

  1. Review your largest flexible outlays: Check whether your family benefits more from direct service savings (like GP visits and public transport) or broader macroeconomic strategies (like tax relief and inflation control).
  2. Explore interactive tools: Consider using non-partisan tools like Vote Compass (via major outlets like 1News) or Policy.nz to input your specific family priorities and see how closely your views align with each party's localized platform.

Which of your household expenses—healthcare, transport, or groceries—puts the greatest strain on your monthly buffer right now?

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

We own a home with a mortgage, have school-age children and rely on two wages. After mortgage payments, rates, power and groceries, there is little buffer. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What are the parties proposing about household costs, and which proposals would actually apply to a working family like ours?

For a dual-income working family with a mortgage and school-age children—operating with a tight buffer after covering essentials like rates, power, and groceries—the major political parties approach household costs through very different levers.

An analysis of the policy platforms for the 2026 general election highlights how different party approaches would impact a household in your position:

1. Labour Party

  • Healthcare & Prescriptions: Proposes targeted relief on health costs, offering a set of free GP visits for family members and free prescriptions for fully funded medicines, which can ease out-of-pocket medical expenses for children.

  • Housing & Tax: Family homes remain exempt from proposed capital gains tax structures. [RNZ]

  • KiwiSaver : Proposes shifts toward compulsory employer contributions reaching up to 6% (even if employee contributions are temporarily paused or reduced), which can impact take-home pay or long-term savings structures differently depending on how tight your weekly cash flow is. [RNZ]

2. Green Party

  • Tax-Free Threshold: Advocates for a tax-free first $10,000 of income for every earner. For a two-income household, this puts money back into weekly take-home pay. [RNZ]

  • Income Adjustments: While lower and middle brackets benefit from the tax-free threshold, higher earners may see adjustments or increased rates at higher income brackets (such as a 45% rate on income over $160,000). [RNZ]

  • Wealth & Property: Because your family home sits well below proposed high-net-worth thresholds (such as multi-million dollar wealth taxes), you would generally not be subject to a wealth tax, meaning you experience the benefit of the lower-income tax-free band without the wealth-tax penalty. [RNZ]

3. Te Pāti Māori

  • Income Tax Kai Credit: Proposes targeted tax credits (such as the Income Tax Kai Credit aimed at adults earning $60,000 or less) designed to alleviate food and grocery cost pressures for lower-to-middle income earners within a household. [RNZ]

4. The Opportunities Party (TOP)

  • Tax Reform & Citizen's Income: Proposes a major overhaul of the tax brackets alongside a universal citizen's income framework. While this could substantially change household cash flow through a universal dividend/income structure, it is typically balanced out by structural land or capital value taxes depending on property values. [RNZ]

5. National Party

  • KiwiSaver & Savings: Focuses heavily on structural economic management and long-term savings frameworks, including proposals around compulsory KiwiSaver scaling over time. While increasing long-term savings, mandatory stepped-up contributions can temporarily tighten weekly take-home pay during the phase-in period if cash flow is already under pressure.

  • Cost of Living Focus: Generally leans toward broad economic management, infrastructure, and tax relief adjustments rather than direct market price caps for household goods like groceries or power. [RNZ]

Which proposals actually apply to your family?

  • Direct Cash-Flow Relief: Policies that introduce a tax-free income threshold (like the Greens') or targeted credits for lower-to-middle earners (like Te Pāti Māori's Kai Credit) apply immediately to your take-home pay or weekly grocery budget.

  • Expense Reductions: Policies targeting free or subsidized healthcare/GP visits (like Labour's) directly lower the unexpected cash shocks of taking school-age children to the doctor.

  • Cash-Flow Pressures: Proposals that mandate or accelerate higher KiwiSaver contributions (National or Labour models) build long-term wealth, but require careful evaluation if your immediate weekly buffer after mortgage and groceries is already razor-thin. [RNZ]

You can explore and model out how these specific overlapping policies affect different household income configurations using the interactive tools on Policy.nz or review comparative breakdowns on RNZ.

Ask anything

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AI Overviews · No location

We own a home with a mortgage, have school-age children and rely on two wages. After mortgage payments, rates, power and groceries, there is little buffer. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What are the parties proposing about household costs, and which proposals would actually apply to a working family like ours?

AI Overview

For a dual-income, mortgaged family with school-aged children feeling the squeeze from everyday expenses, the 2026 general election proposals offer fundamentally different paths. Mainstream parties are splitting their approach between structural tax shifts and targeted cost-of-living relief.

Here is how each party's key policy platforms apply directly to a family in your exact situation.

🏛️ The Right-of-Center Coalition: Status Quo & Targeted Relief

The current governing parties (National and ACT) are campaigning on economic stability and a strict "no new taxes" platform. They argue that controlling government spending will keep a lid on inflation and pressure interest rates downward.

National Party

  • What they propose: A firm "no new taxes" pledge for the upcoming term. They aim to retain the current tax brackets and property rules they instituted (such as the 2-year bright-line test and restored mortgage interest deductibility for landlords). I Ranked Every Party's Property Policy [NZ Election 2026]Summary of 2026 election tax policies | KPMG NZTax Tips: 2026 General Election - Tax Policy Update

  • How it applies to you: Your tax burden stays exactly where it is. Because your children are school-aged, you do not benefit from early childhood initiatives like FamilyBoost. Their primary pitch to you is macroeconomic: bringing mortgage interest rates down by tightening government spending.

ACT Party

  • What they propose: Moving toward a flatter, lower income tax model and completely removing tax on KiwiSaver earnings.

  • How it applies to you: Depending on your specific brackets, a flatter income tax structure could reduce your combined income tax. Removing the tax on your KiwiSaver fund's investment earnings would allow your retirement balances to compound faster.

New Zealand First

  • What they propose: Focused on lower-income household reforms and a Kiwi Kids Grant.

  • How it applies to you: Their marquee family policy—the Kiwi Kids Grant ($5,000 per child per year) and automatic newborn KiwiSaver enrollment—is targeted at newborns and would not apply retrospectively to your school-aged children.

🌹 Labour Party: Targeted Caps & Capital Gains Shift

The Labour Party is pitching a targeted relief package to directly lower everyday consumer bills, funded by structural tax changes.

Labour Party

  • What they propose: Implementing a 28% Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on investment properties and commercial assets to fund immediate cost-of-living reliefs. These reliefs include three free GP visits a year , free prescriptions, free maternity scans, and a $20 weekly public transport cap. They have also pledged to ban price gouging on essentials like groceries.

  • How it applies to you:

  • The Taxes: Your family home is explicitly exempt from their proposed CGT. Labour has also confirmed they will continue to allow property investors to deduct interest, meaning no indirect pressure on the housing market from that specific rule.

  • The Benefits: If your family visits the doctor regularly, three free GP visits per person and free prescriptions would provide an immediate cash buffer. If your kids use buses or trains for school, the $20 weekly transport cap could also lower weekly outgoings.

🌿 Left-of-Center Minor Parties: Wealth Taxes & Free Thresholds

The Green Party and Te Pāti Māori are proposing the most drastic overhauls of the tax system, aimed at shifting the tax burden away from wage earners.

Green Party

  • What they propose: A comprehensive $10,000 tax-free income band for every individual, balanced by a 2.5% wealth tax on net assets over $10 million and a 33% tax on large inheritances. They also support free public transport for children and students.

  • How it applies to you: Because both you and your partner rely on wages, the $10,000 tax-free threshold means both of your incomes would face lower taxation , making you roughly $1,086 better off a year on an average wage comparison. Your family home is exempt from their wealth tax. Free public transport for school-aged children would also clear a daily expense.

  • What they propose: A tax-free income threshold under $30,000, alongside an "Income Tax Kai Credit" for individuals earning under $60,000 to offset the cost of groceries. This is funded by wealth taxes and a 5% stamp duty on residential home sales.

  • How it applies to you: If either you or your partner earn under $60,000, you would qualify for the Kai Credit, which the party estimates is worth up to eight weeks of food annually. However, their proposed 5% stamp duty has no family-home exemption —meaning if you ever need to sell and upgrade your home as your kids grow, you would face a significant tax on the sale.

📊 Direct Comparison for Your Household

Cost Category National / ACT / NZ First Labour Greens / Te Pāti Māori
Income Tax Potential reductions under ACT; status quo under National. No major income tax cuts; emphasis on keeping fuel taxes flat. Direct Savings : $10k–$30k tax-free thresholds would increase take-home pay for both wages.
Groceries & Bills Focus on macroeconomics to lower inflation overall. Banning supermarket price gouging. Te Pāti Māori grocery tax credit (if earning under $60k).
Your Mortgage & Home Policies designed to limit regulatory shake-ups and lower interest rates. Family home exempt from CGT. Family home exempt from Green wealth tax, but subject to Te Pāti Māori stamp duty if sold.
School-Age Children No major ECE rebates apply to you. Free GP visits, free prescriptions, and public transport caps. Free public transport for children and students.

To help narrow down which specific policies would benefit your household the most, could you share:

  • Your approximate combined household income? (This helps determine if you cross thresholds for tax-free bands or targeted credits)
  • Whether your children regularly use public transport or require frequent GP visits?
Ask anything

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