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For a working whānau, I’d separate the comparison into three practical questions: (1) what could change your weekly household costs, (2) what could improve the public services you rely on, and (3) how much decision-making power Māori, iwi, hapū and whānau would have.

The 2026 election is on Saturday 7 November, and Māori voters can choose either the Māori or general roll; that choice affects electorate candidates and Māori representation, but not your party vote. Māori Electoral Option | Vote NZ

Household costs and services

Party	Policies particularly relevant to a working whānau
Labour	A $20-a-week public-transport cap; three free GP visits a year; free prescriptions from July 2027; free maternity scans; a $21m/year Māori-led skilled-work programme; cheaper groceries through stronger supermarket competition and a proposed ban on price-gouging; $2.9bn of capital for Kāinga Ora housing; and a programme to repair schools and hospitals. Labour's 2026 Election Policies
National	No new taxes; continued emphasis on keeping taxes low; a temporary $50/week increase in the in-work tax credit for around 143,000 working families with children during the 2026 fuel-price shock; more grocery competition through separating New World and PAK'nSAVE; a Home Energy Fund aimed at reducing power bills; easier access to 5% first-home deposits; and policies aimed at keeping council rates affordable. 2026 Election Policy | National Party
Greens	A much larger redistribution approach: a $10,000 tax-free income threshold, intended to cut income tax for 96% of people, funded partly by higher taxes on very wealthy people and large corporations; action on supermarket competition; cheaper power through public/community ownership, energy-efficiency support and solar; and investment in public housing and services. Greens commit to tax the super-rich and large corporates fairly, cut income tax for 96% - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
Te Pāti Māori	A programme centred on more public/affordable housing, building on Māori whenua, higher incomes and cost-of-living relief; Māori-led, whānau-centred health and disability services; fairer taxation; and a $1bn Energy Sovereignty Fund intended to put energy ownership into whānau, hapū, iwi and community hands while reducing power costs. Te Pāti Māori is the assertion of our mana motuhake and our liberation
NZ First	Breaking up the supermarket duopoly; breaking up the electricity gentailers; a proposed NZ-owned BNZ; lower company tax for SMEs; increased regional infrastructure investment; and a $100bn long-term infrastructure fund. Our Policy - NZ First
ACT	Primarily an economic-growth/low-tax approach: lower regulation and government spending, with the argument that higher productivity, investment and wages are the route to improving living standards. ACT supported the temporary $50/week working-family payment but stresses that cost-of-living assistance should be targeted and funded from existing spending. ACT New Zealand

What that means in household terms

If your biggest expenses are food, power, transport and healthcare, the parties are offering quite different mechanisms:

• Food: National, Labour, Greens and NZ First all have supermarket-competition proposals, but the mechanisms differ—from separating supermarket businesses, to stronger competition/anti-price-gouging rules, to a publicly owned supermarket. 2026 Election Policy | National Party
• Power: National proposes assistance for households to electrify; the Greens propose community/public energy ownership and energy-efficiency measures; Te Pāti Māori proposes Māori/community ownership through an Energy Sovereignty Fund. 2026 Election Policy | National Party
• Healthcare: Labour has particularly concrete proposals for reducing point-of-use costs—three free GP visits and free prescriptions. Te Pāti Māori focuses more heavily on Māori-led and whānau-centred provision, while the Greens emphasise strong universal public services. Labour's 2026 Election Policies
• Housing: National emphasises easier building and home ownership; Labour proposes substantial additional public housing; Te Pāti Māori explicitly includes building on Māori land and affordable/public housing. 2026 Election Policy | National Party
• Income: National's approach is principally tax restraint and targeted support; Labour combines services and targeted cost-of-living measures; the Greens would substantially change the tax system while lowering income tax for most earners; Te Pāti Māori proposes a fairer tax system alongside higher incomes and Māori economic development. No new taxes under National | National Party

Te Tiriti and Māori participation

This is an especially important dividing line in 2026.

Te Pāti Māori proposes the strongest constitutional shift toward Māori decision-making. Its Te Tiriti policy would establish a Te Tiriti Commission, make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown, and put $220m over four years into Māori-led constitutional transformation. Its wider programme is explicitly based on mana motuhake and Māori-led decision-making. TE PĀTI MĀORI LAUNCHES TE TIRITI ENTRENCHMENT POLICY - Te Pāti Māori

The Greens also explicitly put Te Tiriti at the centre of their constitutional vision, including stronger rangatiratanga for iwi and hapū. Their Māori policy describes supporting Māori to make decisions about the future of their own whānau, hapū and iwi. Manifesto 2026 - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

Labour says Te Tiriti is the country's founding document and has opposed ACT's Treaty Principles Bill. Its 2026 policies also include specifically Māori-led economic/training initiatives, such as the $21m-a-year Māori-led skilled-work programme. Stand Up for Te Tiriti

National is taking a different approach. The current government's 2026 policy direction has been to make Treaty references in legislation more specific and consistent, including repealing seven references and limiting ten provisions to no higher standard than “take into account”. At the same time, National has introduced measures making it easier to develop papakāinga on Māori land and says it is consulting iwi on Treaty-related changes. Ensuring Treaty references are consistent | National Party

ACT proposes an even more fundamental change: constitutional provisions affirming equality before the law, stronger property rights, and restrictions on courts using broad Treaty interpretations beyond what Parliament has explicitly legislated. ACT also proposes a public service based on individual need rather than race-based approaches. ACT New Zealand

NZ First proposes abolishing the Waitangi Tribunal and replacing it with a Treaty of Waitangi Completion Commission, while also campaigning for a binding referendum on whether Māori seats should continue. Ending the Waitangi Make-Work Industry - New Zealand First

So, if Māori participation in government decisions is one of your core considerations, there is a substantial policy difference here—not simply a difference in rhetoric.

A useful way to compare them for your whānau

Rather than asking which party is “best”, you could put your own household priorities into a simple checklist:

1. Weekly money: Which proposals would actually reduce your grocery, power, transport, healthcare or housing costs?
2. Income: Would your whānau be better off through tax changes, Working for Families/in-work support, wages, employment or reduced service costs?
3. Local services: What happens to your GP access, hospital, schools, public transport, housing and council services?
4. Māori decision-making: Do you want Māori participation to mean consultation, specific Māori-led services, partnership/co-governance, or substantially greater rangatiratanga?
5. Te Tiriti: Which party's proposed constitutional/legal direction is closest to your understanding of Te Tiriti?
6. Who pays: For each promised benefit, look at the proposed funding mechanism—tax changes, spending cuts, borrowing, economic growth, or reprioritisation.

One particularly useful distinction is that a policy can help a working household without necessarily increasing its take-home pay. For example, a free GP visit or cheaper electricity has the same household-budget effect as extra income, even though it appears in a different part of the policy package.

If you want to make this genuinely useful for your Dunedin/Otago whānau, I can next turn this into a household-cost comparison—for example, groceries + power + petrol/public transport + GP/prescriptions + housing + childcare—and show which parties' specific 2026 proposals would potentially affect each bill, alongside their Māori/Te Tiriti positions. Labour's 2026 Election Policies