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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 run a small manufacturing business that exports and employs staff. We are considering new equipment but worry about demand, freight costs and finding skilled workers. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on business investment, productivity and support for small exporters?

For a manufacturing exporter, the 2026 election is unusually relevant to the issues you mention. BusinessNZ’s 2026 survey found freight/logistics costs were identified by 50.9% of business respondents as an important issue, alongside supply-chain disruption and exchange-rate volatility. The economic priorities for New Zealand’s future | Election Survey 2026 | Deloitte New Zealand

Here is a neutral comparison of the main parties’ current published positions, focusing on capital investment, productivity/skills, and exporting rather than broader ideological differences.

Party Business investment & tax Productivity & skilled workers Exporters / freight
National Keeps Investment Boost, which gives an immediate deduction for a portion of qualifying new productive assets. National says its policy has reduced the effective marginal tax rate on new capital investment by about 5–6 percentage points. Investment Boost driving real investment, lifting productivity | National Party More trades training, including expanded Trades Academy places and manufacturing-focused paid training. It is also continuing small-business AI support through the Regional Business Partner Network. Earn as You Learn programme expands | National Party Strong emphasis on trade deals, digital customs and reducing non-tariff barriers. It proposes pursuing seven additional markets and giving NZTE a sharper exporter-development role. National to pursue the next billion customers | National Party
Labour Proposes a $10,000 immediate equipment write-off for businesses with revenue under $10m, from July 2027, while replacing/refocusing Investment Boost. It also proposes a Future Fund aimed partly at productive investment and infrastructure. Labour's Small Business Action Plan Proposes more investment in infrastructure, technology, R&D, apprenticeships and mid-career upskilling, including assistance for small firms adopting technology. Labour's Fiscal Strategy Its small-business policy includes faster payment by large companies and a 15% government-contract target for NZ small businesses. Its emphasis is more on domestic productive capacity and infrastructure than National's trade-negotiation agenda. Labour's Small Business Action Plan
ACT Emphasises lower regulatory costs and investment incentives. It proposes modernising tax treatment of software/digital investment so productive technology can be deducted more consistently. ACT New Zealand Particularly focused on reducing employment/regulatory barriers. Its current package proposes a three-year minimum-wage freeze and a lower training wage for under-20s, arguing that this would make entry-level hiring and training easier. ACT New Zealand ACT's approach is principally to reduce regulatory and transaction costs rather than create exporter-specific programmes. Its digital-finance proposals also aim to make cross-border payments and capital raising easier. ACT New Zealand
NZ First Has proposed cutting the company tax rate to 20% for SMEs with turnover below $30m, from 28%, explicitly to leave more cash for reinvestment. NZFirst to Campaign on 20% Tax Rate for SMEs - New Zealand First More interventionist in particular industries: its manufacturing policy has proposed co-investment, accelerated depreciation, debt/equity funding and guarantees for exporters entering new markets. 2023 Election Policies - NZ First Strong emphasis on domestic manufacturing and adding value before export. Its 2026 Marsden Point proposal, for example, would create a special economic zone centred on energy and maritime activity. Policy Announcement: Marsden Point Special Economic Zone - New Zealand First
Greens More emphasis on directing investment toward sustainable industries and changing the tax system to fund public investment; its manifesto explicitly says it wants to support small/local businesses. Complete Party Policy - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Focuses more heavily on public investment, sustainable industry, skills and a transition toward lower-emissions production than on tax reductions for capital investment. Manifesto 2026 - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand The emphasis is on sustainable domestic industries and retaining more economic value locally, rather than National/ACT-style trade liberalisation. Manifesto 2026 - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

How that maps onto your particular concerns

1. "Should we buy the equipment?"

The biggest concrete difference is how investment is encouraged.

So, for your decision, an important question is whether the equipment you're considering costs a few thousand dollars, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands. The policies don't affect those purchases in the same way.

2. "What if demand doesn't materialise?"

This is less about a single tax policy and more about the economic environment.

Treasury's latest pre-election forecast says the recovery is strengthening but remains exposed to oil prices, interest rates and external shocks; it expects export demand to remain an important source of support. Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update 2026 | The Treasury New Zealand

National's approach is comparatively market/investment-led: lower tax, trade access, infrastructure and deregulation. Labour puts comparatively greater weight on public investment, infrastructure, technology, skills and mechanisms such as its Future Fund. NZ First is more willing to use targeted industrial/manufacturing intervention. National’s Economic Plan backs Kiwis to get ahead | National Party

3. "Freight is killing our margins."

This deserves particular attention because it is a major concern among businesses surveyed in 2026. The economic priorities for New Zealand’s future | Election Survey 2026 | Deloitte New Zealand

One thing to distinguish is freight cost from trade barriers: a new FTA can improve your access to a market, but it won't necessarily make shipping a container from New Zealand substantially cheaper.

4. "Where will I find skilled workers?"

This is another fairly clear point of differentiation.

National has already expanded Trades Academies and manufacturing-specific paid training, with new manufacturing cohorts planned for Auckland and other regions in 2027. Earn as You Learn programme expands | National Party

Labour proposes expanding apprenticeships and mid-career training, while ACT's approach is to make it cheaper/easier for employers to take on inexperienced workers through its proposed training-wage settings. Labour's New Zealand Future Fund

Those are quite different mechanisms: training more people, versus changing the economics of hiring/training them.

A useful way to evaluate this for your business

Rather than asking "which party is best for business?", I'd separate your decision into four questions:

  1. Capital: What happens to the after-tax cost of a $50k/$200k/$1m machine under each programme?
  2. Demand: Which policies are most likely to affect your actual customers and export markets?
  3. Labour: Which proposal addresses the particular skills you cannot currently recruit?
  4. Logistics: Which proposals actually reduce your landed cost—roads/ports/energy, customs barriers, or simply opening new markets?

That produces a much more business-specific comparison than treating "pro-business" as a single category.

One important caveat: these are campaign commitments, not guaranteed outcomes. The election is on 7 November 2026, and coalition negotiations could materially change what ultimately gets implemented. New Zealand Parliament dissolved ahead of tight November vote

If you tell me roughly what you manufacture, your approximate equipment spend (e.g. $100k vs $1m), and whether you mainly export to Australia/Asia/US/Europe, I can turn this into a neutral business-impact matrix showing what each party's policies could mean for your situation—without telling you how to vote.

Ask anything

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Gemini · No location

I run a small manufacturing business that exports and employs staff. We are considering new equipment but worry about demand, freight costs and finding skilled workers. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on business investment, productivity and support for small exporters?

As a small manufacturing and exporting business owner, your concerns—navigating domestic demand, managing freight and input costs, securing skilled labor, and finding capital for equipment—sit right at the heart of the economic debates for the 20th New Zealand General Election (November 7, 2026).

Political parties approach these issues through distinct philosophical lenses, balancing tax policy, regulatory reform, and direct support mechanisms.

1. Business Investment & Productivity

Parties generally agree that New Zealand's persistent productivity lag needs fixing, but they disagree sharply on how to incentivize investment without fueling inflation or property speculation.

  • National & ACT: Focus heavily on cutting red tape, regulatory reduction, and infrastructure spending. National proposes a lower SME tax rate (e.g., 25% for businesses under $30M turnover) and targeted corporate tax rates for significant infrastructure. ACT champions deep government spending cuts, regulatory target reductions across agencies, and a new lower personal tax threshold to boost overall economic dynamism. The philosophy here is that easing compliance burdens and lowering the cost of doing business naturally frees up capital for equipment upgrades.
  • Labour: Focuses on direct, targeted support for cash flow and capital acquisition. Their small business package includes immediate tax write-offs for up to $10,000 in new equipment purchases to help firms upgrade machinery instantly, alongside "Paid on Time" legislation requiring big corporations to settle invoices under $25,000 within 15 days. Labour also proposes lifting the GST registration threshold to $80,000 to relieve administrative pressure on smaller operators.
  • Green Party & The Opportunities Party (TOP): Emphasize structural economic rebalancing. They advocate for tax systems that shift weight away from productive income/labor (such as implementing capital gains or wealth/land taxes) to discourage property speculation and redirect capital toward productive sectors, tech, and green manufacturing.

2. Support for Small Exporters & Freight Costs

For an exporter, input costs, logistics, and energy prices heavily dictate global competitiveness.

  • New Zealand First & National: Strongly emphasize lowering energy and transport costs. NZ First advocates for splitting major energy companies ("gentailers") into separate generation and retail entities to lower electricity prices, restoring certainty around oil and gas, and fast-tracking consenting for nationally significant infrastructure and transport projects. National similarly prioritizes expanding international trade opportunities, reducing logistics bottlenecks, and streamlining the consent process for commercial developments.
  • Labour: Targets domestic supply chain friction through cash-flow interventions like their prompt-payment rules, aiming to ensure small suppliers aren’t squeezed by delayed capital when managing export inventory and freight outlays.
  • Green Party: Focuses heavily on a "sustainable blue-green economy," tying export and manufacturing support to long-term climate resilience, transition grants, and sustainable supply-chain credentials to meet international low-carbon market expectations.

3. Skilled Labor & Employment Law

Finding and retaining skilled workers remains a primary bottleneck for expansion-minded manufacturers. Parties split across immigration, industrial relations, and vocational training:

  • National, ACT & NZ First: Generally favor business-friendly employment frameworks. They emphasize simplifying employment and holiday legislation to reduce compliance overhead for employers, and adjusting immigration settings to ensure critical skill shortages in sectors like manufacturing and engineering can be met through targeted overseas recruitment.
  • Labour & Green Party: Place heavier emphasis on domestic workforce development, vocational education reform, and strengthening worker protections. Their approach focuses on upskilling the local labor pool through targeted industry training partnerships, though business groups often caution that this must be carefully balanced against wage mandates and holiday provisions that can increase operational costs for small employers.

Summary Checklist for Your Vote

When evaluating your party vote, consider which approach aligns best with your immediate operational reality:

  1. Do you want lower compliance costs and tax relief? Look closely at National, ACT, and NZ First's focus on deregulation, company tax adjustments, and energy market reform.
  2. Do you want direct cash-flow and equipment write-off mechanisms? Look at Labour’s targeted small business policies (instant asset write-offs and mandatory fast-payment rules).
  3. Are you looking for a structural shift away from property into the productive economy? Examine the Green Party or TOP platforms on capital gains and wealth/land rebalancing.

Are there specific cost pressures—such as electricity, compliance, or access to particular technical skills—that are hitting your manufacturing margins the hardest 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

I run a small manufacturing business that exports and employs staff. We are considering new equipment but worry about demand, freight costs and finding skilled workers. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on business investment, productivity and support for small exporters?

As a small manufacturing business owner weighing up demand, freight costs, compliance, and skilled labor pressures ahead of the 7 November 2026 general election, the major political parties present distinct philosophies and toolkits for handling business investment and productivity.

1. National Party (and Current Coalition Approach)

  • Core Philosophy: Focuses heavily on fiscal restraint, reducing regulatory and tax burdens, and creating a competitive market environment rather than direct government subsidies.

  • Business Investment & Equipment: Emphasizes macroeconomic stability, aiming to rein in government spending and avoid new taxes to encourage private capital deployment. Recent policy rollouts target lowering overheads (such as a multi-point energy plan aimed at stabilizing or reducing commercial and domestic power prices).

  • Productivity & Skills: Prefers streamlining compliance and reforming resource management or employment frameworks to make it easier for businesses to operate and scale. Immigration settings are adjusted to target specific skill shortages manufacturers face.

  • Support for Exporters: Relies on broader trade agreements, lowering structural domestic costs (like freight and energy inputs via market competition), and maintaining tight fiscal discipline to bear down on inflation and interest rates.

2. Labour Party

  • Core Philosophy: Focuses on targeted direct reliefs, lowering compliance friction for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and bolstering the domestic economy from the ground up.

  • Business Investment & Equipment: Launched a specific Small Business Action Plan aimed directly at re-equipping and easing cash flow. Key pledges include raising the instant asset tax write-off threshold dramatically from $1,000 to $10,000 for businesses turning over under $10 million, directly incentivizing machinery and equipment upgrades.

  • Productivity & Skills: Proposes lifting the GST registration threshold from $60,000 to $80,000 (effective mid-2028) to free tens of thousands of small operators from routine tax compliance paperwork. Workforce development leans heavily on publicly funded vocational training, industry-backed apprenticeships, and domestic skills retention.

  • Support for Exporters: Targets structural overheads through consumer/commercial protections (e.g., tackling hidden fees and supply chain costs) and views targeted tax write-offs as a direct bridge to help small exporters upgrade productivity and stay competitive globally.

3. ACT and Other Parties

  • ACT pushes for deeper regulatory cuts, a leaner public sector, and radical tax reform to reward investment and risk-taking, arguing that the best thing government can do for exporters and manufacturers is get out of the way and lower corporate/personal tax rates further.

  • The Green Party and NZ First offer differing lenses—the Greens emphasize sustainable transition incentives and worker-centric policies, while NZ First heavily champions domestic manufacturing self-reliance, regional infrastructure, and strict local procurement or freight resilience.

To help narrow down your voting decision, let me know:

  • Is your primary bottleneck access to skilled staff vs. the cost of training them , or upfront capital for new machinery?

  • Would you prefer a policy focused on broad tax cuts/lower compliance or targeted direct investment write-offs?

Ask anything

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

AI Overviews · No location

I run a small manufacturing business that exports and employs staff. We are considering new equipment but worry about demand, freight costs and finding skilled workers. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on business investment, productivity and support for small exporters?

AI Overview

For a small, exporting manufacturing business looking to invest in new equipment, the major political parties offer distinctly different paths toward productivity, asset investment, and small business support for the upcoming 2026 New Zealand General Election.

The policy landscape is broadly divided between the coalition parties, who emphasize direct asset write-offs and lower overall tax/regulatory burdens, and the center-left opposition, who favor targeted grants, structural tax shifts, and higher workforce standards.

Direct Policy Comparison Matrix

Policy Area National & ACT (Current Coalition) Labour Green Party NZ First
New Equipment & Investment National’s "Investment Boost" ($6.6B package) prioritizes depreciation/tax write-offs for transforming equipment. Refocuses funding into a $10,000 low-value asset immediate write-off for SMEs (revenue under $10M). Prioritizes state-supported green infrastructure and automation via corporate taxes. Proposes lowering the company tax rate to 20% specifically for small businesses.
Workforce & Skilled Labor Focus on reducing employment regulation and tying immigration tightly to immediate sector labor gaps. Focuses on Apprenticeship Grants to build local talent, alongside a push to restore pay equity regimes. Focuses on boosting worker wages, green skills training, and strengthening collective bargaining. Focuses on restricting overall migration but supports regional workforce exemptions.
Exporters & Supply Chains Promotes lower regulatory compliance to ease freight/logistics burdens. Small Business Action Plan includes capping payment times from large buyers to improve SME cash flow. Focuses on strict climate-resilient transport networks but introduces a Corporate Tax bump to 33%. Promotes breaking up domestic supply chain monopolies (e.g., supermarkets/logistics infrastructure).

Detailed Breakdown by Party

National Party

National's primary pitch to businesses like yours revolves around their $6.6 billion "Investment Boost" program. If you are looking to purchase heavy or advanced manufacturing machinery, National’s framework is built around allowing businesses to write off or rapidly depreciate these large investments to lower your tax burden and incentivize automation. Their approach to workforce shortages relies on easing the compliance costs of hiring and managing staff.

Labour Party

Labour strongly critiques National's broad-scale corporate write-offs, labeling them disproportionate. Instead, Labour proposes to redirect that money toward smaller enterprises through their Small Business Action Plan. For equipment purchasing, they promise a $10,000 immediate asset write-off threshold (up from $1,000), meaning any equipment under $10,000 can be fully deducted in the first year. To help with domestic market issues, they also propose stricter payment-time rules forcing large corporations to pay small suppliers faster to protect your cash flow.

ACT Party

ACT aligns closely with National on investment but pushes for deeper systemic changes. Their primary focus is on productivity via deregulation. They propose freezing the minimum wage to keep labor costs predictable for manufacturing employers and rolling back what they view as restrictive employment and environmental compliance laws that can slow down factory expansions or logistics.

Green Party

The Greens focus heavily on a systemic "just transition" to a low-emissions economy. While they propose a corporate tax rate increase to 33% on large entities, their business support is heavily tilted toward funding automation, energy-efficiency conversions, and digital innovation. If your equipment upgrades involve clean energy or carbon reduction, their policies would provide targeted state backing, though general employment costs (wages and leave) would rise under their platform.

New Zealand First

NZ First offers a distinct nationalist business approach, notably proposing to drop the small business corporate tax rate down to 20% to leave more capital in your accounts for purchasing machinery. They also advocate heavily for government intervention to break up supply chain duopolies and protect local manufacturers from volatile freight and wholesale costs.

If you want to look deeper into how these affect your specific bottom line, let me know:

  • What is the estimated cost of the equipment you are looking to buy?

  • Do you primarily export to large global markets or closer regional hubs like Australia?

  • Are the workers you need highly specialized technical operators or general manufacturing staff?

I can help you analyze which tax and training structures line up best with your business model.

Ask anything

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