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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?
2026 New Zealand election: what could change your household budget?
For a family with a mortgaged home, school-age children and two working adults, the important question is not simply which party promises to reduce the cost of living.
It's which policies would put more money into your household after tax, housing costs, bills and childcare or school-related expenses — and which benefits would you actually qualify for?
There are several different ways parties can affect your finances:
- Direct income: tax cuts, tax credits, Working for Families and benefit changes.
- Housing: mortgage interest deductibility for landlords, housing supply, rates and rental-market policies. These may affect homeowners indirectly rather than reduce your mortgage.
- Everyday expenses: electricity, transport, food and healthcare.
- Children and education: school costs, lunches, childcare and family assistance.
- Economic effects: wages, inflation, interest rates and employment. These can matter more to your household than a one-off tax cut.
One important distinction: a policy can be advertised as helping families without necessarily helping a household on two wages that owns its home and receives little or no income support.
1. What the main parties are proposing
The following reflects policies publicly announced by 1 November 2026, ahead of the 7 November general election. These are campaign proposals, not guaranteed changes to law.
National
National Party
National's approach is based on keeping taxes low, controlling government spending and encouraging economic growth.
Its announced proposals include:
- No new taxes: maintaining its pledge not to introduce new taxes.
- KiwiSaver: compulsory contributions for workers, with changes to savings arrangements and support for children's savings.
- Grocery competition: separating New World and PAK'nSAVE ownership to increase competition between the supermarket brands.
- Affordable electricity: a nine-point energy plan intended to address power costs.
- Council rates: reforms intended to keep rates affordable and focus councils on core services.
- Education: continuing its focus on teaching core subjects and improving educational achievement.
How this relates to your family: You would not receive an automatic new household payment simply because you have children and two incomes. The grocery, power and rates proposals could benefit you indirectly if they produce lower costs. The no-new-taxes commitment is relevant to your take-home pay, but it is not itself a tax cut.
Sources: National's 2026 policies.
Labour
Labour Party
Labour has announced a relatively broad package of measures aimed at everyday household expenses.
Its proposals include:
- Public transport: a weekly fare cap of $20 in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and $10 elsewhere.
- Fuel: freezing fuel tax for three years.
- Doctors: three free GP visits per person annually.
- Prescriptions: removing the $5 prescription charge from 1 July 2027.
- Groceries: action against price gouging and measures to improve grocery competition.
- Electricity: SolarSaver, allowing households to access solar without upfront costs.
- Household fees: a Fair Go Law targeting hidden fees, junk insurance and exit traps.
- Children: a back-to-school cost reduction package.
- KiwiSaver: increasing compulsory employer contributions to 6% by 2032.
Labour also proposes a 28% capital gains tax on profits from selling investment property, excluding the family home, from July 2027.
How this relates to your family: The GP visits, prescriptions and grocery measures could apply regardless of whether you receive Working for Families. The transport cap could be particularly relevant if you commute by public transport. The fuel tax freeze is more relevant if you drive.
The capital gains tax would not apply to an ordinary sale of your family home under the announced exemption.
Sources: Labour's policy announcements and Labour's cost-of-living plan.
Green Party
Green Party
The Greens propose a larger shift towards taxing wealth and higher incomes while providing more assistance to lower- and middle-income households.
Key tax proposals include:
- A $10,000 tax-free income threshold.
- A wealth tax of 2.5% on net assets above $10 million.
- Higher tax rates for people earning over $160,000.
- Higher company tax for larger businesses, including banks, energy companies and supermarkets.
- A capital acquisitions tax on large gifts and inheritances.
The party also proposes expanded Working for Families, higher benefit levels, individualised benefit entitlements and more affordable housing.
How this relates to your family: The $10,000 tax-free threshold is particularly relevant because both working adults could potentially benefit. It is not restricted to beneficiaries or families with only one income.
The expanded Working for Families proposal could also matter, but your actual entitlement would depend on your combined income, number of children and other eligibility rules.
The wealth tax would not apply to an ordinary family simply because it owns a mortgaged house. The proposed threshold is based on net wealth above $10 million.
Source: PwC's 2026 election tax policy analysis.
ACT
ACT New Zealand
ACT emphasises lower taxes, private-sector growth and reducing government expenditure.
Its announced tax proposals are more limited than those of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Among its specific proposals are changes to the taxation of cryptocurrency gains.
How this relates to your family: ACT's no-new-taxes approach is relevant to your household, but its announced policies do not offer the same kind of direct, broad household payment or family tax-free threshold as some other parties propose.
Its wider economic approach could affect your household through employment, business activity, public services and government spending.
Source: 2026 party tax policy comparison.
New Zealand First
New Zealand First
New Zealand First's approach includes:
- Support for lower company tax rates for small and medium-sized businesses.
- An emphasis on regional economic development and employment.
- Maintaining existing retirement settings, including its position on the NZ Super age.
- Targeted economic and industry policies rather than a comprehensive new household tax package.
How this relates to your family: The small-business tax proposal could have indirect effects if one of you works for or owns a small business. It is not an automatic reduction in your personal income tax.
Source: KPMG's party tax comparison.
Te Pāti Māori
Te Pāti Māori
Its tax proposals include:
- A $30,000 tax-free income threshold.
- Lower income taxes for people earning less than $60,000.
- A targeted Kai Credit for people earning up to $60,000, worth up to the equivalent of eight weeks of groceries annually.
- A wealth tax and taxes on vacant houses and land banking.
- A proposed stamp duty on residential property sales, with an exemption for first-home buyers purchasing homes below $1 million.
How this relates to your family: The Kai Credit could be particularly relevant if either adult earns less than $60,000 and meets the detailed eligibility requirements. The tax-free threshold could benefit working adults.
However, the household's combined income is not necessarily the same as each person's individual income, so the distinction matters.
Source: The Conversation's 2026 policy tracker.
Opportunity (formerly TOP)
Opportunity Party
Opportunity proposes a significant restructuring of the tax and income-support system.
Its main proposals include:
- A Citizen's Income of up to $370 per week for almost all adults.
- A land value tax of 1.75% annually.
- Replacing most existing benefits with the new income system.
- Additional support for parents, superannuitants and other groups.
How this relates to your family: This is especially important to examine carefully if you own a home.
You could potentially receive the Citizen's Income as an adult even while working. However, the land tax would also apply to landowners, including owner-occupiers, subject to the detailed rules.
A land tax could therefore create a substantial annual expense for a homeowner. You would need to compare the income received with the land tax payable, rather than looking at the weekly payment in isolation.
Source: The Conversation's policy tracker and KPMG's analysis.
2. Which proposals could actually reach your household?
Here is a practical comparison based on the circumstances you've described.
| Household expense or income | Policies worth examining |
|---|---|
| Mortgage repayments | No major party has promised to directly reduce existing owner-occupier mortgage repayments. Interest rates remain a major factor. |
| Council rates | National's proposed council reforms; local-government funding proposals from other parties. |
| Electricity | National's energy plan; Labour's SolarSaver; Green energy affordability policies. |
| Groceries | Labour's grocery competition and price-gouging proposals; National's supermarket separation; Te Pāti Māori's Kai Credit if eligible. |
| Two wages | Green and Te Pāti Māori tax-free thresholds; Labour's tax and employment policies; National and ACT's tax settings. |
| School-age children | Labour's back-to-school measures; Green Working for Families expansion; National's education policies. |
| Healthcare | Labour's free GP visits and prescriptions; other parties' healthcare funding and affordability proposals. |
| Retirement savings | National and Labour KiwiSaver changes, with implications for both take-home pay and long-term savings. |
Three important distinctions
A. Your combined income matters, but so does each person's income.
Working for Families is generally calculated using family income, family circumstances and the number and ages of dependent children.
This means two adults earning $65,000 each may be treated differently under some tax proposals from one adult earning $130,000, even though the household income is identical.
In particular:
- Individual tax thresholds apply to each person's income.
- Family-based credits generally use combined family income.
- Targeted assistance may have individual income limits.
- Some support is available to working households, not just beneficiaries.
B. Owning your home does not automatically mean you benefit from housing policies.
Many housing announcements concern renters, landlords or first-home buyers.
For your circumstances:
- A first-home deposit scheme is unlikely to help if you already own your home.
- A landlord tax change does not directly reduce your owner-occupier mortgage.
- A family-home exemption from capital gains tax matters if you eventually sell.
- A land tax is potentially very important if you own property.
C. A tax cut is not necessarily an increase in disposable income.
For example, a proposal to increase compulsory employer KiwiSaver contributions might improve your retirement savings, but it is not the same as money immediately available for groceries, mortgage payments or power bills.
Similarly, a government policy intended to reduce inflation or electricity costs might help over time without providing an immediate cash benefit.
KPMG's analysis highlights that KiwiSaver, income tax, capital gains tax and local infrastructure funding are among the major areas of difference between the parties. Summary of 2026 election tax policiesTax Tips: 2026 General Election
3. What I would pay particular attention to before voting
Given the pressure you describe, I'd suggest examining these five questions for every party:
- How much more money would we actually have each payday? Look for a worked example using two working adults, rather than a single-income household.
- Would we qualify for family assistance? Check the combined income thresholds and whether the support applies to homeowners.
- Would our power and grocery bills change? Look for specific measures, implementation dates and mechanisms, not just promises to reduce costs.
- Would the policies affect our existing home? Particularly any land tax, wealth tax or changes to property taxation.
- What happens to our household if costs rise elsewhere? Consider KiwiSaver contributions, rates, public services and any new taxes together.
One useful independent resource is Undecided's household policy calculator. It allows you to compare the financial effects of announced party policies using your own circumstances. Treat the results as estimates, rather than guarantees, and check the assumptions behind each calculation.
4. The information needed to make this comparison meaningful
I wouldn't want to tell you that a party's tax proposal would save your family money without knowing whether you would qualify.
For example, a household earning $100,000 combined could have quite different outcomes depending on whether:
- One person earns $100,000 and the other earns nothing.
- Both earn $50,000.
- Both earn $75,000, making combined income $150,000.
The number and ages of your children also matter.
If you're comfortable sharing approximate figures, I can build a more useful comparison.
A few details about your household
I can then compare the parties on estimated annual disposable income, tax changes, family assistance, groceries, electricity, transport and housing-related taxes.
The aim is to distinguish between policies that sound helpful nationally and policies that would actually leave your particular family with more money at the end of each month. You can make your voting decision based on that evidence, alongside the other issues that matter to you.
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