Explore research

Voter R03 · one of nine places

Tauranga: family balancing housing and commuting

“We rent in Pāpāmoa, have school-age children and commute across Tauranga for work. We want a secure home and less time lost travelling.”

questions written for them
3
answers collected
24
AI assistants
4
asked from, and nationally
Tauranga
01 · What they asked

3 questions, each written as this voter would ask it

The issue each question is about, and how much it matters to this voter. Open any question to read the assistants' answers in full, asked nationally and from Tauranga.

  • PF151

    Infrastructure and local services

    We rent in Pāpāmoa, have school-age children and commute across Tauranga for work. We want a secure home and less time lost travelling. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What are parties proposing for transport around Tauranga and Pāpāmoa, and which proposals could realistically improve our daily commute?

    8 answers

  • PF152

    Housing

    We rent in Pāpāmoa, have school-age children and commute across Tauranga for work. We want a secure home and less time lost travelling. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How would party policies affect affordable housing in Tauranga and western Bay of Plenty, including the roads and water infrastructure needed for new homes?

    8 answers

  • PF153

    Tax and public spending

    We rent in Pāpāmoa, have school-age children and commute across Tauranga for work. We want a secure home and less time lost travelling. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. For new housing and transport infrastructure around Tauranga, what would national government fund and what would be left to councils and ratepayers?

    8 answers
02 · Parties named

Which parties AI put in front of this voter

Of the 24 answers this voter received, 20 left out at least one of the six parties in Parliament. Te Pāti Māori was named least often, in 4 of 24.

Answers naming each party, out of 24

  • National18 of 24 answers
  • Labour16 of 24 answers
  • Greens15 of 24 answers
  • ACT16 of 24 answers
  • NZ First11 of 24 answers
  • Te Pāti Māori4 of 24 answers
  • Opportunity4 of 24 answers

  • ChatGPT

    0 of 6 answers

    named all six parties in Parliament

    • National
    • Labour
    • Greens
    • ACT
    • NZ First
    • Te Pāti Māori (never named)

  • Gemini

    3 of 6 answers

    named all six parties in Parliament

    • National
    • Labour
    • Greens
    • ACT
    • NZ First
    • Te Pāti Māori

  • Google AI Mode

    1 of 6 answers

    named all six parties in Parliament

    • National
    • Labour
    • Greens
    • ACT
    • NZ First
    • Te Pāti Māori

  • AI Overviews

    0 of 6 answers

    named all six parties in Parliament

    • National
    • Labour
    • Greens
    • ACT
    • NZ First
    • Te Pāti Māori (never named)
03 · Issue by issue

What AI said about each party on this voter's issues

Each row is one of this voter's issues. Each column is a party. The number shows how often the party came up in the answers to this voter. The coloured line under it shows whether what the AI said about the party was positive, neutral or negative.

Toggle assistants on or off to compare them, and click any number to see more detail about the responses.

Showing all four assistants · 24 answers

What AI said about each party on this voter's issues: for each topic and party, the share of answers naming the party and how the claims about it split, across all four assistants.
TopicNationalLabourGreensACTNZ FirstTe Pāti MāoriOpportunity
Infrastructure and local services
Housing
Tax and public spending
04 · Asked from Tauranga

What changed when the question was asked from Tauranga

The same question, word for word, asked nationally and from Tauranga. For this voter's main question, 4 of the 4 assistants named a different set of parties.

NamedNot namedNamed only from TaurangaDropped when asked from Tauranga

Parties named in PF151 (Infrastructure and local services), asked nationally and from Tauranga
PF151 · Infrastructure and local servicesAsked nationallyAsked from Tauranga
ChatGPT

6 parties named1,774 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, named
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, named

5 parties named1,749 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, named
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, dropped from the town answer
Gemini

7 parties named733 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, named
  • Te Pāti Māori, named
  • Opportunity, named

4 parties named521 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, dropped from the town answer
  • NZ First, named
  • Te Pāti Māori, dropped from the town answer
  • Opportunity, dropped from the town answer
Google AI Mode

5 parties named644 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, named
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, not named

3 parties named472 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, dropped from the town answer
  • NZ First, dropped from the town answer
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, not named
AI Overviews

4 parties named715 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, not named
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, not named

5 parties named669 words

  • National, named
  • Labour, named
  • Greens, named
  • ACT, named
  • NZ First, named only from the town
  • Te Pāti Māori, not named
  • Opportunity, not named
05 · What they were told

How the assistants handled this voter's main question

PF151 asks which proposals could realistically improve the Pāpāmoa family's commute. ChatGPT distinguishes work already happening, changes within a few years and large proposals unlikely to help quickly. It asks for each adult's destination before mapping a route. That is a direct response to the practical word 'realistically'.

Gemini begins with local bottlenecks; the Google experiences combine project names with broader road-versus-public-transport positions. A highway opening, toll arrangement and fare subsidy can all matter, but not equally for someone travelling to Tauriko, the CBD or the Port. A regional label is less precise than an actual origin-destination pair.

The answer should not count a completed interchange as a new promise, or treat construction milestones as a guaranteed time saving. The dossier's housing and funding questions retain the family's broader concerns. All NZ/Tauranga pairs are present, but one pair per question and platform cannot establish a repeatable location effect.

From the study's case study of this voter. Each extract opens the full answer with the passage highlighted.

06 · Sources

Where the answers to this voter came from

The websites each assistant drew on when it answered this voter, and what kind of publisher they are. Pick an issue to see the websites for that question.

ChatGPT

49%government

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link6of 6

  1. 1tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 6 answers
  2. 2labour.org.nz, party websites, cited in 4 answers
  3. 3policy.nz, comparison sites, cited in 4 answers
  4. 4act.org.nz, party websites, cited in 3 answers
  5. 5greens.org.nz, party websites, cited in 3 answers
  6. 6hud.govt.nz, government, cited in 3 answers
  7. 7letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 3 answers
  8. 8nzfirst.nz, party websites, cited in 3 answers
  9. 9nzta.govt.nz, government, cited in 3 answers
  10. 10infocouncil.tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers

Gemini

50%businesses

Had sources5of 6

Showed you a link0of 6

  1. 1kiwicoaches.co.nz, businesses, cited in 4 answers
  2. 21news.co.nz, news, cited in 1 answers
  3. 3boprc.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers
  4. 4minterellison.co.nz, businesses, cited in 1 answers
  5. 5nationalinfrastructure.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers
  6. 6nzvotecheck.com, comparison sites, cited in 1 answers
  7. 7tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers

Google AI Mode

29%news

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link1of 6

  1. 1policy.nz, comparison sites, cited in 4 answers
  2. 2rnz.co.nz, news, cited in 3 answers
  3. 31news.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  4. 4greens.org.nz, party websites, cited in 2 answers
  5. 5national.org.nz, party websites, cited in 2 answers
  6. 6nzherald.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  7. 7act.org.nz, party websites, cited in 1 answers
  8. 8beehive.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers
  9. 9hud.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers
  10. 10kiwicoaches.co.nz, businesses, cited in 1 answers

AI Overviews

38%government

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link2of 6

  1. 1facebook.com, social media, cited in 5 answers
  2. 2letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 5 answers
  3. 3nzherald.co.nz, news, cited in 5 answers
  4. 4tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 4 answers
  5. 5kiwicoaches.co.nz, businesses, cited in 3 answers
  6. 6policy.nz, comparison sites, cited in 3 answers
  7. 7hansard.parliament.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  8. 8infocouncil.tauranga.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  9. 9national.org.nz, party websites, cited in 2 answers
  10. 10rnz.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  • Party websites
  • Government
  • News
  • Comparison sites
  • Advocacy groups
  • Businesses
  • Social media
  • Other

A website counts once per answer, however many times the answer used it. Counts come from the sources the scan attached to each answer: 23 of this voter's 24 answers have at least one. We assigned a publisher type by hand to every website in a top-ten list; any other website counts as Other.