Explore research

Voter R06 · one of nine places

Wellington: homeowner worried about water costs

“I own a home in Lower Hutt and am concerned about water bills, pipe repairs and the reliability of local water services. I want to understand which election promises could actually change these things.”

questions written for them
3
answers collected
24
AI assistants
4
asked from, and nationally
Wellington
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 Wellington.

  • PF161

    Infrastructure and local services

    I own a home in Lower Hutt and am concerned about water bills, pipe repairs and the reliability of local water services. I want to understand which election promises could actually change these things. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What can the national parties actually change about water services in Lower Hutt, and what is now the responsibility of Tiaki Wai or local councils?

    8 answers

  • PF162

    Cost of living

    I own a home in Lower Hutt and am concerned about water bills, pipe repairs and the reliability of local water services. I want to understand which election promises could actually change these things. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on the cost of Wellington-region water services for households, and would their proposals reduce bills, shift costs or delay spending?

    8 answers

  • PF163

    Tax and public spending

    I own a home in Lower Hutt and am concerned about water bills, pipe repairs and the reliability of local water services. I want to understand which election promises could actually change these things. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What do parties propose about paying for Wellington-region water infrastructure, and how would they balance affordable charges with repairing the network?

    8 answers
02 · Parties named

Which parties AI put in front of this voter

Of the 24 answers this voter received, 21 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

  • National19 of 24 answers
  • Labour17 of 24 answers
  • Greens18 of 24 answers
  • ACT15 of 24 answers
  • NZ First10 of 24 answers
  • Te Pāti Māori4 of 24 answers
  • Opportunity0 of 24 answers

  • ChatGPT

    1 of 6 answers

    named all six parties in Parliament

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

  • Gemini

    1 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
Cost of living
Tax and public spending
04 · Asked from Wellington

What changed when the question was asked from Wellington

The same question, word for word, asked nationally and from Wellington. For this voter's main question, 3 of the 4 assistants named a different set of parties.

NamedNot namedNamed only from WellingtonDropped when asked from Wellington

Parties named in PF161 (Infrastructure and local services), asked nationally and from Wellington
PF161 · Infrastructure and local servicesAsked nationallyAsked from Wellington
ChatGPT

6 parties named2,223 words

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

0 parties named935 words

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

1 parties named518 words

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

1 parties named569 words

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

1 parties named372 words

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

0 parties named407 words

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

4 parties named634 words

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

1 parties named664 words

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

How the assistants handled this voter's main question

PF161 names Tiaki Wai and asks what national parties can actually change. The answers consistently separate operational delivery from national law, funding and regulation in their openings. ChatGPT explicitly says an incoming MP cannot decide whether a particular street's pipe is replaced next year. That is a useful limit on the apparent power of an election promise.

The responses also make precise claims about transfer dates, billing, ownership and governance. Agreement among four systems is not independent confirmation: they may draw on related sources or repeat the same premise. Each institutional claim needs its own current authority check.

The collection approximation is Wellington for a Lower Hutt question. Both NZ and Wellington answers retain the explicit Lower Hutt wording. The regional comparison should therefore be described as a test of the configured setting, not proof that an actual Lower Hutt resident would receive a particular answer or bill.

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

53%government

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link6of 6

  1. 1huttcity.govt.nz, government, cited in 6 answers
  2. 2tiakiwai.co.nz, government, cited in 6 answers
  3. 3act.org.nz, party websites, cited in 5 answers
  4. 4comcom.govt.nz, government, cited in 5 answers
  5. 5greens.org.nz, party websites, cited in 5 answers
  6. 6haveyoursay.tiakiwai.co.nz, government, cited in 5 answers
  7. 7labour.org.nz, party websites, cited in 5 answers
  8. 8national.org.nz, party websites, cited in 5 answers
  9. 9nzfirst.nz, party websites, cited in 5 answers
  10. 10legislation.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers

Gemini

62%government

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link0of 6

  1. 1huttcity.govt.nz, government, cited in 4 answers
  2. 2dentons.co.nz, businesses, cited in 2 answers
  3. 3gw.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  4. 4comprende.co.nz, other, cited in 1 answers
  5. 5en.wikipedia.org, other, cited in 1 answers
  6. 6greenpeace.org, advocacy groups, cited in 1 answers
  7. 7poriruacity.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers
  8. 8wellington.govt.nz, government, cited in 1 answers

Google AI Mode

46%government

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link1of 6

  1. 1wellington.govt.nz, government, cited in 3 answers
  2. 2beehive.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  3. 3en.wikipedia.org, other, cited in 2 answers
  4. 4gw.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  5. 5letstalk.wellington.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  6. 6rnz.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  7. 7themodernregulator.com, other, cited in 2 answers
  8. 8tiakiwai.co.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  9. 9acwellington.org.nz, other, cited in 1 answers
  10. 10dentons.co.nz, businesses, cited in 1 answers

AI Overviews

32%news

Had sources6of 6

Showed you a link1of 6

  1. 1nzherald.co.nz, news, cited in 4 answers
  2. 2facebook.com, social media, cited in 3 answers
  3. 3rnz.co.nz, news, cited in 3 answers
  4. 4wellington.govt.nz, government, cited in 3 answers
  5. 5dentons.co.nz, businesses, cited in 2 answers
  6. 6huttcity.govt.nz, government, cited in 2 answers
  7. 7newstalkzb.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  8. 8newswire.co.nz, news, cited in 2 answers
  9. 9policy.nz, comparison sites, cited in 2 answers
  10. 10poriruacity.govt.nz, government, 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: 24 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.