Bribe-O-Meter Week 8: NZ First Nearly Doubles Its Spending In A Week To $45,000 Per Household

October 30, 2026

Voting
is now open, but that hasn’t slowed the spend-up in Week 8
of the Bribe-O-Meter. New Zealand First are the big
movers this week, adding 80 percent to their already
significant spending tally.

Their defence policy paper
promises a pathway to lift defence spending to 3 percent of
GDP by 2031. We have costed the gap between this path and
the Treasury’s current defence spending track at $40.55
billion over four years, or $19,571 per household. This
alone is nearly eight times National’s total new spending
promises, and it overtakes the BNZ buyback ($26.70 billion,
or $12,884 per household) as NZ First’s largest spending
pledge.

NZ First’s law and order package adds a
further $866 million, and they have added $39 million for
game development rebates and Centre of Digital Excellence
(CODE) uplifts. This takes their total to $93.32 billion, or
$45,039 per household, up from $25,032 just last
week.

The Greens released their fiscal plan this week,
but forgot to include the vast majority of their spending
promises. By our calculation, it has added a further $18.43
billion to their total, taking it to $272.31 billion, or
$131,425 per household. However, the vague nature of the
budget items in the Greens’ fiscal plan makes it difficult
to judge what lines are (supposed) to encompass which
pledges.

The fiscal plan raises $28.75 billion of net
new revenue over four years. This leaves $243.56 billion of
their spending promises unfunded, or $117,550 per household.
That is 89.4 percent of their total spending, admittedly a
slight decline from the 91.4 percent of spending which was
unfunded as of last week.

Despite new promises this
week, Labour remain at $34.23 billion ($16,521 per
household). $80 million for 1,000 teacher aides and $45
million for fair pay agreements are covered by their fiscal
plan’s $968 million ‘future announcements’ allowance.
National remain at $5.11 billion ($2,467 per household), and
ACT remain the only party proposing net savings (of $17.86
billion, or $8,619 per household). Opportunity have edged up
slightly to $229.62 billion.

Despite voting now being
open, neither New Zealand First nor Opportunity have
released a fiscal plan. New Zealand First have dropped half
a star in the transparency rankings to 1, while Opportunity
drop down to 2.5 stars. 
 

Taxpayers’
Union Head of Policy James Ross said:

“Voting is open,
and neither Opportunity nor New Zealand First have released
a fiscal plan. Although maybe even no fiscal plan is better
than the fantasy work the Greens released this week, with 89
cents in every dollar they promise to spend remaining
unfunded.”

“New Zealand First are going for the sprint
finish, increasing their new spending total by 80 percent,
or more than $20,000 per household, within the space of just
seven days.”

“Law, order, and defence deserve serious
conversations. Tens of billions of uncosted, unfunded
promises do not do these topics justice.”

Weekly
Bribe-O-Meter updates, including our Transparency
Score Rankings, are available at www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe_o_meter.

FAQ:

What is the
Bribe-O-Meter?

The Bribe-O-Meter
compiles the political promises of each of the main
political parties, broken down by spending
category.

The Bribe-O-Meter is about
transparency. The Taxpayers’ Union’s policy staff and
advisors will be updating the figures weekly, allowing
potential voters to assess which parties are offering value
for taxpayers’ money as the election campaign
progresses.

Current Government spending plans are used
as a baseline, so only policies that deviate from current
Government policy spending are
included.

How have you costed each
policy?

For some policies, we have taken
parties at their word. For uncosted policies, these have
been independently costed by our team. In some cases, where
parties’ costings are not reasonable or based on a
questionable assumption, independent costings have been
preferred. These costings are separately listed within the
Bribe-O-Meter . Explainers for each can be found at
www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe_o_meter_workings

Will
you work with parties to update your
figures?

Absolutely! We want to provide
the public and media with as much information as possible.
If there are errors or a party disagrees with our assessment
of their costings, we hope that the Bribe-O-Meter
will encourage the parties to provide the public with
more information and transparency.

How
often will the Bribe-O-Meter be
updated?

The Bribe-O-Meter will be
updated on a weekly basis, with updates published every week
between now and the
election.

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