NZ First says it will balance the government's budget and cap spending to help bring down inflation and interest rates. It wants to investigate supermarkets, banks, and power companies for overcharging. It plans to make the lowest income tax bracket tax-free, look at lifting the minimum wage to at least $25 an hour, limit the time people can be on a jobseeker benefit, and build more infrastructure through a new infrastructure bank and energy ministry.
“Balance the budget to take the heat off interest rates and inflation. Use policies to get our economy out of the red and back to black responsibly”
“NZ First will legislate to make the lowest tax bracket (currently $14,000 pa) of income tax-free no later than 1 April 2027; providing an extra $28.27 a-week for workers.”
“Foreign owned banks, supermarkets, and energy 'gen-tailers' will face a full scale pricing and monopoly investigation, as they have in other countries”
Summarised neutrally from NZ First’s own official policy (as at 2026-06-22) and checked by an editor. Nothing is paraphrased without the source linked. Read the original ↗ Arapono is non-partisan. Compare all parties on Economy →
NZ First would make KiwiSaver enrolment automatic at birth, with an immediate $1,000 Crown contribution for New Zealand citizens only — a once-per-lifetime payment meant to compound for decades. It is designed to work with their existing campaign policy of compulsory KiwiSaver across the workforce, with employee and employer contributions rising to 8 percent and eventually 10.
NZ First would legislate to split Foodstuffs into two nationwide cooperatives by brand — New World and Four Square in one, Pak’nSave in the other — putting both in direct competition with Woolworths. Commerce Commission penalties would rise to match Australia’s, the Grocery Commissioner would gain power to investigate, make binding decisions and impose penalties, and a new industry-rules framework under the Commerce Act 1986 would allow faster targeted action on the path from farm to shelf.
Half the royalties from any mine would stay in the region it came from rather than going to Wellington, earmarked for local infrastructure and services. Around that sits a wider mining package: new zones with clearer rules on where mining may happen, longer permits covering the full life of a mine, a reined-in role for DOC and other agencies, a modern geological survey of what is underground, and the reopening of the School of Mines.
NZ First would buy the Bank of New Zealand back from National Australia Bank and merge it with Kiwibank to form the National Bank of New Zealand — fully Crown owned, commercially run, and big enough to compete with ANZ, ASB and Westpac. It would not come out of the operating budget: the funding stack is a sovereign banking bond, long-dated Crown debt, a limited tranche of Future Fund and ACC money, and Kiwibank’s existing capital.
A Special Economic Zone covering the former refinery and Northport, focused on energy and maritime activity including a new drydock for ship repairs. Its principal feature is relief from planning regulation and the RMA: instead of councils, DOC and other agencies, consents would be decided quickly by a government expert panel judging whether a proposal grows the economy. Changes to overseas investment rules and a range of tax incentives are under consideration.
A universal, non-means-tested payment of $5,000 a year for each of a family’s first three children, through each child’s first three years, tax free and paid monthly through IRD. One parent must be a New Zealand citizen. It would sit on top of existing support and is costed at $400 million a year by year three. The case made for it is demographic: a falling citizen birthrate that NZ First argues cannot be solved by migration.
Which party holds a published position on which topic.
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