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.
A universal, non-means-tested $5,000 a year for each of the first, second and third child, paid across each child’s first three years. It is tax free and additional to every other support parents already qualify for, so it does not replace Working for Families or Best Start.
As a regular monthly payment administered through IRD, with one option: the first year’s grant for a first child can be taken as an upfront lump sum, to help with the cost of preparing for a first baby.
The document’s argument is that citizen births have fallen 30 percent in a decade while non-citizen births have nearly doubled, shifting the composition of who is born here, and that the birthrate of 1.53 is well below replacement. It describes relying on migration to fill that gap as papering over the cracks, and notes the same decline is happening across the western world.
The document lists several reasons people have fewer children or have them later — prioritising careers, wanting a dependent-free adulthood, rising costs, and the sacrifices involved — and picks cost as the one a government can move, describing the grant as substantially lowering one main barrier.
“The ‘Kiwi Kids Grant’ is a universal, non-means tested grant of $5000 annually for the first three years, and for each of the first, second, and third child.”
“One parent must be a New Zealand citizen to be eligible for this grant.”
“New Zealand’s current birthrate is 1.53 births per person, which is well below the rate of replacement of 2.1 births per person needed to just maintain our population.”
“Masking this massive problem with increasing migration is just papering over the cracks and will be disastrous for our future.”
Points the document defers or leaves undefined. These are gaps in the document, not criticisms of the policy.
Which party holds a published position on which topic.
Swipe across to see all 11 topics — the party column stays put.
| Party | Economy | Housing | Health | Education | Climate | Environment | Crime & Justice | Treaty & Māori Affairs | Immigration | Foreign Policy | Democracy & Government |
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| National |
| ∅ |
| Labour | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
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| ACT |
| NZ First |
| Te Pāti Māori |
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| NZ Loyal | ∅ | ||||||||||
| Te Tai Tokerau | ∅ | ||||||||||