The economic policies of the eight parties in Parliament are compared in the table below.
The Herald is covering all the major policy areas in a series running throughout the election campaign.
| Party | Policy | |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | The watchwords are sustainability and productivity: Accelerating the switch to renewable energy and the better integration of rail, road and coastal transport. Lifting skills both through the transition from school and retraining. Continuing to lift infrastructure spending. | |
| National | Wants to engender investor confidence through sound and stable economic management, to reward enterprise and investment, supports innovation, respects the fact that business decisions are best made by business, and sees changing global markets as an opportunity to lift competitiveness and productivity. | |
| NZ First | Rewrite the Reserve Bank Act (to bring interest rates down), establish a New Zealand Fund (to buy back key strategic assets), keep more bank profits in New Zealand by putting the Government's accounts through Kiwibank, tax new export earnings at 20%, lift wages and lower income tax and GST. | |
| Greens | Measure and manage natural resources better, and ensure New Zealand's clean, green reputation becomes real and can sustain us and our children and beyond. Take more control over our own economic destiny, while trading fairly with the rest of the world. | |
| Maori Party | Incentivise small businesses to thrive and create employment by reducing unnecessary compliance costs and a 5% tax reduction for businesses with a net income (after wages and salaries) of $100,000 or less. Create a Community Development Bank to make loans to incubate small businesses. | |
| United Future | Align company, trust, and top personal tax rates at 30%. Lift funding of research, science and technology to at least OECD average. Reduce compliance costs on small and medium enterprises, improve transport infrastructure, make KiwiSaver compulsory and have regular reviews of the Resource Management Act. | |
| Act | Cap growth in Government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth - about 3.6% a year. Flatten the tax scale. Tackle red tape. Scrap the emissions trading scheme and pull out of the Kyoto Protocol. Privatise State-owned assets, having deregulated to keep the privatised firms honest. | |
| Progressive | Strengthen investment in economic development and innovation, especially in the primary sector. Retain the $700 million Fast Forward fund, and tax credits for R&D. Widen the goals of the Reserve Bank Act to include growth, and accelerate investment in infrastructure. Keep Kiwibank, Air New Zealand, KiwiRail and the energy SOEs in public ownership. | |