2026 Policy Worksheet

Party policies by lever

Weigh 11 policy levers for your business, score 6 parties against what they have published, discount each for how much you think it would deliver, and see where your answers land.

Research as at Tuesday 13 October 2026 Election day Saturday 7 November 2026 This is not a recommendation on how to vote.

Four steps · about 20 minutes

Tell us what matters to your business, score each party on what it has actually published, and see which comes out ahead on your answers.

Weight the levers

Say how much each of 11 policy areas matters to your business.

Score the parties

Read each party’s policy and score it for your business.

Set the discount

Say how much of its programme you think each party would deliver.

See your result

A ranked total for each party, and which levers moved it.

The calculation

Each party earns points on every lever. The more a lever matters to you, and the better you think the party’s policy is for your business, the more points it earns. Its total is then reduced by how much of its programme you doubt it would deliver.

How it works

For each lever, your weight (1 to 3) is multiplied by the score you gave the party (0 to 5). For example, if tax matters a lot to you (weight 3) and you score a party 4 on tax, it earns 12 points from tax. The points from all 11 levers are added up, and the party’s competence discount (the share of its programme you think it would not deliver) is taken off.

Weights and scores start blank, and anything left blank counts as 0.

total = Σ(weight × score) × (1 − discount)

The most a party can score is 5 × the sum of your weights, up to 165 if every lever is weighted 3. It’s shown in the bar at the top of every step; select it to see how it’s worked out.

About this research

Entries were gathered from each party’s own website and releases first, then from Beehive, Treasury, Budget and departmental pages, then from RNZ, 1News, ODT, Stuff, NZ Herald and The Spinoff reporting of party announcements. Several party PDFs and some RNZ, NZ Herald and Beehive pages could not be opened during compilation; where an entry depends on those it is marked under Check. Levers where no party has published a 2026 policy, in particular insolvency and Companies Act and IRD enforcement, are recorded as such rather than filled from inference.

If you can show that an entry is wrong, incomplete or out of date, send the source to matt@blomfield.co.nz and the next version will correct it.

Scores are yours. The policy detail and sources are Blomfield’s research as at 13 October 2026; parties are still releasing policy, so check a party’s website before relying on an entry. Your answers stay in this browser and nobody else sees them.

Set a slider for each party, then see your result.

Scorecard method

What counts as a promise

A commitment made by the lead party at the election that brought the government to office or returned it, or a headline commitment in a signed coalition or confidence and supply agreement. Items that originated with a support partner are included and labelled, because the government signed up to them. Policies adopted mid-term without an election mandate (for example the 2010 GST rise or the 2025 pay equity changes) are not scored.

Within Parliament's control

Only promises the government could deliver by legislating, spending or administering are scored. Outcome targets that depend on the economy or on other people's behaviour, such as a return to surplus by a given year, a growth rate or a poverty rate, are not scored. Where such a target was the headline commitment it is recorded under Not scored with the facts.

Ratings

Delivered means implemented substantially as made, within the term or terms the government held office. Partly delivered means a material part was implemented and a material part was not, or the promise was met late or in changed form. Dropped means the government itself abandoned the promise or did not act on it. Later repeal by a successor government is noted but does not change the rating. The Luxon government is scored before the end of its term, so items still in progress count as Partly delivered.

Weights

3 is a fiscal or structural change affecting most businesses or households. 2 is a significant change to a sector or a large group. 1 is narrower. Each promise earns points up to its weight: Delivered earns all of them, Partly delivered half, Dropped none. The lists differ in length and mix, so a gap of a few points between governments is not meaningful; a gap of twenty points is.

Coalition compromises

Where a coalition or support partner altered, blocked, accelerated or originated a promise, the entry says so. The rating is still on the promise as made, because the voter was promised the outcome, not the negotiation.

Limits

Compiled on 13 October 2026. Several Beehive, RNZ and legislation pages could not be opened, and some assent dates and promise wordings rest on secondary sources, each marked under Check. The lists are not exhaustive. If you can show, with a source, that any entry is wrong, send it to matt@blomfield.co.nz.