Step 1
Cut the waste
$9.9bnoff debt by 2031
Bring non-frontline spending back to 2017 levels per person, adjusted for inflation and wage growth. Health, education, police and defence keep every dollar of growth since 2017.
ACT willpay down debtfaster
New Zealand's debt has grown out of control. ACT has the plan to pay it down.
See ACT's planACT's plan
Three steps topay down debt
On Treasury's forecast and on Labour's plan, debt keeps rising until 2030. ACT's plan turns it around a year earlier and takes $12.5 billion off debt by 2031. Switch each step off, or open it up and choose the parts, to see what it does.
$12.5bn
less debt by 2031 than Treasury's forecast
Debt as a share of the economy, 2031
Surplus in 2028/29 (OBEGAL)
Debt starts falling
Treasury and Labour: 2030/31
Net core Crown debt, $ billion
Treasury forecastLabour's planACT's plan
Step 2
Control spending
$12.7bnoff debt by 2031
Cap new Budget spending, keep NZ Super affordable and target welfare to those who need it.
Choose the parts
Step total also includes $0.3bn of other welfare savings in ACT's plan.
Step 3
Grow the economy
$0bnextra, depending on growth
- Unlock our minerals and gas, with clear rules, faster decisions and national parks protected
- More supermarket competition: new stores consented in months, not years
- Cheaper power: sell your solar to who you choose and connect new generation faster
- Climate policy that protects Kiwi jobs and refunds carbon revenue to households
- Modern finance rules so Kiwi businesses can raise money and pay faster
- Let innovators trial new technology here, safely, before rules catch up
- Broad-based tax relief once the books are back in surplus
All ACT's growth policies
Mining and energy
- Keep New Zealand open to responsible mineral exploration, with the Critical Minerals List kept up to date
- Clear national rules for mines and quarries, with national parks and Schedule 4 land still protected
- Keep fast-track consenting, with firm deadlines for government decisions
- Open suitable government land outside protected areas under clear, predictable rules
- Keep onshore and offshore petroleum exploration open where it stacks up commercially
- Clear the way for domestic gas, gas storage and reliable backup generation
- Stop making companies prove the same thing to several different regulators
- Scale rules to the real size and risk of a project
- Protect investment from political U-turns and strengthen property rights
- Operators, not taxpayers, pay for clean-up and rehabilitation
- More skilled, well-paid resources jobs at home, not across the Tasman
Supermarket competition
- One-stop consents so new stores get decisions in months, not years, even across council boundaries
- Faster, simpler alcohol licensing, sorted early, not when the store is nearly built
- Accept UK, EU and US food labels, ending costly relabelling
- Remove inconsistent local rules that add cost and delay to new stores
Power prices
- Choose who buys your power, including local businesses and community schemes
- Export more of your solar, with lines companies made to justify any limits
- Let private investors build transmission lines so new power connects faster
- Shop around for accredited contractors when you need a new connection
- Make lines companies test cheaper options before an upgrade goes on your bill
- No forced break-ups of power companies, and tougher action on market abuse
Climate and carbon
- Scrap the arbitrary net zero 2050 target and repeal the Zero Carbon Act
- Match our emissions cap to our major trading partners
- Remove the artificial carbon price floor behind six failed auctions in a row
- Return carbon auction revenue to households through a Carbon Tax Refund
- Protect Kiwi jobs where overseas competitors pay little or no carbon price
- Stop rules that favour turning productive farmland into permanent carbon forest
- No tax on agricultural emissions, and less red tape for cleaner technology
- Renegotiate our Paris commitment, and be ready to leave if it isn't fair
Finance and fintech
- Clear rules for payment stablecoins to make international payments faster and cheaper
- No tax paperwork for small everyday purchases made with digital assets
- Clear rules so businesses, farms and property can raise money through tokenised ownership
- A supervised testing ground for financial start-ups
- A clear 12-month rule for long-term digital investors
- Review the rules pushing banks to shut out legitimate fintech businesses
Innovation trials
- A permanent, open process to apply for Innovation Trials
- Set a specific rule aside for a limited local test, with safety conditions agreed up front
- The Ministry for Regulation helps agencies run trials consistently
- Invite autonomous vehicle, agricultural drone and medtech companies to trial here
Faster growth means more tax revenue without higher tax rates. Use the slider to add it: it starts at zero because ACT's costed plan doesn't rely on it.
Paid for within the plan
ACT's own commitments, fully costed and paid for by the savings above, not by borrowing. Amounts are the total cost to 2031.
Tax relief
Health, safety and welfare
Investing in the future
Other costed commitmentsContingencies and further measures in ACT's fiscal plan.
Interest saved along the wayLower borrowing means a smaller interest bill.
Why it matters
Why we need topay down debt
Taxpayers are spending more than $1 million an hour just paying interest on existing debt. That is money taken from health, education, infrastructure or lower taxes.
Less debt gives New Zealand room to respond to the next earthquake, financial crisis or pandemic. And it is wrong to cut taxes by borrowing: that just pushes the bill onto the next generation, with interest.
$1.2m
Spent on interest every hour
2026/27 forecast
$10.3bn
Interest bill this year
Up from $1.9bn in 2020/21
1.3×
More than police, courts and prisons combined
Law and order: $7.8bn
1 in 13
Tax dollars goes straight to interest
$10.3bn of $137.2bn core Crown tax
What ACT's plan changes
Less on interest
$0.9bn
a year less spent on interest by 2030/31, and growing.
Room to cut taxes
$11bn
a year more surplus by 2031 than on Treasury's forecast.
That's the groundwork for much lower, flatter taxes, paid for by spending control rather than borrowing.
Ready for the next crisis
$86bn
of room under Treasury's 50% debt ceiling in 2031.
ACT's plan
Current track
ACT vs Labour
Labour's plankeeps debtrising
On Labour's own numbers, debt is higher than Treasury's forecast in every year and still rising in 2030. That's before the holes others have found in their plan. Test them yourself.
Net core Crown debt (excluding the NZ Super Fund), years to June: the measure in ACT's fiscal plan. Labour's figures apply the gap in its own published net-debt track to the same measure.
Test Labour's numbers
+$0.0bn
of extra debt by 2031 if these costs are real
Labour says it has $10.5bn of unallocated operating allowance to cover costs like these.
Cut the waste.Balance the books.Pay down the debt.
Numbers and sources
Every figure on this page comes from Treasury, Stats NZ, ACT's costed fiscal plan or Labour's published fiscal plan. Open a section to check the working.
ACT's plan against Treasury and Labour
Reflects the steps as currently set. $ billion unless stated.
Debt and interest, 2017 to 2031
Years end 30 June. 2017–2026 actual (2026 unaudited); 2027–2031 Treasury forecast.
Method
Debt measure. Net core Crown debt (excluding the NZ Super Fund and advances), Treasury's headline debt indicator and the measure used in ACT's fiscal plan. ACT's plan, Labour's plan and Treasury's forecast are all compared on it, and the live counters use it. The sources table also shows PREFU's broader net debt (excluding the NZ Super Fund) for reference.
ACT's path. Each item's yearly effect on the operating balance and on cash comes from ACT's fiscal plan, for 2027/28 to 2030/31. Measures still to be announced are included in the totals. ACT's debt is Treasury's forecast less the running total of the cash improvement. Interest savings are charged on the average reduction in debt during each year, matching the financing-cost savings in ACT's model. "Off debt by 2031" is each step's total cash contribution over the four years. Within "Cut the waste", the four named examples are as listed in ACT's fiscal plan; the Ministry of Education figure comes from the plan model's 2017 benchmarking; "Hold the rest of government to 2017 levels" is the remainder of the plan's non-frontline total. "Cap new Budget spending at $2bn a year" is the plan's reduction in future Budget operating allowances from the $2.4bn a year Treasury's forecast assumes.
Labour's path. Labour's fiscal plan (October 2026) publishes its debt on the broader "net debt" measure: $0.74bn, $0.77bn, $0.80bn, $0.84bn and $0.88bn above Treasury's forecast from 2026/27 to 2030/31. We add that gap to Treasury's net core Crown debt so all three tracks use the same measure. Labour's OBEGAL figures are as published.
Testing Labour's numbers. All three tests are off by default. $90m error: Labour recorded its Income Related Rent Subsidy and Accommodation Supplement reversal as a $44.8m saving when it is a cost (identified by the Taxpayers' Union, accepted by Labour); Investment Boost: National says official Treasury and Inland Revenue costings are $1.71bn in 2027/28 and $1.28bn in 2028/29, against Labour's $2.11bn and $1.97bn, a $2.2bn gap over four years; we split the remaining gap evenly over 2029/30 and 2030/31. Labour disputes this. Pay equity: Budget 2025 booked about $2.7bn a year of savings from the Equal Pay Amendment Act. Labour will reinstate the regime but provides $558m a year (the $4 an hour rise), so the test adds the $2.14bn difference from 2027/28. Each test also carries interest at 4.7%. Health cost pressures: Labour's plan adds $1.40bn, $1.44bn and $1.55bn of health cost-pressure funding to 2029/30, then nothing in 2030/31; the test adds $1.5bn that year. School lunches: Labour funds $146m, $295m and $149m to 2029/30 and nothing in 2030/31; the test adds $295m. Unallocated room: Labour says $10.5bn of its operating allowances is unallocated. Treasury's forecast already assumes allowances are spent, so costs paid from that room don't add to debt but leave nothing for other cost pressures. The debt figures assume Labour borrows instead.
Growth. Treasury's rule of thumb (PREFU 2026, Table 3.1): one percentage point faster nominal GDP growth raises tax revenue by $1.3bn, $2.8bn and $4.5bn in the first three years. The slider scales this from 2027/28 and lifts GDP in the ratios. It is not counted in ACT's costed plan.
Live figures. The debt estimate moves in a straight line between the June 2026 actual ($186.7bn) and the June 2027 forecast ($209.6bn) of net core Crown debt, about $63 million a day. The "since you arrived" counters use the same rate of new borrowing (about $727 a second) and the 2026/27 finance-cost forecast of $10.3bn (about $326 a second).
Crisis buffer. Headroom is the gap between debt and 50% of GDP, the ceiling Treasury recommends in normal times (Investment Statement 2025). Treasury estimates shock responses have cost about 10% of GDP per decade since the late 1980s (Te Ara Mokopuna 2025), about $58bn at 2030/31 GDP.
Horizon. The comparison runs to 2030/31, the last year of Treasury's forecast and of Labour's plan.
Sources
- Treasury, Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update 2026 (29 September 2026): Table 2 key indicators; core Crown expenses by function; Table 5.16 finance costs; Table 3.1 fiscal sensitivity analysis; core Crown tax revenue.
- Treasury, Fiscal Time Series: Historical Fiscal Indicators 1972–2025: net core Crown debt and finance costs, 2017–2020.
- Stats NZ, Dwelling and household estimates, March 2026 quarter: 2,064,700 households.
- Treasury, He Puna Hao Pātiki: 2025 Investment Statement: net core Crown debt below 50% of GDP in normal times.
- Treasury, Te Ara Mokopuna 2025: Long-term Insights Briefing: shock responses cost about 10% of GDP per decade.
- New Zealand Labour Party, Labour's Fiscal Plan 2026: OBEGAL and net debt tracks; table of announced policies.
- Taxpayers' Union, $90m maths blunder in Labour's fiscal plan (October 2026); Labour's response reported by RNZ, 6 October 2026.
- Nicola Willis, Another $2.2 billion hole in Labour's fiscal plan (6 October 2026), citing Treasury and Inland Revenue costings of Investment Boost.
- RNZ, Budget 2025: Coalition claws back savings from pay equity: $2.7bn a year of savings from the pay equity changes.
Authorised by C. Purves, www.act.org.nz