Election 2026: Christopher Luxon defends missing plan as Labour goes on attack
National Party leader Christopher Luxon said he was “not quite sure” when his party’s fiscal plan will be released.
He made the remarks after Labour published its own fiscal plan, a document showing how the party intends to pay for its promises if elected.
National criticised Labour for not explicitly costing or explicitly setting aside funding for the party’s largest promise, restoring the old pay equity regime, which a recent Treasury estimate suggests could cost $8.5b beyond the one settlement Labour has costed. Labour hit back attacking National for not yet having published its own spending plan.
Asked about the plan on the Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB, Luxon said “it comes out shortly”.
Asked for a specific date, he said he was “not quite sure” exactly when it would be published.
Host Mike Hosking challenged Luxon, saying “how can you not know when your fiscal plan is out in an election campaign?”
Luxon then said it was “coming in a couple of weeks”.
If that timeframe is correct, then National’s fiscal plan could well land after the first two leaders’ debates have wrapped up.
Luxon said National’s plans were reflected in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (Prefu). This is a common defence for the incumbent party, however, at the last election, the then governing Labour Party still released a plan showing how its spending promises fit within the parameters of the pre-election update.
Labour went on the attack on Monday morning. The party’s campaign chair Kieran McAnulty said that National “has had plenty to say about Labour’s finances, but remarkably little to say about its own”.
“They have spent weeks throwing around absurd claims and made-up numbers, desperately hoping no one notices that they’ve failed to fix the cost of living,” McAnulty said.
“Labour has shown exactly what our commitments cost, where the money comes from and how we will get the books back into surplus.
“We have a plan to tackle the cost of living – National doesn’t.
“Every one of Labour’s commitments are costed and funded; meanwhile, National still hasn’t put its full fiscal plan on the table.
“National needs to front up. Which schools, hospitals, roads or public services will National cut to make its promises stack up?”
McAnulty said National did not have a plan to pay for the nationalisation of the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), a New Zealand First policy, making use of the tactic National is using, which is smearing a major party with the spending promises of their likely coalition partners.
Labour announced its fiscal plan on Sunday, showing a similar spending track to the coalition Government’s.
Political debate since then has focused on the fact that Labour has not set aside specific funding for what a recent Treasury estimate suggests could be $8.5 billion worth of pay equity settlements.
Labour’s plan relies on funding these from existing cost-pressure funding, which would mean below-inflation increases to government departments’ budgets next term, a plan National has argued is not credible.