Labour promises more spending

In 2017, Labour and the Greens promised they would keep core crown expenditure to under 30% of GDP. They didn’t. Now in 2026 Labour is promising to keep it to 33% of GDP – so one third of the entire economy would be consumed by the central state.

This is around $13 billion a year more (in real terms) than they promised last time they were in opposition. Rather than restrain spending, they just want to spend billions more than even Grant Robertson said was necessary in his 2019 wellbeing budget.