Spend and debt

Treasury books, year ended 30 June. Who was prime minister that June. Recessions marked. Named projects from both main parties.

One measure only: net core Crown debt, as a share of the economy. Do not mix this with Treasury's 2022 "net debt" figure, which made 2023 look like 18%. Colour is the prime minister's party that June.

Net core Crown debt

Labour cut it from 22.6% of GDP in 2000 to 5.4% in 2008. National took it up through the global financial crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes, to 25.5% in 2013, then edged it down to 21.6% by 2017. Labour edged it down again to 18.6% in 2019, then COVID. It is 41.8% in 2024 and 2025, then 40.9% in 2026.

Core Crown spending

Share of the economy, not raw dollars. National's last year in 2017 was 27.7%, the tightest in this window. Labour's COVID years spiked above 34%. This National-led government is at 32.0% in 2026, down from 32.5% in 2025.

• Blue band: National prime minister. Red band: Labour prime minister. Hatched band: a recession that overlaps that June year. NZ First sat in both kinds of coalition.
• 2008, 2017 and 2023 elections were late in the calendar year, so that June still counts as the outgoing government.
• A donation to a party is not in these charts. This is Crown spending and Crown debt.

Debt in dollars, and the share of GDP

On the audited June 2026 books the share of GDP fell, to 40.9%. The Crown still owed more dollars: $186.8 billion, up $4.6 billion in the year.

• Finance Minister Nicola Willis, 9 October 2025: the 2024/25 statements are the first year-end to fully reflect this government. Net core Crown debt "remained steady" at 41.8% of GDP, after rising every year for the previous five years. Core Crown spending fell from 33.1% to 32.5% of GDP.
• Same Treasury statements, with the 8 October 2026 audit: the dollar stock rose again. $175.5 billion at 30 June 2024. $182.2 billion at 30 June 2025. $186.8 billion at 30 June 2026. Up $4.6 billion in the latest year. The year before that it rose $6.7 billion. The year before that, already under this coalition, it rose $20.2 billion to $175.5 billion.
• Audited June 2026: net core Crown debt $186.8 billion, 40.9% of GDP. That is the first fall in the share since 2018/19. Core Crown expenses were 32.0% of GDP, down from 32.5%, while the dollar spend still rose to $146.3 billion. The 29 September pre-election update had been $186.7 billion and 41.0%, with expenses at 32.1%. The chart now includes the audited year. Part of the debt-share fall is the Reserve Bank's cheap loans to banks, fully repaid in December 2025.
• Why both can be true: the ratio is dollars divided by the size of the economy. If the economy grows faster than the extra borrowing, the percentage can fall while the Crown still owes more. They still ran a cash shortfall: residual cash deficit $19.3 billion in 2023/24, $6.0 billion in 2024/25, and $5.0 billion in 2025/26. Borrowing fills that gap.
• Willis's Budget 2025 speech used the dollar rise under Labour: debt "leapt up by almost $120 billion between 2019 and 2024". The same dollar test applies now. It has not gone down.
• Labour did pay the ratio down for years (2000 to 2008, and a little in 2018-19). National did too after the GFC peak (2013 to 2017). This National-led government has not paid the dollar stock down in its first three June years. In the third year the share of GDP fell.
• Budget 2024: Willis called about $15 billion of tax relief fully funded from savings. The same Budget lifted the four-year borrowing programme by $12 billion versus December's forecast. Treasury had asked for a smaller package and a later start. A 2024 recession sat on this government's watch. That does not by itself prove the cuts caused the slump.

COVID spending

The 2020 spike is the wage subsidy, health, and keeping firms alive. National backed that economic spend. They did not vote for every COVID law.

• On 25 March 2020 Parliament passed extra spending authority of up to $52 billion for the COVID response. The Auditor-General set that out.
• National's leader Simon Bridges said that day they stood with the Government on the economic response. National supported the wage subsidy and wanted the $150,000 cap lifted so medium firms were covered.
• On 13 May 2020 they voted against the third reading of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act (63 to 57).

Named projects, both parties

Both parties. Cancelling a job does not refund the money. A cost overrun on a finished road is not the same as money spent with nothing built. Each card says which.

Novopay school payroll

$43 million extra to fix. National replaced the school payroll in 2012. Teachers were underpaid, overpaid, or not paid. The 10-year envelope was about $182 million. By June 2014 Steven Joyce said the extra fix-it bill would hit $43 million.

Flag referendums, 2015-16

$21.8 million. John Key's government asked voters to change the flag. They kept it. DPMC put the whole Flag Consideration Project at $21.8 million, under a $25.7 million budget. The Electoral Commission spent $13.525 million running the two postal votes.

Transmission Gully

$850 million to $1.25 billion. National signed the public-private partnership. The road opened in 2022 under Labour. NZTA: original contract $850 million. Settlements, including COVID, took the construction-equivalent cost to $1.25 billion. The road exists. It cost more.

KiwiBuild

2,335 homes, not 100,000. Labour promised 100,000 affordable homes in ten years. Kāinga Ora told an OIA that 2,335 were completed from July 2018 to February 2024. HUD said Buy off the Plans had spent $148.5 million buying homes where underwrites were triggered, with $147.7 million recycled when those homes were sold on. The target was dropped.

Auckland harbour cycle bridge

$51 million. Labour announced a walking and cycling bridge beside the Harbour Bridge, then cancelled it in 2021 after public pushback. About $51 million had already gone on design, consultants and engineering. 1News later reported nearly $500,000 in office rent on the cancelled job.

Unused COVID vaccines

1.4 million doses dumped. Labour. March 2023. Te Whatu Ora destroyed, or was about to destroy, more than 1.4 million Pfizer doses that had expired. Some wastage is normal in a mass rollout. The purchase price of those doses was not published.

Cook Strait ferries (iReX)

$671 million. Labour signed two new Interislander ships. National cancelled the Hyundai contract in December 2023, citing a cost blowout toward about $3 billion. KiwiRail later put the whole scrapped project at $671 million, including a $144 million break fee. Total paid to Hyundai: $222 million. The old ships were due in 2025 and 2026. Replacements are aimed at 2029. The country still needs new ferries.

Auckland Light Rail

$228 million. Labour set it up. Six years of work. Not a metre of track. National cancelled it in January 2024. Simeon Brown said more than $228 million had already been spent. Cancelling it stopped a much larger bill. It did not unspend the $228 million.

New Dunedin Hospital

$1.2-1.4 billion, now $1.88 billion. Labour picked the site in 2018. 2017 estimates were $1.2 to $1.4 billion. National's Cabinet lifted the appropriation to $1.88 billion, with a smaller spec. The outpatient building had its official opening on 28 August 2026, about $440 million. Patients are due from October. The scaled-back inpatient building is still due 2031.

Other 100-day cancellations

About $2 billion already in. 1News added up projects this government scrapped in its 100-day plan. About $2 billion had already been spent: Three Waters about $1.2 billion, Let's Get Wellington Moving $167 million, Te Pūkenga $121 million, RMA reform $136 million, Lake Onslow study $36 million. How much of that is pure waste is a fight. The cash had already gone out. Labour started those jobs.