Willis claims Labour has $18.2b ‘hidden bill’ as election funding row escalates

Sunday, 14 June 2026

Nicola Willis has released a document titled Labour’s hidden Bill.

She claims Labour faces an $18.2 billion shortfall based on policies and positions it has signalled.

Willis says she is not yet calling it a “fiscal hole”, but warns she will if Labour does not provide answers before the election.

Labour says it will release a fully costed fiscal plan later this year.

The largest disputed cost is the potential reinstatement of the previous pay equity regime, which Willis estimates would cost nearly $11 billion dollars over four years.

National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis has come out swinging at Labour accusing the party of a “hidden bill” as it has not yet explained exactly how some of its signalled “intentions” will be funded.

Willis on Sunday released what she called a “carefully referenced document” titled “Labour’s hidden bill”, alleging the party was short by $18.2 billion dollars to fund what she has interpreted as policy positions based off Labour’s opposition to some of the government’s policies.

“New Zealanders have been here before. Castles in the sky that evaporate when they touch the ground. The simple reality is this: the New Zealand government can't continually borrow to fund uncosted election promises,” Willis said.

“That way lies credit downgrades, interest rate hikes, and a dangerous debt spiral. New Zealand actually needs a government made up of people who pay attention to the detail, not politicians who are seduced by marketing slogans and sound bites and can't get their hands on a calculator.”

Willis was very careful to avoid the term “fiscal hole” which has been a consistent feature of election campaigns since 2017.

“'I’m not going to call a fiscal hole until I've answered each of these questions. At the moment, it's a hidden bill,” she said.

But if Labour doesn’t answer her questions - she’s ready to upgrade it to a full blown accusation of a fiscal hole.

“If these questions aren't answered before the election, then yes, Labour will have a fiscal hole on their hands.”

Labour has hit back dubbing the exercise “desperate”.

“This is about as desperate as it gets. National wouldn’t be attacking Labour’s plans if they weren’t worried about their own,” Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“We will release a fully costed fiscal plan later this year so New Zealanders can see exactly how our priorities stack up and how they will be paid for.”

Willis denied National was panicking.

“For New Zealanders to make the judgment about the choice at this election, they need to be able to look in detail at the hidden bill behind the nice words that Labour uses,” she said.

The largest cost in the document is attributed to reinstating the pay equity scheme the government slashed at last year’s budget. Chris Hipkins has in the past committed to fully reinstating the settings as they were before the government made changes, but has refused to say how he would pay for that.

Willis’ document forecasts that bill alone at nearly $11b over the next four years, which is the cycle by which government spending commitments are measured.

When it was pointed out that Labour had been slightly dialling back the rhetoric on that policy and had specifically not pledged to fund it at the same level, Willis hit back saying that’s what it costs to revert and said she wanted a “yes or no answer” from Labour on funding it.

“if he is not reinstating the pay equity regime, I dare him to say it on the news tonight. Tell the PSA, the CTU, all of the workers here has promised that you will be reinstating that regime too,” she said.

“It’s disappointing to see Nicola Willis continue to politicise paying women properly, when she was one of the loudest in support of the Bill passing under Labour, when it was politically convenient,” Edmonds said in response.

The next cost on the books is Labour’s “future fund” which plans to take dividends from select state owned enterprises to invest in New Zealand businesses and infrastructure.

Labour has said it would begin with a $200 million crown capital injection, but has not outlined which state owned enterprises dividend would be directed to the fund - and thereby not be directed into the government’s general pool of money - the consolidated revenue account - which is used to pay for public services.

In the absence of detail, Willis has assumed the top five performing crown assets, Genesis, Mercury, Meridian, Air New Zealand and Transpower, would be transferred costing a total of $2.78b over 4 years.

“If we are wrong to include those, then again, Labour should answer that question and tell us which ones they will include,” Willis said.

Labour’s new $20 public transport cap, reversing public service cuts, income-related rent changes, and reverting the free school lunch programme to local providers made up the remainder of uncosted policies in the document.

Labour has said it will fund its public transport policy out of the National Land Transport fund, which is mainly made up of petrol taxes and road user charges, but hasn’t said what it would cut funding from that fund to pay for its policy.

Willis also took a swing at the costing of that policy too saying if Labour’s communicated average saving of $1200 a year was applied to the 1.36 million New Zealanders mentioned in its policy document, the cost would be $1.6 billion a year, not the $65 million Labour’s transport spokesman Tangi Utikere has costed it at.

“I am happy to give Mr Utikere a calculator to work this how out if he requires one I'll send it over,” Willis said.