Greens release tax plan, but nothing goes to plan

Monday, 22 June 2026

Economist Brad Olsen has apologised for missing an $800 million revenue miscalculation in the Green Party’s 2026 tax plan.

The costs required for Inland Revenue to run the policy were accidentally counted as additional government income.

The blunder capped off a messy roll-out after an early online leak forced co-leaders to scramble their Sunday launch plans and speak to media two hours early.

The Green Party may have released their tax plan on Sunday, but nothing about it went to plan.

The announcement, which included details of a tax for the super-rich, a capital acquisitions tax for assets and gifts worth over $1 million and a levy for major banks, was scheduled for 2pm.

But co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson held a stand up at their offices – not the previously-planned Akarana Events Centre – more than two hours earlier after the policy was prematurely posted online.

Not the smoothest start, but not the worst.

However, more issues came to light on Monday when the party acknowledged the revenue the policy was set to generate had been miscalculated by about $800m over four years.

While Sunday’s media release said “a tax system for all of us will increase net revenue by $5.35 billion in 2027/28, rising to $5.94 billion by 2030/31”, the correct figures are actually $5.15 billion in 2027/28 and $5.73 billion by 2030/31, the party’s correction stated.

Over the four full years of the policy, the revenue had been over-estimated by a whopping $800m.

The correction attributed the error to “a typo”, but Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen – who worked with the party on the policy – has now apologised for the error.

“During our analysis of the Green Party’s tax policy, the Green Party and Infometrics both agreed that an explicit amount should be added in to account for the administrative work IRD would need to be funded to do to undertake the proposed tax policies,” he said.

“When incorporating this administration cost, the figure was inadvertently included in the summary total of revenue when it should’ve been recorded as a cost (i.e. negative revenue, recorded with a minus).

“I’m sorry to have missed this. However, all revenue from the Green’s tax changes do stack up. The error is regrettable but not material to the taxation elements of the Green’s Tax Policy.”

The first iteration of the policy saw additional revenue of $100m, $102m, $104m and $106m across the four years from 2027 in the “Funding for Inland Revenue” row.

The corrected version updated the row to reflect costs of $-100m, $-102m, $-104m and $-106m across the four years.

The change meant each year’s fiscal calculations were out by $200m.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Green Party said they remain proud of their policy.

“[We] are a small team doing great work. Mistakes cause distractions, but we've been quick to correct them when they happen and transparent in doing so,“ they said.