Farewell fees-free: Labour won't commit to reinstating policy yet
Monday, 11 May 2026
The Labour Party has declined to say it would reinstate the fees-free tertiary education policy it championed at the 2017 election, which is set to be cut by the Government.
NZ First leader Winston Peters told media last week that the policy will be scrapped in the upcoming Budget, a cut later confirmed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
Labour’s tertiary education spokesman, Shanan Halbert, refused to commit to reintroducing the policy when asked, despite the years-long campaign to get it in place.
“National had made deep cuts to tertiary education already. We need to see what their plans for the fees-free money are in more detail before we can make any commitments ourselves,” Halbert told The Post.
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If elected Labour would have time to keep fees-free in place through a mini-budget in December, which was the method it first used to introduce the policy.
Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick attacked the end of the policy but also declined to promise its full reinstatement, saying her party was “a while” from announcing full election policies.
“The Greens have always campaigned on fully costed policies to emphasise that education is a public good and that all of us benefit when our fellow New Zealanders get access to high quality education,” Swarbrick said.
“When we are in Government we will be having pre-budget announcements. What we are getting from this Government is pre-budget cuts.”
The policy was first introduced in 2018 - making one year of university training free, or two years of industry training.
Tertiary study is already heavily subsidised by the state, but the policy was originally intended by Labour to cover three years of study - removing the financial barrier of fees from decisions to study.
National opposed the policy but said in the lead-up to the election it would keep it in place. Following the election it switched the policy to apply to the last year of academic study, not the first.
But Willis has now confirmed that this year will be the last year for fees-free.
She told TVNZ the policy hadn’t delivered the wider access to study it had promised.
'We are a country that's been in deficit since 2019. We're carrying a heck of a lot of debt, so we've got to make sure every dollar we are spending is going to its best use,“ Willis said.
Officials noted in 2024 that of four goals set out when creating the original fees-free policy, only one had been met - the reduction of student debt.
Labour has been extremely reticent to announce any new policy ahead of the 2023 election, outside of its capital gains tax and free doctors’ visits.