Budget 2026 hides a nearly $500 million KiwiSaver hole across the public service – Greens

The Green Party says Budget 2026 leaves a hole of nearly half a billion dollars, the cost of the higher employer KiwiSaver contribution for most of the public service, with no sign of funding anywhere in the books to meet it.

“Nicola Willis has a hole of nearly $500 million in her Budget that she has left unfunded,” says Green Party Co-leader and finance spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick.

“The Government lifted employer KiwiSaver contributions in Budget 2025, which was the right thing to do. What wasn’t right was leaving that unfunded, meaning Nicola Willis was and is banking on more cuts across the public service.”

“The Greens first called this out last year, when the Government had not accounted at all for the increased employer contributions despite being an employer of tens of thousands of teachers, nurses and public servants.”

“Nicola Willis patronised and dismissed the Greens then, then this year quietly budgeted for only teacher and teacher aides’ employer contributions. The Minister of Finance knows the Greens were right then, and she knows we’re right now.”

“When the Government will not show you the money, the safe assumption is that it is not there. The nearly $500 million will be paid somewhere, and the most likely place is baseline funding, which means hospitals, schools and frontline services quietly absorbing a cost of the Government’s accounting trickery.”

“Nicola Willis can clear this up today by showing everyone the funding for employer KiwiSaver increases across every Vote, line by line. If it is there, she should prove it. If it is not, she should stop pretending the books balance on anything other than secret cuts to come.”

“New Zealanders deserve a Government that does the real work and tells them the truth,” says Swarbrick.