There was a lot of policy and promises this week. Labour kicked things off by saying they will freeze planned fuel tax increases and National promptly decided it also rather liked the idea of not putting petrol tax up immediately too, but stopped short of a complete freeze. The 12 cent increase due next January is now gone. Instead, the Government intends to begin raising the tax by 5 cents in January 2028, followed by another 3x 5 cent increases every 6 months. This will reduce expected transport fund revenue by $1.476 billion over the forecast period. About $450 million can be found in an existing fuel crisis contingency fund, but that still leaves a bit over $1 billion to find and David Seymour and Chris Bishop have both acknowledged that unless equivalent spending is cut elsewhere, the money will be borrowed. Labour has an even bigger unanswered question as freezing the increases for the whole next term will cost around $4.6 billion.
