References & sources
Every figure, with its source
This site is a critical assessment, but it stands on verifiable facts. Below is every headline figure and every promise, each linked to its source — government data, official records, and mainstream reporting. All links were checked and resolve to a live page; they open in a new tab.
Headline figures
- $152b
Net core Crown debt by 2023
Net core Crown debt climbed from $58b (18.6% of GDP) in 2019 to about $152b (38.5% of GDP) in 2023 — the debt-to-GDP ratio more than doubled. Much of the rise was COVID-19 borrowing. Measured as net core Crown debt throughout, not the narrower “net debt” measure the government adopted in 2022.
theFacts.nz (NZ Treasury data)thefacts.nz - +34%
Growth in the public service
The core public service grew from 47,251 full-time-equivalent staff in 2017 to 63,117 in 2023 — nearly 16,000 extra roles, a 34% increase, far outpacing population growth.
Public Service Commission workforce datapublicservice.govt.nz - 2%
Of the KiwiBuild homes promised
Labour pledged 100,000 affordable KiwiBuild homes in 10 years. Only around 2,000 were built before the target was abandoned in 2019.
NZ Heraldnzherald.co.nz - $925k
Peak median house price (from $530k)
Despite promising to make housing affordable, the national median house price rose from about $530,000 in 2017 to a peak of $925,000 in late 2021.
RNZ / REINZrnz.co.nz - 25,000+
On the social housing waitlist (from 5,844)
The number of households waiting for a public home more than quadrupled — from 5,844 in September 2017 to over 25,000 by late 2023.
1News1news.co.nz - 7.3%
Peak annual inflation (a 32-year high)
Annual inflation peaked at 7.3% in mid-2022 — the highest in 32 years — squeezing household budgets. Inflation was partly a global phenomenon.
Stats NZstats.govt.nz
Promise by promise
- HousingPromise broken
Build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years
- Child povertyPartly kept
Halve child poverty
- TransportPromise broken
Auckland light rail — city to Mt Roskill in 4 years
- HousingPromise broken
End the housing crisis and the reliance on motels
- Mental healthPartly kept
$1.9 billion to transform mental health
- Housing affordabilityPromise broken
Make housing affordable again
- ClimatePromise kept
Pass binding net-zero climate law
- Cost of livingPromise broken
A “wellbeing economy” that lifts living standards
- EducationPartly kept
Free first year of tertiary study
- Public servicesPromise broken
An efficient, frontline-focused public service
- HealthPromise broken
Rebuild health and cut waiting times
- HousingPartly kept
Rebuild the public housing stock
How this was put together
- 1This site is a critical assessment, but it is built on verifiable, sourced figures. Every promise and outcome links to its source — government departments (Treasury, Stats NZ, the Public Service Commission), official records, and mainstream reporting (RNZ, NZ Herald, 1News).
- 2Debt is measured consistently. The headline uses the “net core Crown debt” measure throughout, rather than the newer, lower “net debt” measure the government adopted in 2022. On that consistent basis the debt-to-GDP ratio more than doubled — from 18.6% in 2019 to 38.5% in 2023. A large share of the increase was COVID-19 borrowing, a global pattern, not unique to New Zealand.
- 3Where a promise was genuinely kept — such as passing the Zero Carbon Act, or adding roughly 12,000 public homes — it is marked “kept,” and partial successes are marked “partial.” The goal is an honest scorecard, not a one-sided one.
- 4Where a figure compares two points in time, the linked source documents the most recent figure; the earlier baseline is the relevant agency's own published data for that year — the MSD Housing Register for 2017 waitlists, the Public Service Commission for 2017 staffing, and REINZ for 2017 house prices.
- 5Some figures (e.g. exact KiwiBuild totals and monthly house-price endpoints) vary slightly by source and date; the direction and scale of each is well established.