NZ political compass test, election and voting quiz 2026Which party actually matches you?
Independent New Zealand political compass test and voting quiz for the 2026 general election.
Five minutes. Thirty-seven plain questions. See exactly where you sit on the political spectrum and which of the six parties actually matches what you believe, checked against the real positions every party has published for 2026. Go into 7 November confident in your vote.
- Free
- No sign-up
- No ads
- Every position sourced
“People who own more than $10 million in assets should pay a yearly tax on it, even if they don't earn enough income to pay it.”
Supporters say
The wealthiest New Zealanders pay a lower effective tax rate than a nurse, because their money grows as assets rather than income.
Opponents say
Wealthy people and their capital leave, so it raises less than forecast, several countries have repealed theirs.
- questions
- 37questionsacross six policy areas
- parties
- 6partieseveryone in Parliament
- sourced positions
- 222sourced positionseach with a link and a date
- personal data
- 0personal datascored in your browser
How it works
Three steps, about five minutes
Answer
37 plain statements. Agree, disagree or skip. Each has an optional explainer.
Weigh what matters
Mark the issues you care most about and they count double. Shrug at one and it counts half.
See your match
A percentage with every party, sector by sector, and your place on the spectrum, with sources.
What you'll be asked about
Six policy areas, every one covered
Every area carries at least five questions, so the result reflects your whole outlook rather than whichever single topic is loudest in the campaign.
Economy, Tax & Cost of Living
Who pays tax and how much, how big the state should be, and who should own the banks, power companies and supermarkets.
Compare the parties →Housing & Renting
Rent rules, state house building, help for first-home buyers, and whether to loosen planning rules to build more.
Compare the parties →Health & Education
Free doctor's visits, how schools teach and test, school choice, and whether Māori-led health services should return.
Compare the parties →Climate, Energy & Environment
Emissions targets, oil and gas, farming's climate obligations, mining, and river water quality.
Compare the parties →Law, Order & Justice
Sentencing, prisons, police numbers, gangs, and whether justice should lean toward punishment or prevention.
Compare the parties →Te Tiriti, Rights & Immigration
The place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in government, the Māori electorates, te reo Māori, and how many people should move here.
Compare the parties →Who you're scored against
All six parties in Parliament
Listed alphabetically, never by poll position or match score, because the order things appear in changes how people read them.
ACT New Zealand
David Seymour · 11 seats in 2023
Classical-liberal party campaigning on lower and flatter taxes, a smaller state, deregulation and equal citizenship before the law.
ACT policies 2026 →Green Party of Aotearoa New ZealandRōpū Kākāriki
Marama Davidson & Chlöe Swarbrick · 15 seats in 2023
Left-green party campaigning on taxing wealth to fund public services, rapid decarbonisation, mass public housing and Te Tiriti-based partnership.
Greens policies 2026 →New Zealand Labour PartyRōpū Reipa
Chris Hipkins · 34 seats in 2023
Centre-left party campaigning on a targeted capital gains tax to fund free doctor's visits, cheaper public transport and rebuilt public services.
Labour policies 2026 →New Zealand National Party
Christopher Luxon · 48 seats in 2023
Centre-right party campaigning on low taxes, a return to surplus, tougher sentencing, compulsory KiwiSaver and planning reform to build more.
National policies 2026 →New Zealand First
Winston Peters · 8 seats in 2023
Socially conservative party campaigning on state ownership of banking and energy, lower migration and a referendum on the Māori electorates.
NZ First policies 2026 →Te Pāti Māori
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer & Rawiri Waititi · 6 seats in 2023
Tino rangatiratanga party campaigning on Te Tiriti-based constitutional transformation, Māori-led health, education and justice authorities, and taxing wealth.
Te Pāti Māori policies 2026 →Opportunity is profiled but not scored, because it is not in Parliament. See Opportunity's policies.
Why trust it
Built so you can check the work
Every position is cited
Each party's stance on each question links to its own policy page, manifesto or a report of the announcement, with the date it was last checked. If you think one is wrong, you can see the source and tell us.
The maths is public
The scoring is arithmetic you could do on paper, written out in full on the how it works page. The same answers always give the same result. No model, no black box, no AI deciding anything.
We test for our own bias
Before anything is published the questions are tested: agreeing with everything should leave you in the centre, and answering as a party should return that party. Where the method has limits, we publish those too.
Independent and self-funded. Built and run by one New Zealander, with no money from government, any party, donor or lobby group, and no affiliation with any broadcaster or other voting quiz. Who built it.
Guide · 7 min read
Who decides the questions? How voting quizzes work, and are they democratic?
Every quiz starts with someone choosing what to ask. A checklist for judging any of them, including this one.
Before you vote
NZ election 2026 guides
Who decides the questions? How voting quizzes work, and are they democratic?
A voting quiz feels like a neutral mirror: you answer, it tells you who you match. But before you answer a single question, someone has already made the decisions that shape your result. Here is how these tools work, where the power sits, and how to judge any of them, including this one.
Read the guide →3 min readNZ election polls 2026: every published poll, with sources
Every nationwide party-vote poll published since August, newest first, each linked to where it was published. No projections, no spin.
Read the guide →6 min readWho could form the next government? What each party has said
Under MMP, the party vote is only half the story: a government needs a majority of seats, usually 61. Here is what each party has said about who it will and will not work with, with sources.
Read the guide →5 min readNZ election 2026: the date, advance voting and where to vote
Election day is Saturday 7 November 2026. The two dates most people miss come earlier: the enrolment deadline, and the day advance voting opens.
Read the guide →5 min readHow MMP works in New Zealand, and why your party vote matters most
You get two votes and they do very different things. One of them decides the shape of Parliament; the other mostly doesn't.
Read the guide →6 min readNew Zealand's political parties from left to right, in plain English
Six parties are in Parliament. Here is where each one sits and the two or three policies that put it there.
Read the guide →Who should I vote for in the 2026 NZ election?
Only you can decide that, but the quiz can show you which parties' policies are closest to your own views. Answer 37 statements on tax, housing, health, climate, law and order and Te Tiriti, and you get a percentage match with each party in Parliament, with the source for every party position so you can check the result for yourself.
Which party should I vote for in New Zealand?
Start with your party vote, because under MMP it decides how many seats each party gets in Parliament. Take the quiz to see which party matches you most closely, then read that party's full list of positions and sources before you decide. The election is on Saturday 7 November 2026, and advance voting opens on Monday 26 October.
What is a political compass test?
A political compass test is a tool that asks where you stand on the issues in an election, then compares your answers with what each party has actually promised. NZVoteCheck asks 37 questions across six policy areas and shows you a percentage match with all six parties in Parliament, plus where you sit on the political spectrum.
How does the political spectrum chart work?
Your answers are plotted on two axes. Left to right measures economics, from a larger state to a freer market. Up and down measures social and constitutional questions, from traditional to progressive. Every party is placed on the same chart using the same calculation applied to their own published positions, so your dot and theirs are directly comparable.
Is NZVoteCheck free?
Yes. It is free, there is no account, no sign-up and no email required, and it carries no advertising. It is funded personally rather than by any party, donor or lobby group.
How long does the quiz take?
About five minutes for the 37 questions. You can skip anything you are unsure about, and each question has an optional panel explaining what the policy actually means and who it affects if you want more before answering.
Which parties does it cover?
All six parties currently in Parliament: National, Labour, the Green Party, ACT, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori. Every one of the 222 party positions links to the source it came from and the date it was last checked.
Is it politically neutral?
That is the design goal, and we publish the evidence rather than just claiming it. The questions are tested for balance before publication and revised when they fail. We also publish where the method has limits, including the fact that this style of scoring slightly favours parties with moderate positions.
What is the difference between TVNZ's Vote Compass and NZVoteCheck?
They are separate tools with no connection. Vote Compass is made by Vox Pop Labs, a Canadian company, and run in New Zealand in partnership with TVNZ, the state-owned broadcaster. Under its published method, its researchers choose the questions and score the parties, and the parties are then consulted on how they have been placed. NZVoteCheck is built and run by one New Zealander. It takes no money from any broadcaster, party, donor or lobby group, and the parties get no say in where they sit. Every position is scored from what each party has published, and every source is on the site before you answer a question, so you can check the work yourself. That does not make either tool wrong. It means you know exactly who built this one and how.
7 days to decide. Five minutes to find out.
Skip anything you're unsure about, and flag the issues that matter most so they count for more.
Start the quizAdvance voting is open now. Find your nearest voting place at vote.nz.