NZ First pitches $1b survey of offshore oil and gas

New Zealand First says it will campaign on funding a $1 billion survey of offshore oil and gas reserves that would lead to the country owning its own supply and reducing power prices.

However, it’s unclear how many years it would take for Kiwis to feel the benefits, as it was expected it could take six years just to establish “a pathway forward”.

Party leader Winston Peters announced the election policy in his speech to members and supporters in Auckland as he launched his party’s 2026 election campaign with attacks directed at Labour and the India free trade deal.

Speaking to about 800 people, including 350 party delegates, at the Due Drops Event Centre in Manukau, Peters profiled the party’s position on energy and power prices in his speech, reiterating New Zealand’s exposure to global shocks like those being observed from the Middle East conflict.

He criticised Labour and National for “tinkering around the edges” with energy policies focused on expanding solar power access.

Peters then announced he would campaign on a National Subsurface Development Survey, worth $1b over the next term of government, to “identify and create one national dataset across energy, geothermal and CO₂ storage sites, and create the framework for New Zealand to develop those sites, extract those resources, and build our country’s resilience and prosperous economic future”.

Peters believed results from the survey would be seen inside a year, which could be converted into “knowledge that global capital can bid against”.

“Within the first 24 months the highest-ranked basins will have surveying completed with wells identified, and the first physical proof that reserves exist.

“Potentially within just six years, we will have a pathway forward for our country to own and control our own supply of energy that we can use domestically and export around the world.”

NZ First leader Winston Peters at his 2026 campaign launch and public meeting in Auckland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Peters said he would look to establish a “royalty well above 50%” on all extractions as production matured.

“We would use these finds to end the gas shortfalls that have sent power prices through the roof, and to drive fuel costs down locally, export oil and gas, and establish a Norwegian-model sovereign fund.”

Alongside the announcement, Peters framed his party as squarely focused on the “ordinary Kiwi”, insisting NZ First had always battled against the “elitist status quo”.

He likened Labour and National as “Pepsi and Coke”, which had “promised and done nothing.

Peters pointed to the Mill Road corridor project, which had recently been announced as one of five roading projects that have been delayed and their future uncertain, reliant on future funding availability.

Slamming Labour and National for not advancing the project, Peters promised to get it built “as a priority”.

His insistence NZ First would not work with Labour was strong. Peters had come under attack from National and Act; both parties suggesting publicly Peters assurances couldn’t be trusted.

However, Peters went into lengthy detail of the failure of the previous Labour Government and described the potential of a Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Government would be an “unmitigated disaster”.

“The movement of the party to the far left has caused longtime Labour voters to feel abandoned by a party that once stood for the ‘ordinary hard-working Kiwi’.

“Instead, Labour now cares more about ‘social justice’ issues, socialist economics, and cultural separatism.

“That is why we ruled out working with Labour before the last election and why we are again ruling out working with the Labour Party in 2026.”

Peters also spent considerable time explaining the party’s opposition to the Indian free trade deal, latching onto comments from Indian PM Narendra Modi that New Zealand had committed to investment clauses suggesting $33b worth of investment in 15 years.

“National brushes it off saying ‘India is wrong’ and Labour is washing their hands of all the risk they have both created.

“This is a recipe for disaster.”

In a statement alongside Peters’ speech, the party also confirmed deputy leader Shane Jones would be again standing in the Northland electorate, formerly held by Peters but now held by National’s Grant McCallum.

In 2023, Jones lost to McCallum by about 8000 votes.

In a rare sight, there were about 500 empty seats in the events centre. In addition to more than 300 party delegates, about 400-500 members of the public had attended, significantly lower than other NZ First public meetings.

The audience had strong positive reactions to Peters’ references to the party’s record calling for an inquiry into vaccine injuries and taking “men out of women’s sport.

This morning, more than 350 party delegates heard speeches from two of NZ First’s new candidates, former All Blacks captain Taine Randell and former National MP and broadcaster Michael Laws.

The audience revelled in Randell’s recount of his ascent to the top of the New Zealand rugby ladder.

He also spent time discussing his business record, having spent time in London working in the oil market before returning home.

NZ First candidate and former All Black Taine Randell giving a speech at the party convention in Auckland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“Oil independence” was one of his demands of New Zealand, as well as addressing the level of competition in the supermarket, energy and banking sectors.

“What I see with New Zealand First is that they’re the only party who are espousing the pathway to prosperity,” Randell said.

“Prosperity does not just happen. Prosperity requires trade-offs.”

Public speaking doesn’t appear to come naturally to the former All Black, who admitted: “I get sick every time I get asked to speak.”

While stilted at times, Randell’s speech was well received and earned greater applause than speeches yesterday from fellow candidates Stuart Nash, Alfred Ngaro and Harete Hipango-Brownlie – all former politicians.

However, the greatest appreciation shown by the members was reserved for Laws, who has drawn comparisons with new Act candidate and fellow former broadcaster Paul Henry.

Former National MP Michael Laws was an NZ First strategist in the 1996 election campaign and is now a candidate. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Like Henry, Laws gave an entertaining address, using Randell as a launchpad into a story about playing rugby in Hawke’s Bay for Flaxmere’s third-grade team shortly after being the local MP.

Playing on the left wing, Laws said he was soon targeted by the opposing Maraenui players and ended up with broken ribs early in the game, but remained on the park.

Laws, previously an NZ First strategist for the first MMP election in 1996, noted how the party had transitioned from opposing “ideology of the far right” to now fighting an equally “ruinous” ideology of the “liberal and the left”.

He was eager to stress NZ First was the only party in MMP history to grow its share of the vote whilst in partnership with a larger party. NZ First earned 6.8% of the vote in 2023 and one poll last week had the party at 11.5%.

Laws believed that was down to a relentless focus on core issues before promising MPs in a future caucus would “reform this country and deliver it back to ordinary New Zealanders”.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.