Winston Peters dampens National efforts to ditch bed tax commitment

Author: Julia Gabel,
Publish Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026, 1:52pm

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

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New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has cast doubt on the National Party’s ability to stop a bed tax.

The Government had committed to explore a bed tax in its regional deal with Auckland. A similar commitment exists in a deal with Queenstown, which has yet to be signed.

But over the weekend, the National Party U-turned on this commitment, saying it would take no new taxes to the election.

Peters muddied this commitment, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that bed levies for Auckland and tourism hotspot Queenstown were “still on the table”. National will almost certainly need NZ First, its current coalition partner, to form the next Government after the election.

“These city deals were made between the government and those cities, not between those cities and the National Party,” Peters wrote.

“The signed deal with Auckland states that these levies will be considered by the government in 2027 – nothing has changed. The GOVERNMENT has NOT considered it yet.”

Regional deals are long-term agreements between local and central government. Peters said while other parties wanted to campaign on “reneging” on the deal, his party believed “a deal is a deal”.

“The sooner parties realise this is MMP [Mixed-Member Proportional] and not FPP [First Past the Post], the better it will be for the country.”

MMP replaced FPP, an electoral system which meant that the party with the most electorate-only seats in Parliament became the Government.

“Our view is that international tourists should be open to a bed levy that helps pay for key tourism infrastructure in those cities.”

“Both Auckland and Queenstown are screaming out for it – but we are sure this will be clarified when the Government considers it in 2027 as agreed.”

This is the second issue in recent days which Peters has spoken out against his coalition partner on. Yesterday, Peters rejected descriptions of the social media ban for under-16s as a “Government” effort, instead saying it was only the National party behind it.

NZ First and Act, National’s other coalition partner, have both invoked their “agree to disagree” clauses over the bill. This means National will need to look across the House for support getting it passed.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.