Pitched as a way to lift New Zealand's falling birth rate and ease the cost of raising young children, the Kiwi Kids Grant would pay parents a tax-free sum for each of their first three children.

📋 NZ First: Kiwi Kids Grant, August 2026 →

What it does

• Pays a universal, non-means-tested, tax-free grant of $5,000 a year for each of the first three years of a child's life, for a family's first, second and third child, on top of existing support.
• Is paid monthly through Inland Revenue, with an option to take the first year's payment for a first child as an upfront lump sum.
• Requires at least one parent to be a New Zealand citizen.
• Is estimated by NZ First to cost $400 million a year by the third year, once fully established.
• Was announced by Winston Peters on 2 August 2026. NZ First points to a birth rate of 1.53, below the replacement rate of 2.1, and to births to citizens falling from about 52,500 in 2006 to about 36,400 in 2025.

The debate

• Peters said "we need more Kiwis having more children" and that the grant would reduce one of the biggest barriers to starting or growing a family, 1News reported.
• Massey University professor Paul Spoonley welcomed NZ First raising the issue but told RNZ that overseas incentives had produced only a "short-term blip" in births and that the problem was "much more complex than simply providing a baby bonus".
• Shamubeel Eaqub, writing in The Spinoff, estimated the grant would cost about $642 million a year from year three, more than the party's figure, and noted it would go in full to high-income families as well as those in hardship.