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New Zealand First wants more people to have babies - and would pay them to do it.
At a public meeting in Masterton on Sunday, party leader Winston Peters said the country was facing a "population precipice," and the rate of New Zealand citizens having children had fallen dramatically.
"We need more Kiwis having more children, and one way to do that is to substantially lower the main barrier most are facing - that is, the cost.”
The party's Kiwi Kids Grant would seek to arrest that decline by paying parents $5000 a year for the first three years, and for up to three children.
To qualify, one parent would need to be a New Zealand citizen.
"New Zealand needs to get our birthrate increasing before it's too late," Peters said.
The tax-free payment would be administered through the Inland Revenue Department, he said.
The policy, which the party had costed at $400 million over three years, would be funded through operating baselines.
ACT leader David Seymour said he could see what New Zealand First was trying to do, but many countries had attempted to pay people to have children, without results.
"It doesn't seem to have worked where it has been tried in other countries. And bear in mind, if you have one income and you earn $100,000, the earned income tax credit and Working for Families are giving you about the same amount already."
NZ First also confirmed that Ron Mark, a former defence minister, was returning to the party and would stand in the November 7 election.
Mark, who was an MP from 1996 to 2008, and again from 2014 to 2020, will stand in the Wairarapa electorate.
