Christchurch City Council has agreed to put an extra $15 million towards the project as long as central government and the Anglican Church do the same.
The rebuild of the cathedral has been on hold since 2024 because of a $45m funding shortfall.
The council money depends on the Crown also contributing at least $15m and the church showing it can complete the project, which was revised to $219m after costs blew out to $248m.
When approached by RNZ, National and Labour said they would not contribute more money to the project, with both saying the country had more pressing needs.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the government had already contributed $25m to the reinstatement of the cathedral as part of an $18 billion investment in the Christchurch rebuild.
"In 2024, Cabinet gave consideration to a request for a further financial commitment from the government towards reinstatement of the cathedral. We declined the request. Christchurch, and the country as a whole, has many pressing infrastructure needs competing for public investment - including hospitals, schools and roads and our government is investing heavily in these," she said.
"In declining the cathedral's funding ask, we noted that the requested amount represented a significant contribution for a building that would not be owned by the public, and where public use could be limited due to the cathedral being a private, religious space."
In 2024 the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Project requested $60m from the government to help plug an $85m shortfall.
Labour Christchurch issues spokesperson Dr Tracey McLellan said many New Zealanders were dealing with the high cost of living, finding secure housing, accessing healthcare, and holding onto their jobs, and Labour was focused on that.
"Christ Church Cathedral is an important heritage project for Christchurch, and I understand why people want certainty around its future. But it's also important to acknowledge that significant public investment has already gone into this project, including $25 million from the previous Labour government," she said.
"Given the pressures families are under and the National government's own decisions to tighten operating allowances and constrain new spending, I don't think it's responsible to make further funding commitments at this stage."
At a Christchurch City Council finance and performance committee meeting on Tuesday, 12 councillors voted in favour of the extra funds and two abstained, while councillors Celeste Donovan, Yani Johanson and Andrei Moore voted against the move.
"We can't knock it down, it's not going to be any cheaper to encase it in a glass exo-skeleton and I don't think leaving it there in perpetuity is a real option either," he said.
McLellan said the council and government should continue to back the rebuild, even though costs had risen.
"When three parties agree to fund something, when there is a blow-out, the three parties have to come to the party and fix that problem. This is us doing that. This is us throwing the gauntlet to central government, this is us digesting the rat," he said.
Moore accused councillors of ignoring public feedback about whether they supported giving more financial support to the cathedral project.
Only 14 percent of the respondents supported funding the cathedral, he said.
Moore said the sum of $15m had not been put out for public consultation and in his own informal survey of people in his Halswell ward, 91 percent of the 1200 respondents were opposed.
While the money would come from a $44m council surplus, he said it was disingenuous to say it would not come from ratepayers' pockets.
"It could be used to reduce rates or pay down debt which would make it all that much easier to meet a rates cap," Moore said.
The council also voted to support two other buildings, with $15m for the Canterbury Museum upgrade and a $28.6m loan to be repaid through an international visitor entry fee, and $4m for the Christchurch School of Music.
Both grants were also conditional on other funds to complete the projects.
Councillor Melanie Coker said she was torn about spending the surplus on the buildings when there were other areas that could benefit from the money but they were at the heart of the city.
"We had an earthquake and it kept us out of the city, so it was like a break-up with the city that we knew and we never got it back again. We need to heal our broken heart," she said.
Committee chairperson Sam MacDonald said the council commitment was about presenting the museum, school of music and cathedral with a challenge to find the balance of the funds, rather than writing a cheque.
"We have laid down a challenge to them go and find the rest of your money and demonstrate to us that you can finish this project and then we will give you the money," he said.
The decision must now be ratified as part of the annual plan.
