Most of what gets written about political opinion is about the gaps: left against right, one party’s voters against another’s. Fair enough, the gaps are real, and the survey at kiwivalues.nz exists to map them. This piece is about the other thing we found in the answers. On a handful of questions, it barely matters who you vote for.

The numbers below come from 556 responses to the KiwiValues survey. For each statement, respondents chose how much they agree, from strongly disagree (-1) through neutral (0) to strongly agree (+1). We grouped people by the party they told us they vote for, and averaged each group’s answers.

One caveat before the findings, and it applies to all of them: this sample skews younger and more online than the country does, and some party groups are small (National has just 20 respondents here, against 169 for the Greens). You can see exactly who has answered so far. Treat these as directional, not a poll. Where a group’s average is too uncertain to call, we say so.

Nobody wants religion in schools

The clearest consensus in the whole survey. Every group’s average lands on the disagree side, and for Green, TOP and Labour voters it’s emphatic. National and NZ First voters sit closer to neutral, and with samples that small the honest reading is a lean rather than a verdict. But no group, anywhere, averages in favour.

Public schools should instill religious values in our children.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: -0.9 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.7 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: -0.8 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.6 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: -0.8 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.6 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: -0.5 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.2 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: -0.2 average, middle half -0.6 to +0.3 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: -0.2 average, middle half -0.7 to +0.2 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

Everyone wants more public transport

Green voters are near the top of the scale here, which won’t surprise anyone. What might: not one group’s supporters average against investing more. ACT and National voters are the most lukewarm, hovering just on the agree side of neutral, while Labour, TOP and NZ First voters are clearly for it.

We should invest more in public transport.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: +0.9 average, middle half +0.8 to +0.9 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: +0.7 average, middle half +0.5 to +0.9 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: +0.7 average, middle half +0.5 to +0.9 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: +0.2 average, middle half -0.4 to +0.6 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: +0.4 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: +0.2 average, middle half -0.1 to +0.6 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

Spend on prevention before cure

This is the tightest agreement we measured. Asked whether the public health system should put money into preventive care to cut long-term costs, all six groups land between +0.4 and +0.7 on average, and the middle half of every single group sits on the agree side. Green and TOP voters barely differ from ACT voters here. On a compass built to separate people, this question refuses to.

Our public healthcare system should prioritise funding for preventive care to reduce long-term costs.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: +0.7 average, middle half +0.5 to +0.9 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: +0.7 average, middle half +0.5 to +0.9 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: +0.6 average, middle half +0.4 to +0.9 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: +0.5 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: +0.4 average, middle half +0.1 to +0.7 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: +0.5 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

And nobody trusts the money in politics

“Political parties can be bought or influenced by corporate or special interest groups.” Agreement, across the board. Voters of parties in government and out of it, left and right, all average on the agree side. ACT voters are the most divided, with their middle half just straddling neutral, but even their average lands at +0.2. Whatever else separates these groups, scepticism about money and influence isn’t part of it.

Political parties can be bought or influenced by corporate or special interest groups.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: +0.6 average, middle half +0.4 to +0.9 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: +0.7 average, middle half +0.4 to +0.9 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: +0.5 average, middle half +0.4 to +0.9 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: +0.2 average, middle half -0.1 to +0.6 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: +0.5 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: +0.4 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

Proud to be a New Zealander, whoever you vote for

A cheerier one to finish the list. Every group averages on the agree side, and the middle half of every group’s answers sits at neutral or above. National and NZ First voters are the proudest, at +0.7 and +0.6, and Green voters the most reserved at +0.4, which still lands comfortably past “somewhat agree” territory.

I am proud to be a New Zealander.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: +0.4 average, middle half +0.2 to +0.7 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: +0.5 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: +0.5 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: +0.5 average, middle half +0.0 to +0.9 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: +0.6 average, middle half +0.4 to +0.9 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: +0.7 average, middle half +0.5 to +0.9 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

A couple more statements cleared the same bar, with every plotted group’s average on one side: the housing crisis is one of the most pressing issues facing the country (average +0.6), and we should build more apartments and townhouses in our cities (+0.5).

What disagreement actually looks like

For contrast, here’s the most divisive statement in the survey. On heavily taxing the wealth of the rich, the same six groups that agreed about everything above split to opposite ends of the scale: Green voters average +0.8, ACT voters -0.8. That gap of 1.5 points is nearly five times the spread on the preventive health question. Consensus in this data is rare, which is what makes the questions above worth writing about.

The wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 169 Greens: +0.8 average, middle half +0.6 to +0.9 (n = 169) TOP n = 128 TOP: +0.4 average, middle half +0.1 to +0.7 (n = 128) Labour n = 124 Labour: +0.4 average, middle half +0.3 to +0.8 (n = 124) ACT n = 37 ACT: -0.8 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.6 (n = 37) NZ First n = 28 NZ First: -0.3 average, middle half -0.6 to +0.1 (n = 28) National n = 20 National: -0.5 average, middle half -0.9 to -0.3 (n = 20)
The dot is the group's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the group's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 506 respondents across these six groups.

How we did this

Answers come from the 556 survey responses collected at kiwivalues.nz and its earlier version, grouped by each respondent’s answer to “which party do you usually vote for.” A party is only plotted if at least 15 respondents named it, so Te Pāti Māori (11 respondents) and the New Conservatives (2) are left out, along with people who didn’t vote or chose “other.” In each chart, the dot is the group’s average answer and the line spans the middle half of the group: where the middle 50% of its supporters actually answered. A short line means the group mostly agrees with itself; a long one means it’s split. Because answers land on nine fixed stops, we smooth them slightly before drawing the line, so a group piled on one answer still shows a visible range. No individual response is ever published, only group aggregates.

Want to see where your own dot lands? Take the survey at kiwivalues.nz.