New Zealand First leader Winston Peters unveiled a billion-dollar oil and gas surveying programme at the party's campaign launch in Auckland on Saturday 18 July, positioning fossil fuel exploration at the centre of the party's election pitch.

The policy, formally named the National Subsurface Development Survey, would commit an "initial investment" of $1 billion to surveying Aotearoa's offshore basins (Stuff). The survey aims to identify and create a single national dataset covering energy, geothermal, and CO₂ storage sites (Interest.co.nz). NZ First announced it will campaign on the survey at the upcoming election (NZ Herald).

Peters described the plan as a "game changer" and said it could potentially happen "within six years" (RNZ). He used the convention platform to criticise both National and Labour, accusing them of merely tinkering with fuel security by offering solar panel solutions rather than addressing the underlying energy supply question.

The response from the two major parties was mixed. The Labour Party does not support the plan. The National Party declined to give it a firm endorsement, with energy spokesperson Simeon Brown saying only that National already supports oil and gas exploration (RNZ). National's reluctance to explicitly back the survey leaves Peters without a clear coalition partner for the policy, even though National's general position on exploration is more favourable than Labour's.

The campaign launch concluded NZ First's convention, which drew the greatest number of delegates in the party's history (RNZ). The party is gaining support across all polls and bucking the historical trend of minor parties being punished after entering government. The convention also featured the appearance of former National MP Harete Hipanga-Brownlie, now standing as a New Zealand First candidate.

NZ First MPs have been laying the groundwork for this policy push for months. Shane Jones, in a speech published by the party after a public meeting in New Plymouth, addressed the economic consequences of diminished oil and gas activity (NZ First). On the party's YouTube channel, Jones stated that "Labour destroyed the entire energy ecosystem by cancelling the oil and gas sector." The party's website separately advocates for removing the ban on oil and gas exploration as part of a broader page on geothermal energy and fisheries reform (NZ First). Green and NZ First MPs have already clashed publicly over the exploration ban reversal on TVNZ Breakfast (1News/YouTube).

The broader political question is whether NZ First can convert this momentum into a policy outcome. The party is polling strongly and drawing record convention attendance, but the $1 billion survey requires either a majority mandate or a coalition partner willing to adopt it. National's guarded response suggests the party is wary of being locked into a specific spending commitment before negotiations begin. Labour's outright opposition narrows the path further. Peters's six-year timeframe implicitly acknowledges that even with political support, the surveying itself would span more than one electoral cycle.

Former United Future leader Peter Dunne publicly reacted to the campaign launch and its oil and gas policy on the Weekend Collective podcast (iHeart). The party also published video of the full campaign launch on its Facebook page (NZ First/Facebook).

For gallery watchers, the dynamics are familiar. Peters is running a campaign designed to maximise leverage in coalition talks, and the oil and gas survey gives him a distinctive, costed flagship policy that neither major party can easily absorb or dismiss. Whether it survives the negotiation table is another matter. National's preference for its own exploration framework and Labour's opposition mean the survey's fate likely rests on post-election bargaining rather than the campaign trail.