An overhang resulting in additional MPs could end up costing about $5 million more in the first year.
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ
On the preliminary results, the typical 120-seat Parliament is expected to increase by 11 MPs, with both National and Te Pāti Māori winning more electorate seats than their party vote entitles them to.
National has an extra seven "overhang" MPs, while Te Pāti Māori has an extra four.
Victoria University associate professor in public management and policy Barbara Allen pointed to the new Speaker's Determination for 2026 which gives members of parliament who are not ministers a staff allocation of $25,818 in their first year in parliament, and a non-staff allocation of $62,145.
They also receive a salary of about $180,000 a year, a basic expense allowance of $19,300, IT hardware funding of $10,400 and $13,682 once per term in staff IT costs.
That adds up to a total of about $500,000 per member of parliament in the first year.
With 11 extra MPs, that adds at least another $5.5 million.
"That's based on an additional non-ministerial list MP. That doesn't include other allowances they might get," Allen said.
In addition, parties receive funding according to the number of members in their caucus.
"There's $26,500 per caucus member. That seems to be an extra amount that's not directly related to the MP themselves."
Offices would need to be found for the additional MPs.
She said overall the cost of the additional members of parliament would still be small in the scheme of the overall cost of government.
Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said data showed the average cost per member of parliament had dropped a little from more almost $750,000 in 2012, in 2025 dollars, to less than $700,000.
He said the bulk of that cost related to the wider business of running parliament rather than directly to the MPs themselves.
"The bigger issue is the erosion of trust, we have record low trust in government, in politics. This kind of stuff makes it worse."
Geoff Plimmer, associate dean of research in the school of business and government at Victoria University agreed the additional cost was a drop in the bucket.
"It's trivial when the government spends billions and billions every year. We need to pay our MPs reasonably well to get quality people. This is the democratic process at work. There are other discussions to be had about whether we need to look at the design of MMP but those are for down the line."
He said it could be moot whether another 10 seats could be added to Parliament's relatively small debating chamber.
"They're often not all always there. Maybe they can hot desk in parliament and experience what life is like for many public servants and others."
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