Anglican churches and the Anglican Care Network have joined with their fellow agencies in the New Zealand Council of Social Services, A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand and a coalition of 100+ organisations in a campaign to fund permanent free public transport. The campaign calls on Government to prioritise free fares for four target groups: Community Service Card holders, Total Mobility Card holders and their whānau, under 25s, and tertiary students. 

The Free Fares NZ campaign is disappointed today that despite the evidence from church and community agencies working with people struggling with price-hiked fuel costs on top of the already high cost of living, the Government's 2026 Budget offered no funding for essential daily bus and train fares.

"Making public transport free, especially to those who are most affected by rising transport costs, is a quick and cost-effective way to provide relief to kiwis doing it tough." said Free Fares NZ spokesperson Christopher Hawkins.

"By choosing to put millions into highways we don't need, at the expense of getting people to and from work and school, this Government has chosen to leave the burden of the fuel crisis on the shoulders of the New Zealanders who can least afford to pay."

Christian social service agencies are calling on the Government to shift its priorities and provide relief from public transport costs for the families they support. City and district councils, trade unions, tertiary students' associations and environmental sustainability organisations have also got behind the campaign.

Alicia Sudden, who is Kaiwhakahaere Matua (CEO) of the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, says NZCCSS members see fuel costs piling on to the cost of living, causing people greater hardship and risks to their health and wellbeing.

"The most recent data shows that almost half a million New Zealanders are already living without the basics...the rise in transport costs risks individuals on these supports falling further into hardship."

Christian social service agencies know that swelling transport costs make life harder for people who can't choose to avoid travel.

That's most often low income whānau caring for children or older people, living with a health condition or disability, and those who have no choice but to travel for work, study or training. For job seeker beneficiaries this puts additional costs onto complying with their weekly obligation to seek work.

"We hear from our member organisations that their people are facing challenges too, both in meeting costs to deliver vital services that require travel, and in the compounding financial pressures on the families they support." 

Alicia says it's important that New Zealanders don't become complacent as successive Governments choose not to prioritise the people who are really struggling.

"Hardship and poverty are not inevitable. We support the Free Fares campaign and we are advocating for bigger structural change as well."

"NZCCSS is calling on our political leaders to show justice and compassion to all New Zealanders and is asking for a commitment to policies that will lead to real change that frees New Zealanders from poverty."

Find more information on the  Free Fares NZ campaign here. 

Learn more about the NZCCSS 2026 Poverty Reduction policy plan here.