July 26, 2025 Tory Relf

Taxpayer Update: NEW POLL: NZ's favourite mayors revealed 📊 | Waikato Regional Council U-Turns on LGNZ 💔

Hi,

This week, we reveal the nation’s most popular metro mayor (hint: it’s not Wellington's Tory Whanau…), take a look at rising inflation (sexy subject, we know) and expose the apps costing you/taxpayers up to $18 per download.

Waikato Ratepayers Stitched Up – Council Re-Joins LGNZ 😱💸

Just weeks after Waikato Regional Council voted to leave the highly politicised Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), councillors have shamefully reversed course – voting to rejoin the secretive, ratepayer-funded lobby group.

LGNZ exists to promote the interests of councils (not ratepayers!), is notorious for its misuse of ratepayers money to, well, opposing ratepayer friendly policies, and enjoys a special carve-out from freedom of information laws. It literally spends millions of ratepayer money lobbying for even more power and cash for local government bureaucrats.

Earlier this month, Waikato Regional Council voted to walk away from LGNZ’s $122,000 annual bill – citing its “lack of relevance” and “left-wing activism”. But pro-LGNZ councillors, led by Cr Stuart Kneebone, didn’t like losing.

Cr Kneebone, along with none other than Nanaia Mahuta's sister (who had slept through errr, missed the first vote – even though it appears she was at the relevant meeting), forced a second go.

This week's re-vote ended in a 7–7 tie. Ordinarily, that would mean the status quo stands – i.e. the Council remains out. But in a disgraceful move, Council Chair Pamela Storey (a former LGNZ insider!) used her casting vote to overrule the previous decision and force the re-join.

Storey’s excuse? That because the Council used to be a member, the “status quo” meant re-joining – even though it had already voted to leave!

You couldn't make up the skulduggery.

This kind of grubby politics is exactly why LGNZ’s credibility is shot – and why ratepayers are fed up.

We’re not letting this go. These councillors have handed LGNZ a victory (and six figures) – so we’ll be reminding Waikato locals which politicians sided with Wellington’s lobbyists over their own communities at this year's elections.

📣 Help us hold them to account – donate to the Local Government Fighting Fund.

The nation’s favourite mayors revealed ⭐️

Major City results: Christchurch's "Mr Rates Caps" Mauger comes out on top 😇

Christchurch City Mayor Phil Mauger has taken the top spot as the country’s most popular metropolitan mayor – after a massive 19 point surge this quarter according to polling commissioned by the Taxpayers' Union.

Is it a coincidence that the surge came after Mayor Phil publicly backed rates capping? We think not.

Ratepayers are more conscious than ever that their community leaders have a direct impact on how much money is left in their pockets each week.

All in all, everyone's a winner this poll (if you’re a metro mayor) 🥳

Looking outside of Christchurch, Auckland’s Mayor Wayne Brown remains steadily well-liked, no doubt thanks to the fourth-lowest rates hikes in the country over the last three years.

And even Tory Whanau has seen a boost to her approval rating since announcing she'd step aside. No comment needed... 👀

Mayoral approval for the rest of New Zealand - who's popular, who's not? 🤔

Waimakariri's Dan Gordon tops the overall polls this time, with a net approval rating of 41 percent. Kaipara's Craig Jepson (+35 percent) and Far North's Moko Tepania (+34 percent) follow closely behind in second and third.

Eight of the top ten favourite mayors lead councils with single-figure rates increases this year.

On the flipside, seven of the least popular mayors' councils have had above-average rates rises this term. As the cost-of-living crisis keeps biting, that shouldn't be a surprise.

Oour advice is that any candidate looking to boost their appeal going into this year’s local election might do well to follow the likes of Phil Mauger and Dan Gordon’s examples by putting ratepayers' needs front-and-centre.

Groundhog Day: Inflation pushed up by rates (again) 📈

It is no surprise that low-rates mayors are consistently higher in our polling.

New inflation data this week revealed that the 2.7 percent annual inflation rate was pushed up by rates hikes, as revealed this week by Stats NZ.

This isn’t a new phenomenon.

Last year, more than half of the Q3 inflation spoke came from council rates alone. And with more rates hikes kicking in this month, we’d expect more inflation pain next quarter too.

It’s a vicious cycle. Councils hike rates, that drives up inflation, which delays interest rate cuts, and households get squeezed from both ends.

The message is clear: councils won’t stop unless they’re made to. Capping rates is no longer just a nice idea, it’s essential if we want to get inflation down and take pressure off Kiwi households.

That’s why, despite last week’s successes outside the LGNZ conference, you’ll continue to see us push for rates caps now. The battle is nearly over, but we can’t let councils win at the eleventh hour.

EXPOSED: The Te Reo app free-for-all taking over government 😱

The Taxpayers' Union investigations team have been asking questions about the raft of mobile apps owned and run by various government departments and local councils.

Seven different departments and councils spent a combined $218,012 developing their own separate Māori language and cultural training apps – despite the existence of a national Māori Language Commission and multiple taxpayer-funded training programmes already in place.

And were these apps wildly popular? The short answer – and one that really will not surprise you – is: no.

In fact, one such app, developed by Waikato Regional Council, cost more than $35,000 and reached fewer than 2,000 people. That’s nearly $18 of ratepayers’ money spent per user.

You can read the various Official Information Act responses here.

And these are just the apps we know about. Imagine how many more are out there that haven’t come through our tip line!

What is wrong with having a centralised platform for the public service instead of a wasteful agency-by-agency approach? Or what about departments focusing on core business, rather than trying to out-do each other procuring apps for the same purpose as apps that already exist. Would that really be so complicated?

As ever, thanks for your support,

Have a great weekend.

Tory Relf
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

ps. To see the full breakdown of the mayoral polling, visit our website. And if you want to see what our policy guys had to say, James's analysis is here.

In the Media:

Hawke's Bay Today The Rates Crisis - a canny view for New Zealand

Interest Council rates will continue to increase over the next few years - but not as rapidly, ANZ economists say

RNZ Around the motu: Lee Scanlon reports from Westport

Rotorua Daily Post Domestic tourism surges in Rotorua as Aucklanders return

Otago Daily Times Time running out for potential candidates

Whakatane Beacon Where is your research?

Croaking Cassandra Bad Behaviour: An Update

National Business Review RBNZ chair apologised to Treasury official for Orr outburst

Bassett, Brash and Hide John Raine: Holy Water

Chris Lynch Media Phil Mauger ranked New Zealand’s most popular metropolitan mayor

Waikato Times Waikato Regional Council rejoins Local Government NZ