Responding to news that Tauranga City Council has signed a $91.9 million lease for new offices and budgeted a further $33.5 million for an interior fit-out—complete with $470,000 worth of coffee machines — Taxpayers’ Union spokesman James Ross said:“This isn’t an office—it’s a corporate penthouse for local bureaucrats. Ratepayers are coughing up for a...
On the news of Ray Chung’s commitment to freeze rates for the next three years following this year’s painful 18.5 percent rates hike, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Rhys Hurley said:“Ray Chung is putting a stake in the ground and saying the Council should live within its means. Ratepayers aren’t an ATM, and Wellington’s...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today slammed the $5.2 million spend on consultants by Invercargill City Council for the Te Unua Museum of Southland, as part of the wider $87 million dollar ‘Project 1225’ development.Sam Warren, Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union, commented:“Councillor Pottinger is right to raise concern—it’s a complete...
Potential amalgamation is today in the news as the Government pursues resource management restructuring that would scale back council responsibilities.Sam Warren, Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union, said:“Better collaboration between councils to find efficiencies for both service and infrastructure delivery is certainly encouraged, so long as they reduce the...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal, through an Official Information Act response that over eleven months the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) recorded 24 instances of staff attempting to access adult entertainment websites on government devices.The response confirms the incidents occurred across multiple months in 2024, with a...
On the news the Government is considering scrapping the $118 million-a-year Kāhui Ako (Communities of Learning) scheme.Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman James Ross said:“Kāhui Ako was supposed to be a revolution in school collaboration. Instead, it has shown to be a taxpayer-funded teachers’ lounge—complete with bonuses, busywork, and not a single meaningful improvement in...