REVEALED: Ministry of Regulation senior managers’ $260k golden payslips

The New Zealand Taxpayers Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request (see below) that the new Ministry of Regulation paid their Establishment Unit senior managers up to $257,941 each. This follows earlier reporting that the average salary at the organisation was $54,834 more than the average across the Public Service.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager James Ross commented:

“When the Government’s bureaucracy-slashing department starts turning into a bloated bureaucracy itself, questions have to be asked about this Government’s commitment to cost-saving.”

“The three Establishment Unit Senior Managers are taking home up to $258k each - well over three times the median wage. At a time when Kiwis’ standards of living are plummeting in real terms at a rate of knots, the irony of these new cost-saving positions being paid somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of a million dollars a year each won’t be lost.”

“Every story about the Ministry of Regulation seems to be about staffing cost blow-outs. The red tape slashing Ministry needs teeth, sure, but all we seem to hear about are teething problems.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request (see below) that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has sent $500,012 on consultants for posture training and workstation assessments in the last three years.

Commenting on this, regular desk user (self-trained) and Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Here’s one to make taxpayers sit up straight and listen: over half a million dollars has been wasted by one government department alone teaching bureaucrats how to use a desk and chair.”

“The public service can posture all it likes claiming there’s no more fat to be trimmed, but when MBIE’s happy to chuck hundreds of thousands away on posture training it’s taxpayers who are left bent out of shape.”

“MBIE could do with getting their values back in alignment with cash-strapped taxpayers. They can start by sacking the back-alignment consultants, when a few printed-off diagrams stuck around the office would do the same job for a fraction of the cost.”

More than 100 local businesses and major property owners have called on the Gore District Council to put its new district plan on hold, saying it is inconsistent with a directive from Central Government to do away with nice-to-haves.

“The district plan is well overdue for an update – but it would be entirely irresponsible to release a plan if it is already at odds with Central Government” said Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union, Sam Warren.

“In December, Minister Simeon Brown announced a raft of change for the New Year. While pausing for another nine months would have cost implications for Gore District Council, it would allow time for the new, more sensible direction to be made clear.”

“Considerable resources have gone into the plan so far, but if the plan is already outdated on its release and doesn’t follow the more sensible approach towards council spending set out by the Minister, it will only end up costing Gore residents more in the long run.”

“Gore District Council has already stung its residents with an average rates increase of 21.4 percent this last year alone – one of the highest in the country. It’s clear more thought needs to be given on how it can make better spending decisions. If the new Government directive can better guide Council in this space, it’s certainly worth waiting just a little bit longer for.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that ACC has paid out $217,674 for 255 claims into police dog bites over the last four years.

This information includes 595 bites with 68 to the arm and 59 to the lower leg.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“ACC is funded by levies. Taxpayers shouldn’t be picking up the bill for hardened criminals who get themselves hurt whilst out committing crimes."

“ACC’s finances are already in the doghouse, with a $7.2 billion deficit this year and Kiwis facing down massive ACC levy hikes. It’s going to take a lot more than $220k of savings to fix that, but there’s a principle involved - criminals should not be the tail that wags the dog.”

“That’s also just the costs we know about. Given declaring cause of injury is voluntary, and not every criminal who injures themselves getting collared is bitten by a police dog, just how much are we paying so people can avoid the consequences of their own actions?”

“If everyone else is getting stung by the unfortunately much-needed cost-savings, those who have actively chosen to put themselves in harms’ way shouldn’t be able to take the taxpayer for a ride.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request (see below) that over the last six months, the Ministry of Māori Development has recorded 217 instances of staff accessing explicit material blocked by their web-filters.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Taxpayers don’t pay bureaucrats to sit watching adult videos, so why does it keep happening?”

“When bureaucrats in your department keep being disciplined for wasting taxpayers’ time getting distracted at the office, something’s gone wrong.”

“Our investigations so far reveal this is an embarrassingly common problem government-wide, but when one department has recorded this happening a couple of hundred times there’s only so often this can be called an accident.”

“After the agency’s significant staffing increases over the last six years, is it just that staff have too much time on their hands? Maybe it’s time to roll back the bloat and start scrapping those departments who seem not to have enough work to do.”

Today's the last day at the office for the year, and this email is to sign-off for the year and recap on what has (unfortunately, for taxpayers!) been a busy 10 days.

'Twas the week before Christmas: The economic bad news continues... 🚨🎄

Last week's quarterly GDP stats were worse than anyone was expecting. 

In the space of three months, the economy shrank 1.0 percent. In the three months prior to that, it shrank 1.1 percent.

While the headline "growth" (or in this case "shrink") number is one thing, what determines what a country can afford is GDP per capita, or 'per person GDP' – the amount the whole economy produces divided by the population.

And on that measure, it's even worse:

Sorry to spoil your Christmas, but these new figures show that the average Kiwi is $1,711 poorer compared to what was produced last year.

When we talk about wasteful government spending and overtaxation, this is those chickens coming home to roost. But where's the plan to fix it?

As laid bare in the opening-of-the-books last week, Nicola Willis is spending more than Grant Robertson.

And before you say the deficit is because of 'tax cuts', the Treasury figures show that Nicola Willis' tax-take as a share of the economy is bigger than at any point under Ardern/Hipkins.

And debt's still spiralling! Interest payments are set to reach $7,000 per household by 2028/29. There isn't a recipe for growth on the menu.

Merry Christmas 👀

Stats NZ struggling with numbers? 20,000 job losses in Wellington out by [checks notes] 18,000 🤔📊

It's a real shame that Stats NZ are, well, struggling with statistics given the political overdrive the media and opposition parties went into after Stats NZ published employment figures that 20,000 had lost their jobs in Wellington.

This was, apparently, evidence to show 'nasty cuts' since the new Government came in.

It turns out, Stats NZ got it wrong. Really wrong. So how much were they out by? A thousand? Five thousand? Surely not more?

They were off by 90 percent! Last week Stats NZ corrected their figures and there has only been about 2,000 job losses in the capital (and that's during our worst recession since 1991, don't forget).

And most job-losses weren't within government! 

Sir Humphrey reported safe 🤵‍♂️

At its peak, there were more than 65,000 "core public servants" – an 18,000 increase from six years prior.

And of those 2,000 job losses, Nicola Willis revealed this month that only 865 bureaucrats had actually been made redundant (and about half of those were voluntary)!

It might be the New Year soon, but the team at the Taxpayers' Union all have the same resolution. Pump those numbers up, because last week's HYEFU opening-of-the-books showed one thing - if we're going to get New Zealand growing again the public service needs to do some shrinking.

Taxpayer-funded Waipareira Trust to lose charitable status over political donations 🎯

The Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust's latest annual report has certainly raised a few eyebrows. In just four years, the net assets for the taxpayer-funded charity have more than doubled - to $103.8million.

The report showed a net annual surplus of $20.6 million - a 24 percent return on revenue. Most commercial enterprises could only dream of those sort of numbers, with a higher profit than 93 of the top 100 companies in New Zealand!

This is the same trust paid $385,307 in no-interest, related-party loans to fund Chief Exec John Tamihere's 2019 Auckland Mayoral campaign. As well as Tamihere's 2020 general election campaign where he stood as a Te Pati Maori candidate-slash-co-leader, and of course further donations to Te Pati Maori's 2023 election campaign.

Entities associated with the Trust have also been facing down investigations over alleged misuse of census data for use in Te Pati Maori's 2023 election campaign.

The Democracy Project's Bryce Edwards took a deep dive into the Trust back in July.

Well, turns out you can't keep that up forever. After a four-year-long investigation, Tamihere's outfit is set to lose its charitable status.

Four years too long, if you ask us. Taxpayer-funded 'charities' should not enjoy tax-free charitable status.

Driving home for Christmas will cost more next year 🚗🚧

Now from groups that don't pay enough tax to one who are paying far too much: you. 

Road tolling to pay back the cost of making a road makes sense – people in Ashburton and New Plymouth shouldn't be made to stump up for highways in Tauranga they'll never use. But here's where it gets tricky. Transport Minister Simeon Brown's announced tolling on three roads (including Auckland's Penlink, Tauranga's Northlink, and the road from Otaki to north of Levin) to pay for ongoing maintenance.

This is a change from previous toll regimes where tolls are used to fund/finance the building costs of new roads. 

But it's permanent, it's a tax. Plain and simple. And let's be frank, we already have taxes that are meant to pay for road maintenance (i.e. fuel taxes and the road user charge). 

And wasn't this supposed to be the government of 'no new taxes'? 🤔

And last but not least... Merry Christmas from the Taxpayers' Union 🥳🎄

This is the time of year to be thankful, and we know that our work wouldn't be possible without you. We've had some huge wins this year, but not kidding ourselves that there is a big job ahead to force Wellington to make the tough but necessary decisions in the New Year.

So from the whole team, wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas.

James Ross Policy and Public Affairs Manager New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

Responding to today’s release of the third quarter GDP figures by Statistics New Zealand, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross said that “New Zealand’s back in recession after a second quarter of negative growth, but with the economy shrinking by 1% in just a single quarter the scale of the damage is shocking.

“Reserve Bank Governor Orr has almost throttled the life out of the economy with his earlier far too aggressive monetary tightening. He has now been forced into an aggressive loosening of monetary conditions, but it looks too little too late.”

“Tuesday’s release of Treasury’s Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update should’ve been the wake-up call that the country’s in real trouble. The forecasts show the Government has lost control of it’s spending, spending growth is well outpacing revenue growth making a balanced budget impossible.  Finance Minister Willis’ claim of a surplus in 2028/29 is a mirage conjured up by deleting those pesky ACC deficits.”

“The Government needs to take its spending problem seriously to balance the books. Sir Bill English made the hard choices to get back to surplus after the Global Financial Crisis and this Government needs to do the same. Continuing to fiddle whilst the books burn is not a fiscal strategy - Willis missing her targets has the country on course for disaster.”

“Can someone please wake the Government up?”

On 24 October the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union published a statement about Toni Grace, partner of Rt. Hon. Chris Hipkins. The statement said that Ms Grace travelled to the UK and Europe at the taxpayers’ expense. This statement was untrue.

On 17 December 2024 the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union published a tweet stating that Ms Grace had been given a tax-payer funded car for her personal use. This statement was also untrue.

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union unreservedly apologises to Ms Grace for the distress caused by these publications

As predicted by your humble Taxpayers' Union last week, the Government is well and truly 'taking out the trash' with bad news – and Nicola Willis is hoping that with the festive season in full swing, you don't notice!

But before we get to the depressing fiscal news bundled into the half-year opening of the books, we need to tell you about another set of policy wins in local government.

So let's start this Taxpayer Update with the good!

Yet More Policy Victories: Simeon Brown gives ratepayers an early Christmas Present 🎁🎉

Yesterday's final Cabinet Meeting of 2024 delivered much Christmas joy here at the Taxpayers' Union  (we watch the weekly livestream – so you don't have to 🤓 ).

The Prime Minister and Local Government Minister announced a new reform package for local councils to get local government "back to basics".

The announcements go even further than the PM's speech back in August to the Local Government NZ conference. The package is a huge win for our Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

Just a few weeks ago, Sam and Jordan (pictured) went to see Local Government Minister Simeon Brown with the Taxpayers' Union wish list of local government reform, including: 

• Adopting a UK or Australian-style rates cap connected to inflation, population growth (or both). This is a no brainer. While households have struggled with the cost of living crisis, town halls haven't cut back at all. This year, the average rates bill is being hiked by 14% and most of the extra money isn't even going on infrastructure, but rather unaffordable nice-to-haves.
  
  
• Scrapping the "four well-beings" in the Local Government Act. These have lead to an explosion in the scope of what councils have been doing (you can fit almost any boondoggle within the excuses, sorry, well-beings of social, economic, environmental, and cultural.
  
  
• Changes to council financial disclosure requirements to enable better accountability and enabling better benchmarking and financial comparisons between councils. Since 2014, the Taxpayers' Union has published league tables of councils financial and democracy data.
  
  While some councils use the Taxpayers' Union data to benchmark, unfortunately many others do their darnedest to obfuscate and undermine the process. For example, the Minister did not know that there is not a uniform expenses classification or general ledger accounts across different councils. Nor are the councils even applying the same accounting policies (such as how assets are valued in their annual accounts) which makes it far, far harder to do meaningful comparisons.
  
  We think a lot of that is not by accident, and needs central government to come in over-the-top and set a uniform set of accounting, classification, and asset valuation policies across the sector.
  
  
• Giving elected officials the ability to require information from council CEOs and officials. It is difficult to expect good governance when, unlike company directors, local councillors do not currently have statutory rights to demand information from the organisations they are supposed to be governing.

The very policies announced yesterday are the same policies your humble Taxpayers' Union have been championing for ratepayers!

And not only has the Government listened, officials have even been instructed to work with the Taxpayers' Union to develop some of the finer details of new information disclosure and benchmarking requirements given our staff's experience in local government freedom of information and league table benchmarking.

I call that a nice Christmas win! 

If you're facing rates bills that are eye watering, you may want to watch the full Post-Cabinet press conference available here.

Journalists question whether local government is actually wasteful 🤣🤣🤣

You can imagine the astonishment in our office when the PM struggled to give examples of local government 'white elephants' and waste. 

Yes, seriously, Wellington's journalists were really questioning whether local government is 'wasteful'. Wellington, of all places...

Rest assured Sam is printing out just the first [million?] examples to rush down to the Beehive – and we'll be sure to invite Mr Luxon to our Jonesie Government-Waste Awards scheduled for early in the New Year...

Simeon Brown's media release summarising the reforms is here.

Also, we are reliably informed from a very senior source in the Minister's office – which may or may not be the Minister himself – that further Cabinet decisions regarding the disclosures are to be made in February. Sam and the team will be working over the summer for a good cause then! 😉

Now for the bad news:

Nicola Willis gets petty: tells Treasury to ban CTU economist she doesn't like from Treasury briefing lock-ups 🤪

This morning a small group of media (and a few analysts from the Australian banks) were at Treasury's half year "lock-up" to work through the latest Treasury forecasts in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU).

We would normally be in the room, and asking questions of the Minister and senior Treasury Officials.  But, having been invited to submit names, last week we learned that having 'consulted' with the Minister, Treasury had decided to ban all of those who might criticise the Government's fiscal management pressure groups, unions, universities, NGOs, major corporates (except the banks), and think tanks.

Reliable sources in the Treasury tell us that the Minister specifically wanted the Council of Trade Unions' Economist Craig Rennie (who used to work in Grant Robertson's office under the last Government) from being in the room and able to easily give commentary to media.

But the only way Treasury could justify that was to ban every one of the groups who provide expert analysis to the media: including Business NZ, Federated Farmers, the NZ Initiative, and us!

Basically, the Minister's thrown us (and others) under the bus to avoid a critic having early access to the information designed to ensure the Government's fiscals are transparent!

It's not often we agree with the Council of Trade Unions, but here we are...

Earlier today, we wrote a joint letter with the NZ Initiative think tank, echoing the CTU's own letter sent yesterday.

Seriously Nicola, New Zealand deserves better. 

The Minister is, at best, employing a cheap PR ploy to attempt to control today's media narrative. At worst, it’s a petty and vindictive move to exclude a Labour Party-aligned economist the Minister has taken umbrage with.

It doesn't come easy to say this, but we need Nicola Willis to get over herself and stop being so, well, political.

Instead, New Zealand needs a Minister of Finance to get on with the job: cut wasteful spending to balance the books.

In an interview last week, Nicola Willis said that she does not want to be "slave to getting back to surplus". That's a cute line, but unless she cuts spending, all New Zealanders will soon be a "slave to debt".  I know which one I'd rather...

Even before today's new figures, for every New Zealand household the Government, sorry, taxpayers, are paying more than $5,000 in interest this year alone.

And it's getting worse. Nicola Willis is borrowing at an even faster rate than [yes, that's right] Grant Robertson.

We know the Minister of Finance reads these Taxpayer Updates, so we have a message for her: Minister, banning critics is not a path back to surplus.

What Willis was hiding: a worse fiscal strategy than Grant Robertson 🤫💸

Because of Nicola Willis's pettiness we don't have our usual comprehensive report to cut through the spin and highlight what the Minister's press releases are deliberately not mentioning. But that's the way Nicola Willis wanted it today.

So with the very limited time, here are the immediate take aways:

❌ The surplus has been pushed back, yet again. It's now at the very end of the forecast period (2028/2029).

❌ Total government spending has gone up - and Nicola Willis is choosing to continue to increase it each and every year in cash terms. Total government spending is 43.6% of GDP this year (compared to 'just' 41.0% last year and 35.9% in 2017).

❌ Net Core-Crown Debt has exploded. It is now forecast to peak at at at least $115,000 for every NZ household by 2028/2029.

❌ Interest costs will be just shy of $7k per household by 2028/2029.

❌ All of this is despite revenue being a higher proportion of the economy than in at any point under the six years of the last Labour Government. It now sits at 40.5% of GDP. Under Ardern/Hipkins, it never topped 39% of GDP.

❌ There are no signs of meaningful reform that would boost New Zealand's lagging productivity in both the government and private sectors.

And the ugly:

Cooking the books: Willis changes how surplus is calculated 🧑‍🍳📚

But the real news is that Nicola Willis has instructed Treasury to change the way surplus/deficits are measured using what's called "OBEGAL" (the Operating Balance Excluding Gains and Losses). 

Despite the union "lock-out" a concerned source within Treasury gave us the heads up that Nicola Willis was working with the Treasury Secretary to change the calculation so it all doesn't look quite so bad. Basically, because ACC's books are in dire straits, instead of confronting the problem, Nicola Willis is pulling a sleight of hand and excluding it.

Make no mistake, this is the Public Finance equivalent of cooking the books.

When Grant Robertson manipulated the fiscal indicators back in 2022 (changing how Net Core-Crown Debt was calculated to make the debt numbers look better), the then Opposition Finance Spokesperson jumped up-and-down.

And to give Grant Robertson some credit, at least he had the excuse of coming into line with international precedent.

But who was that Opposition Finance Spokesperson? One Nicola Willis. 😱

The fact is, despite the Government being elected on a platform of cutting spending, they continue to spend even more than Grant Robertson, and kick the fiscal can down the road.

In the coming days, our economic team will work through the material and give you a more thorough analysis.

Another Minister takes out the trash: announcing a tax hike just in time for Christmas 🎅💵👆

Speaking of ACC, ACC Minister Doocey is set to get coal in his stocking this Christmas, after a massive ACC levy hike was announced this week effective from 1 April.

So if you get a crisp $20 in any Christmas cards, hold on to it, because next year's looking like it's going to be a tight one, and the hikes keep coming until at least 2027.

By 2027, ACC's jobs tax will be another $140 a year per employee.

As ever, small businesses are going to get hammered because a ACC can't keep costs down.

So much for 'no new taxes'...

At least Judith Collins makes Santa's good list...🎅🏻🛷

Marsden Fund grants have long been a woke slush fund. You know it, I know it, and thanks to our taxpayer-hero of the week Judith Collins, everyone knows it.

Incredibly, the Government's decision to take up the Taxpayers' Union's call and narrow the remit of the Marsden Fund – returning it to focus solely on science rather than the social science nonsense of (to pick just one example) $360,000 study of “big things” such as large vegetable sculptures placed next to state highways – hasn't been supported by all.

The media ran with the usual complaints from self-entitled academics and their proxies. But, sadly, the Opposition followed suit.

In Parliament, the Science Minister was able to easily knock it back – using the example above, Judith Collins appeared to have been forwarded this and other grants highlighted by the Taxpayers’ Union to supporters calling for the very change in policy Labour was criticising.

Check out the video of Judith Collins using our examples of waste here.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

James Ross Policy and Public Affairs Manager New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

Now we know why Nicola Willis’s office seem to have worked with Treasury to change the criteria of experts able to attend the HYEFU lock up: it seems she didn’t want the CTU,  the Taxpayers’ Union, or other experts who would normally attend these things holding her to account for a Grant Robertson-style sleight-of-hand in how OBEGAL is calculated.

“This is the Finance Minister equivalent of cooking the books,” says James Ross, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Taxpayers’ Union.

“Nicola Willis is guilty of manipulating the fiscal indicators in the same way then Opposition Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis jumped up-and-down about when Grant Robertson changed the way Net Core-Crown Debt was calculated to make the numbers look better in 2022.  But at least Grant Robertson had the excuse of coming into line with international precedent.”

“The fact is, despite the Government being elected on a platform of cutting spending, Nicola Willis continues to spend even more than Grant Robertson, and kick the fiscal can down the road.  Changing measures, or banning those pointing out the elephants in the room, doesn’t avoid the fact Nicola Willis is not doing what she was elected to do.”

In an unusual move, the Taxpayers’ Union is standing with comrades at the Council of Trade Unions following Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ petty decision to have Treasury officials ensure CTU Economist Craig Rennie could not attend today’s Half Year Fiscal and Economic Update.
 
Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said, “We don’t agree with the CTU on much, but it’s outrageous that the Minister has had Treasury impose a ban on peak bodies, think tanks, unions, universities and large corporates to justify the uninviting of a single left-wing economist the Minister does not like.”
 
“The worst kept secret in Wellington is that today’s opening of the books will show that Nicola Willis has not done her job in getting Government spending under control.  She makes the claim that she does ‘not want to be a slave to surplus’ but as a result will soon have the whole country slave to her debt.”
 
“Banning the CTU, the Taxpayers’ Union, and groups like Business NZ and the Federated Farmers is not a strategy to get back to surplus. At best, it’s a cheap PR ploy to attempt to control the media narrative. At worst, it’s a petty and vindictive move to exclude a left-wing economist the Minister has taken umbrage at.”
 
“We think the media should make the point of going to talk to Craig Rennie and the CTU this afternoon after the lock-up to ensure the Minister’s ploy to suppress commentary she does not like does not work.”

Yesterday, the CTU wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury which is available on its website. In a joint letter with The New Zealand Initiative, the Taxpayers’ Union has backed up the CTU, making the same points (available here).
Groups affected by the new guidelines regularly provide their analysis of budget figures to their own readers, who number in the hundreds of thousands, and provide expert analysis to journalists attending the restricted briefings. Both functions assist in transparency and accountability to the public, which are purposes of the restricted briefings.
 
Mr Williams asks, “How does it promote the interests of ‘transparency and accountability to the public’ or assist public understanding when Bloomberg will be able to tell foreign investors what’s in the Government books, and provide considered analysis, faster than organisations representing New Zealand workers, business, and taxpayers?”
 
The joint letter points out that substantial errors in previous Budget Economic and Fiscal Updates have been uncovered by the very analysts that will now be prevented from attending future budget lock-ups.
 
“Make no mistake, the move to ban the likes of Business NZ and the CTU’s expert economists from budget and financial briefings does nothing to enhance public understanding in public finance. It is a cynical and unbecoming move by a Minister who, clearly, needs a summer holiday,” concludes Mr Williams.
 
Notes to editors: The Taxpayers’ Union will also have spokespeople available in Wellington including Ray Deacon (Economist) and Jordan Williams any time after the public release of the HYEFU information at 1pm.

Minister for Local Government Simeon Brown has today announced in the final post-Cabinet Press conference for 2024 a raft of changes designed to refocus local government and keep rates down.

“At long last sanity will be returned to councils” said Sam Warren, Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union.

“Local rates have increased an average of 14 percent this year alone, the highest increase seen in 20 years. Returning councils’ focus is long overdue.”

“For years now the Taxpayers’ Union has been lobbying for the changes announced today – it’s certainly a massive win for us, and a massive win for all ratepayers”, Warren continues.

“Removing the four well-beings that have dragged council’s attention away from core services is a huge step in the right direction. The message is clear; stop blowing money on nice-to-haves and focus on the basics like roads and pipes.”

“The Minister has also announced a yearly benchmarking tool to improve transparency on council performance. Suspiciously similar to the Taxpayers’ Union’s own benchmarking tool - Ratepayersreport.nz - we’ll forgive the Minister for what I’m sure is very sincere form of flattery.”

“Ratepayers will have greater ability to compare council performance on issues such as council debt, unit ratings and forecasts, and a number of other important KPIs that put pressure on councils to remain accountable.”

“Perhaps most importantly, Minister Brown has expressed interest in exploring rates pegging similar to those used overseas to stop the endless bloat at councils. If the Minister plays his cards right, the days of councils ramming through double-digit rates hikes year after year could be coming to an end.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling the recent taxpayer-supported $5m loan given to a private corporation for the purchase of a big Ruapehu skifield “an abuse of taxpayer money”.

Commenting on the latest of nine multi-million corporate welfare cheques, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“This can no longer be seen as a mistake of government judgement. Once is a waste, twice is incompetence, but nine times is a scandal. How much longer is this grift going to continue?

“If Shane Jones really meant it when he said the eighth payment was “the last chance saloon”, why are we now talking about a ninth payment? Since 2018, more than $50 million of government-backed support has been handed over to this failed project.

“The Ruapehu skifield keeps failing to stay afloat in no small part because Government departments are tying it up in consent restrictions and red tape. Taxpayers keep getting stuck with the tab for cleaning up the Government’s mess.

“It’s time for the abuse of taxpayer money to stop, and start investing in things that will actually benefit hardworking Kiwis.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is commenting on the Government’s “job cuts” released during scrutiny week. Only 865 redundancies were announced across the public sector, with spending going up 0.7 percent.

Commenting on the relatively small cuts, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“If the Government is serious about cutting waste and returning taxpayers’ money, they need to start spending less instead of spending more on an already bloated bureaucracy.

“With half of the reported redundancies being voluntary, the cuts made are an absolute drop in the bucket when considering the size of the Public Service is now more than 63,000 full-time equivalent staff.

“For all the bashing of the last Government, it is clear this Coalition has failed to get New Zealand’s books ‘back on track’. If they are true to their word, it’s time to start spending less - instead of spending more - on bureaucrats.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that the Inland Revenue Department has spent $54,990 on remote worker travel to the Wellington office, including flights, meals, taxis and accommodation.

The revelations, which predate recent changes to public service working-from-home policies, highlight how lax oversight has allowed such wasteful spending to flourish.

Commenting on the findings, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“While tradies, farmers, and hospitality workers don’t get anything close to the luxury of working on the sofa in their dressing gowns, on the rare occasion these bureaucrats show up for work they’re flown in to the office on the taxpayer’s dollar."

“Taxpayers have also footed the bill for one IRD employee’s $1,182 in meals and accommodation and another’s $368 in taxis. The same ‘public servants’ who are supposed to set an example of accountability and fiscal prudence are living it large at our expense.”

“Other large agencies like the Department of Internal Affairs and Ministry for the Environment couldn’t even answer how much they’d spent because they “don’t hold a register of remote employees who travel to work”. How can they expect to control costs when they don’t even know what they’re spending?”

“The Public Service Commissioner needs to ensure these new return-to-office guidelines are enforced and that past excesses like these are never repeated.”

The Taxpayers' Union is slamming Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale and his Council's decision to appoint unelected, unaccountable, iwi representatives onto every one of the Council's powerful standing committees, with full voting rights.

Responding to today's vote, Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said:

"This is a fundamentally undemocratic move. By shifting so much power to the Committee, Drysdale is screwing the scrum so that he has extra votes in the pocket."

"But it's also undemocratic in that appointments are not accountable to voters. In the same way the Taxpayers' Union ridiculed the Hastings District Council's decision to appoint teenagers from their 'youth council' to Council committees, Iwi appointments are inherently unaccountable to voters."

"The people of Tauranga only recently got their local democracy back. Now, without even putting it out for public feedback, Mayor Drysdale is driving it into a ditch. He's clearly out of his depth."

It's silly season in Wellington, with Christmas joy (i.e. taxpayer funded) knees up well underway.

There's also the usual December "take out the trash" silliness where exceedingly well paid government spin doctors dump the bad news at the very time the media and public aren't looking... 

But here at the Taxpayers' Union, we're still at it and will be at right up until the fat man in the red suit arrives in a few weeks.

Merry Christmas (to the Debt Monster) 🎄

This week we're expecting the Government's solution to the Interislander debacle (quite why Kiwirail isn't expected to fund its own asset purchases, just like the privately-owned Cook Straight ferry operator does has never been clear), and next week, on the Eve of Christmas comes Nicola Willis' Budget Policy Statement, and Half Year Fiscal and Economic Update. There, we're expecting the inevitable announcement that budget surplus is being pushed back, yet again. 

So the Government Debt Clock won't be stopped for Christmas, in fact it's ticking at a faster rate than when Grant Robertson was in-charge. The only one who's happy is the Debt Monster.

Meanwhile, Labour thinking about how to make New Zealand more prosperous tax you more 🤦

The Labour Party was hammered at last year's election, and last week Party members gathered in Christchurch for their annual conference to discuss the rebuild.

You'd think that they'd learn some lessons and take the message, right? After all, Labour's increase in Government spending (gross core Crown spending by 83 percent in just seven years ! ) resulted in high inflation and, arguably, worse public services. 

But it seems Christopher Hipkins missed the memo. 

Instead of debating the challenges the New Zealand economy faces, our structural overspending, and lack of productivity growth in both the private and public sectors, the Labour Party's main agenda item was to debate [re-checks notes] which new tax they should introduce!

➡️➡️➡️ Walk this way to higher taxes ➡️➡️➡️

To help Labour Party delegates find their way to the venue, your humble Taxpayers' Union were on hand to help. 😉

Even Stuff liked the gag! Young Alex (who came to work for us from our sister group, the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation) got his first interview on the 6 o'clock TV news to give the taxpayer perspective.

Despite our best intentions to be helpful, Labour's delegates weren't so keen on our helpful sign posting (video here). Weird.

NEW POLL: ACT & Te Pāti Māori gain in final Taxpayers-Union Curia Poll for 2024 📊

There will be sighs of relief in the Beehive with the centre-right commanding a comfortable majority in our final poll for 2024, despite a hard month and media attention on the hīkoi.

The poll, conducted 1 to 3 December, has both National and Labour down 4.6 points from last month, National at 34.2% and Labour at 26.9%.

Despite some progress on the "Preferred PM" results (see below), it's not much progress for Chris Hipkins, 26.9% is the exact result Labour got at last year's general election.

The Greens are down 1 point to 8.3%, while ACT are up 4.5 points to 13%. That puts ACT ahead of the Greens for the first time since February 2024.

New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 5.4% while Te Pāti Māori is up 3 points to 5.5%.
For the minor parties, Outdoors and Freedom is on 2% (+0.7 points), TOP is on 1.1% (+0.2 points), and Vision NZ is on 0.2% (-0.2 points).

Converting that to seats in Parliament, these results would mean National and ACT would not need NZ First to form a Government. The total number of seats for the Centre-right is 68, while the left has only 52 seats in the 120 Parliament.

In terms of Preferred Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon is up slightly from last month to 27.1% (+0.6 points) while Chris Hipkins is up to 19.9% (+4.4 points). David Seymour is at 5.8% (-1.6 points) matched by Winston Peters (-0.5 points) at 5.8% and Chlöe Swarbrick at 4.5% (-0.7 points).

This month we're also publicly releasing what participants said was their "most important issue" that would influence how they would vote. 

Although it is getting much media attention, just 8.4% of voters listed the Treaty as their top voting issue. That could suggest that media attention does not necessarily correlate to importance in the minds of most voters. 

You can read more results over on our website.

EXPOSED: New Zealand's infrastructure benchmark - more traffic cones than sheep? 👀 🚧 🐑

The Taxpayers' Union has exposed that the New Zealand Transport Agency's spending on 'temporary traffic management' has been a massive $786 million in just three years.

That's more than $390 per household on road cones and lollypop signs.

And it gets worse. The $786 million is 'only' what comes from central government. It doesn't include what your council is spending on cones (those higher rates have to be going somewhere!).

Politicians and talking heads in the media complain about New Zealand's "infrastructure deficit" and argue that we must spend more. But according to the OECD (a think tank funded by the governments of most developed countries) New Zealand spends at higher levels than Australia and the median OECD country on infrastructure.

So why aren't we enjoying world class infrastructure? Like so many areas of spending coming from Wellington, it's not how much we're spending, it's what we're getting (or not getting) due to New Zealand's very poor productivity.

And it's no state secret. As our friends over at the NZ Initiative think tank have pointed out:

Despite this comparatively high spending, New Zealand reaps a relatively poor return from its infrastructure investment. Alarmingly, we rank near the bottom 10 per cent of high-income countries for the efficiency of our infrastructure spending.

A cone-spiracy? 🤷

Your humble Taxpayers' Union suggests that when you're spending so much on traffic management there are (so we are told) more cones than there are sheep, overly zealous traffic management would be a good place to start to get more bang for our buck from NZTA.

No one is saying 'end all road cones' (well, maybe a few of us in the office), but when Alex and the team stumbled upon a single Wellington intersection with more than 200 road cones, surely something has to change?!

A tree-mendous waste of $1.2 million 🎄🎅🏻

Christmas is a time for family, and our Auckland ratepayer campaign has been digging deep.

On behalf of the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance I found myself playing the Grinch when I broke the news that Auckland's new Christmas Tree cost up to $1.2 million. Ouch!

It seems no expense was spared on this 18-metre ornament, with Council committing $800,000 of rates money.

We can only assume the baubles are made of solid gold (we asked, but Auckland Council refused to provide a breakdown of the $1.3million – so it's anyone's guess).

Christchurch on the other hand erected their 10 metre Christmas tree for just four percent of the cost.

Wellington also managed three Christmas trees for about the same cost as Christchurch's one. You read that right: Wellington City Council actially kept costs down for something – it's a Christmas miracle!

Your household's $57 SolarZero charge: time for some sunlight ☀️🔥

Politicians love to give old fashioned corporate welfare new labels such as 'green investments'. But in the case of the $115 million taxpayer dollars basked onto SolarZero, a private company, through the so-called "Green Investment Finance Investment Bank" even an Orwellion name and $155million wasn't enough to stop the collapse.

According to the NZ Herald, Finance Minister Nicola Willis is "seeking advice" on the investment and why it went wrong.

Here's what the advice should say: Big gambles mean big losses, and taxpayers shouldn't have to front up with (in this company's case) $57 for every Kiwi household to subsides (via cheap capital) because a business or industry is green fashionable.

The Government was elected to cut wasteful spending. Corporate welfare funds like the Green Investment Finance Investment Bank would be a good place to start. After all, if you're a half decent investment banker, are you really likely to be working for the New Zealand Government...

More money muscled musseled out of Shane Jones 🦪💪

Speaking of corporate welfare, the hapless mussel farm in Opotiki has received yet another $16.5 million of taxpayer cash courtesy of Shane Jones.

Most Kiwis love a good seafood feast. But for those counting, this latest handout takes the total corporate welfare handouts to $52 million, for just one mussel farm!

We hope you like mussels because every NZ household has now stumped up $26 subsidising this one company.

Shane Jones says he wants to create a sustainable industry out of mussel farming in the area. But the company he's showering has never turned a profit. Not even once.

Speaking of creative accounting...

Official Dis-information? South Wairarapa District Council's audited accounts show wrong CEO pay numbers  🫢

They won't tell anyone what the extra money was for, except that it was in relation to "contractual obligations". Sounds like a golden goodbye to me...

Forcing every single one of the 7,400 households in the small district to chip in $10 as a goodbye a bit rich. But to then not disclose the payout (as required by law) is a bit poor, to say the least.

Have a great week,

Sam Warren    Local Government Campaigns Manager    New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

ACT, Te Pāti Māori, and the centre-right will be happy with the results of the final Taxpayers-Union Curia Poll for 2024.

The poll, conducted 1 to 3 December, has both National and Labour down 4.6 points from last month, National at 34.2% and Labour at 26.9%.

The Greens are down 1 point to 8.3%, while ACT are up 4.5 points to 13%. That puts ACT ahead of the Greens for the first time since February 2024.

New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 5.4% while Te Pāti Māori is up 3 points to 5.5%.
For the minor parties, Outdoors and Freedom is on 2% (+0.7 points), TOP is on 1.1% (+0.2 points), and Vision NZ is on 0.2% (-0.2 points).

When participates were asked what the most important issue is that would influence how they would vote, Cost of Living topped the poll with 22.5% (down 0.3 points), followed by the Economy at 18.8% (+0.6 points) and Health at 11.8% (+2.2 points). 8.4% of respondents (+3.3 points) said Treaty issues were the most important, followed by Law and order on 5.3% (-1.8 points), the Environment (4.6%), Employment (3.9%), Poverty (3.5%), Education (3.1%), and Housing (2.3%).

Taxpayers' Union spokesman, Sam Warren, said:

"On these numbers, the centre right would command 68 seats in Parliament - a comfortable majority. The National Party and ACT would not require NZ First to form a government."

"Despite what would appear to be a difficult few months for the Government, and the National Party getting the lowest party vote result in our poll since July 2023, the Labour Party does not appear to have been able to capitalise on it. At 26.9%, Labour is on the identical result as it received at last year's election."

"Although it is getting much media attention, just 8.4% of voters listed the Treaty as their top voting issue. That would suggest that media attention does not necessarily correlate to importance in the mind of most voters."

More information, including the Preferred Prime Minister results, is available at: www.taxpayers.org.nz/final_poll_dec2024

The Minister of Finance's spat with left-wing economist Craig Rennie for, apparently, making up a quote during a previous Budget lock-up should not affect the decision on whether to allow the Taxpayers' Union to attend (and report on) the Half-Year Fiscal and Economic Update to be released next week.

Speaking in response to the Minister of Finance's comments at the Post-Cab, Taxpayers' Union spokesman, Jordan Williams said:

"With one-in-14 voters receiving our Taxpayer Updates, more people receive news from the Taxpayers' Union about the Government fiscal situation than most of the 'media' organisations that attend Budget lock-ups."

"It appears the Taxpayers' Union is being singled out to try and 'balance' the decision to bar Craig Rennie from attending. But his bad behaviour is totally irrelevant in terms of whether our economist and staffers should be allowed to attend."

"Grant Robertson once tried this trick and attempted to bar the Taxpayers' Union from attending a Budget lock-up. Wiser heads eventually prevailed. Indeed, we can recall an Opposition Finance Spokesperson commenting that Robertson should ensure we can attend and report on these very matters."

Radio New Zealand reported yesterday that Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, stated that tax changes for charities, and closing of loopholes, will be announced at next year’s budget in May.

Taxpayers’ Union Acting Head of Campaigns, James Ross, said “this looks like a move in the right direction.”

“Businesses should be treated in exactly the same way by the tax system. Exempting a business’ profits from taxation because it is set up to fund charitable or religious activities is not the correct approach.”

“It’s inconceivable that all of the profits are used for these activities. Most businesses fund capital replacements and expansions entirely, or at least partly, from retained profits. These expenditures are not charitable activities and, in the normal course of business, are funded from after-tax profits.”

“The correct approach is to tax the profits made by all businesses in the same way and then to provide the appropriate tax rebates to any profits distributed for qualifying charitable activities.”

“This is how the system works for all other businesses and individual taxpayers. It should be no different just because a business operates to fund charitable activities.”

“The current arrangements provide an unfair competitive advantage to businesses that have a broad charitable purposes tax exemption, because profits reinvested in the business are not taxed, unlike all other businesses. The Government is correct to fix this anomaly in the tax system.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act that Environment Southland has spent $32,871.17 to hunt one phantom wallaby that was ultimately never found.

The month long hunt involved Otago Regional Council, the Ministry of Primary Industries, thermal drones, biosecurity, dogs – and a team of management and comms staff.

“This result makes the National Wallaby Eradication Programme look more like a taxpayer funded social club than a crack team committed to stomping out pests” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“One week alone saw $19,249.89 spent, with a staggering $13,000 towards staff and a further $6,000 on contractors – and that is without Council and MPI related costs on top."

“It’s hard not to wonder if the local hunting community would have done the job for less and actually manage to turn the phantom into a ghost."

“Review is urgently needed of this programme before the pest problem gets any worse, and ratepayers are left paying the bill.”

Waitaki District Council is defending its new logo following complaints from the public it more closely resembles certain aspects of the human anatomy.

“$100,000 of ratepayers' money has already been put towards this logo – which should probably come with an R-rating” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“The Council used no less than two professional design firms for an outrageously expensive ‘W’ that doesn’t leave much to the imagination."

“Once the final design is confirmed, a further $200,000 – $300,000 will be spent on the changeover to replace existing signs. Meanwhile, rates in Waitaki have increased a whopping 13.73% on average this year alone. I’m not convinced a new anatomically-inspired logo is a priority at the moment."

“Other questions have been raised over the design’s shared similarities with a sustainable wool company. It’s crazy this amount of money has been wasted on a logo that, arguably, already exists."

“My advice is for council to ditch the expensive brand refresh and work on getting rates down for Waitaki locals.”

Waitaki District Council is defending its new logo following complaints from the public it more closely resembles certain aspects of the human anatomy.

“$100,000 of ratepayers' money has already been put towards this logo – which should probably come with an R-rating” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“The Council used no less than two professional design firms for an outrageously expensive ‘W’ that doesn’t leave much to the imagination."

“Once the final design is confirmed, a further $200,000 – $300,000 will be spent on the changeover to replace existing signs. Meanwhile, rates in Waitaki have increased a whopping 13.73% on average this year alone. I’m not convinced a new anatomically-inspired logo is a priority at the moment."

“Other questions have been raised over the design’s shared similarities with a sustainable wool company. It’s crazy this amount of money has been wasted on a logo that, arguably, already exists."

“My advice is for council to ditch the expensive brand refresh and work on getting rates down for Waitaki locals.”

Labour faithful gathered this weekend in Christchurch for the party’s annual conference to consider their approach towards the 2026 election – with future tax policy high up on the agenda.

“Labour has never met a tax it didn’t like” said Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman, Sam Warren.

“With ‘change’ and ‘challenge’ being central themes for this year’s conference, what we got was more of the same.”

“Productivity in New Zealand is at rock bottom, and insolvencies are much higher than the global average – and despite Hipkins’ political deflection, higher taxes won’t grow the economy and improve our lives."

“According to Labour, it seems that no problem can be solved without taxing Kiwis more. Six years in the driver’s seat has proven otherwise."

“Without any semblance of a plan to boost economic growth and improve productivity, Labour is clearly not ready for the Treasury benches in two short years. It will be simple; a vote for Labour is a vote for more taxes and even more backwards thinking.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the disgraceful waste of $115 million in public funds sunk into the now-liquidated SolarZero by the Crown-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF).

Commenting on this Taxpayer’s Union spokesperson James Ross said:

“When the government tries to gamble with taxpayers’ money, private companies line their pockets and taxpayers get the risk. Government picking winners doesn’t work.”

“New Zealand Green Investment Finance has become a high-stakes casino. SolarZero’s collapse saw $115 million of taxpayers’ cash - more than $57 for every household in the country - go up in flames."

“With over four times that much already committed by the fund, how much taxpayer cash do we have to waste before the Government quits its gambling addiction?”

“Bad investments, bad oversight, bad outcomes. That’s corporate welfare in a nutshell.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is weighing in on the recent news that Shane Jones convinced Cabinet to fork out another $16.5 million of taxpayers money on a loss-making mussel farm. This brings the total taxpayer tab for the project to $52 million.

Commenting on the story, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Shane Jones has continued to lobby for tens of millions of dollars from the pocket of taxpayers to be handed to a management team who have already managed one mussel business into failure.”

“Not only has the mussel farm lost money every year of its existence, but the auditor has expressed uncertainty in its ability to continue. So long as Shane Jones is signing the cheques, taxpayers can say goodbye to their hard-earned money.”

“This is another example of why the Taxpayers’ Union named their annual Government-waste awards the ‘Jonesies’. Taxpayers expect value for their tax dollars, not for them to be thrown away for mussel-farm nostalgia.”

“The losses have been so bad, the corporate financiers can’t even put a number on it! With results like this, it’s time for the Government to reign in the slush funds, and stop allowing Ministers to dangle taxpayers’ money over the fire.”

Allegations of poor behaviour from Dunedin City Council’s Chief Executive, Sandy Graham, have cost ratepayers more than $250,000 in both legal fees and an investigative report that will not be released to the public.

“Two issues are concerning – Graham’s extremely costly behaviour, and the utter lack of transparency surrounding the report into her, which alone cost more than $132,500” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“Citing reasons of privacy, details remain scarce as the report will not be made available for scrutiny. But it’s apparent that Graham’s repeated bad language and unprofessionalism are at the centre of this extremely costly investigation.

“Every reasonable effort must be made for the report to see the light of day, even if aspects are redacted to protect those who blew the whistle on Graham. Otherwise, an apology and employee improvement plan aren’t good enough at this high level.

“This year Dunedin locals have been hit with a staggering 17.5 percent rates increase. At the very least they deserve transparency and confidence in their Chief Executive who received a $31,678 pay bump, taking her renumeration to $418,080, according to the 2022/23 annual report from Council.

“We don’t expect perfect, but we expect much better. Either the incredibly expensive report into allegations over the well-paid bureaucrat’s behaviour is made public – or Graham must fall on her sword."

Commenting on the Reserve Bank’s decision to once-again slash the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 50 basis points, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“This slashing of the OCR proves what we’re all feeling; New Zealand’s economy is limping. We’re in a worse per-capita recession than we were following the Global Financial Crisis.”

“The Government desperately needs to pull out all the stops to get us growing again. The only way to do that is investment.”

“Anti-business taxes (including one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world) and nonsense red tape will keep us stuck in reverse.”

“Slashing interest rates is half a solution at best, and sticking plasters won’t put New Zealand back on the right course.”

The Post today reports on the major developments coming from yesterday’s meeting to amend the long-term plan after the decision not to sell the airport shares left the council with a $500m shortfall.

The proposals are estimated to save the council $380m to $400m which falls short of the $500m target.

Commenting on the proposals, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said “what will it take for the council to take its finances seriously? The budget is still at least $100m short, around $1,250 for every Wellington household. Is that getting slapped on families’ rates bills?“

"Mayor Tory Whanau’s dogged insistence that vanity projects like the Golden Mile and Town Hall go ahead unchanged screams that she’s keen to be the captain going down with her ship. Rather than sinking the city, take the obvious solutions and fix the financial leaks.”

“The Golden Mile isn’t just a “nice-to-have”, it’s a project that local businesses actively don’t want. In a time of financial crisis, the Mayor’s wasting $1,750 for every household in the city to kill the CBD”

“Given the council’s appalling record with major project costs blowouts, ratepayers shouldn’t believe for a second the cost for the Golden Mile will be kept to its $140m budget.”

“With rates spiralling, at this rate there’ll be no one left in the city to enjoy Tory Whanau’s build-at-any-cost vanity projects.”

Responding to Winston Peters’ calls for growth in foreign investment in New Zealand, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“When New Zealand is the single worst country in the OECD at attracting foreign investment, who can be surprised that our economy is stagnating? Per capita, Kiwis have been getting poorer at a rate of knots for years and that trend doesn’t look set to change.”

“Cut anti-competitive red tape, lift the ban on foreign companies owning the plots of land their businesses are based on, and drop one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. That’s how you attract investment.”

“Investors skipping over New Zealand isn’t going to stop when we’re constantly talking about slapping on envy taxes like wealth taxes and capital gains tax. Kiwi families bear the brunt because we can’t put the debate to bed.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers Union can reveal through Official Information Act request the past two financial years has seen Television New Zealand blow $63,682.66 on Christmas parties.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer Alex Emes said:

“This year will be the litmus test for Chief Executive Jodi O’Donnell, who is now coming off the back of a year which saw TVNZ post a $85 million loss. Has the message got through, or will TVNZ carry on and be back asking for taxpayer handouts?

“In a year that has included programme failures and falling revenue, their current trajectory is only damaging public trust even further.

“Dividends for the taxpayers aren’t coming anytime soon, and NZ on Air cannot fund the entire organisation. Surely it’s time to get the risk of the taxpayers’ books and sell off the organisation altogether.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is weighing in on the recent COP29 agreement which lays out a plan to fund developing nations with $500 billion a year until 2035 on the backs of developed nations. This comes despite the fact New Zealand is already providing $216-per-household a year from 2022-2026. Based on the increase in the overall amount, this yearly per-household figure could be on track to triple.

Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer Alex Emes called the deal “a move towards global socialism” due to the agreed upon large transfer of wealth from countries like New Zealand to the third world.

“These COP negotiations seem to have become more about New Zealand taxpayers subsidising the pockets of dictators then their original intention of protecting the planet.

“This latest agreement shows how out of touch New Zealand’s leaders have become with Kiwi voters. Kiwis are facing higher prices and paying higher taxes all to hear that their hard-earned money has gone to fill the political egos of entitled politicians.

“Now, despite facing financial hardship from multiple large-scale climate events in the last year alone, this government continues to prioritise the needs of the rest of the world ahead of its citizens.

“The $216-per-household we’re already shipping overseas every year could’ve covered 2/3rds of the budget for the Dunedin hospital. With that amount now possibly set to triple, think what we could build if we focussed on using Kiwi tax dollars for Kiwi infrastructure.” 

The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll has revealed Kiwis overwhelmingly support extending the Official Information Act to cover the expenses of MPs and their offices.

Voters were asked: ‘Ministers’ expenses are covered by the Official Information Act and disclosed, but expenses for MPs who are not Ministers are not covered and kept secret. Would you support or oppose a law change to extend the Official Information Act to include spending by MPs and their offices?'

62% of respondents support the extension of the OIA to cover MPs’ spending, compared to just 13% opposed and 24% were unsure.

Voters for all parties in Parliament bar one had a clear majority in support, while Te Pāti Māori voters still have a sizeable plurality in support.

ACT supporters have the highest support. At 79% in favour compared to just 5% opposed, ACT supporters have a net support of +74%.

Te Pāti Māori supporters have the lowest support. But with 44% in favour compared to just 19% opposed, Te Pāti Māori supporters still have a net support of +25%.

The full polling report can be found here.

Commenting on the results of this poll, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Kiwis support MPs having to front up to the public about what they’re chucking on their expense accounts, and it’s not even close. By a ratio of nearly five to one, voters want an end to the expenses gravy train."

“Whether it’s bottles of bubbly or trips to Hawaii, the fact is we have no idea what MPs are making us pay for. Ministers have to declare their expenses, why shouldn't MPs?"

“18,397 Kiwis submitted to Select Committee demanding that MPs open the books. The strength of feeling is obvious, and taxpayers are done listening to the excuses."

“Supporters of every party are clear that whilst taxpayers are picking up the tab, the secrecy needs to end. With the Parliament Bill up before Select Committee now, there’s no time like the present for our Parliament to catch up with the rest of the world."

The Taxpayers’ Union is voicing support for the more than 1000 South Wairarapa residents who have signed a petition to cap next year’s rates rise at 3 percent.

Commenting on this courageous act of common sense, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“The Taxpayers’ Union supports and applauds South Wairarapa ratepayers in their fight for common sense rate caps. Only through residents’ determination and hard work will ratepayers’ rights be recognised.”

“Rates across the Anglosphere - whether it is California, England, Victoria or New South Wales - are capped to avoid spiralling rates bills. The fact New Zealand has failed to cap rates is just another example of how successive Governments have fallen behind the rest of the world.”

“While the latest rates increase of 14.7 percent is both offensive and cruel to the ratepayers of South Wairarapa, this phenomenon is happening across New Zealand. With an average proposed rates rise of 15 percent across New Zealand, it’s time for ratepayers across the country to stand up, have their voice heard and fight back. If councils don’t listen, they might find themselves out of work come November.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that Sport NZ has spent $316,000 on two diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) surveys. The first, in 2020, cost the taxpayer $185,598.51. The second, in 2024, cost $130,310. Sport NZ has also committed another $46,500 to online resources to promote DEI, which will not be completed until mid-2025.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“The same agency responsible for the $170k ‘say thanks to your coach’ blunder – which cost more than $575 per e-card it sent – has blown over $300k on two DEI surveys.

“Ensuring sport is for everyone is commendable, but not every project needs to cost six figures. In fact, the surveys find the biggest barrier facing people in the sector is lack of cash. Maybe if Sports NZ got their act in gear and cut out their own waste, that wouldn’t be such an issue.”

“It must feel like a low blow to the scores of shuttered sports clubs Sport NZ is meant to support that this box-ticking exercise wasted enough money to buy 15,795 rugby balls.”

“At a time when New Zealanders are tightening their belts, Sport NZ should focus on achieving measurable results in grassroots sports rather than expensive self-congratulatory exercises.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is reacting to reports that show the New Zealand Transport Agency has spent more than $786 million dollars on road cones and temporary traffic management in the last three years.

Responding to the outrageous amount of money, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“You cone-not be serious. New Zealand has some of the most expensive infrastructure projects in the developed world, yet we’ve still got an infrastructure deficit as long as your arm.

"When just shy of $800m has been blown on traffic cones and lolly-pop signs, is it any wonder there never seems to be enough money to actually get anything built?

“It begs the question, how many road cones has NZTA ended up buying in the last three years? Which contractor was able to grift off this insane amount of spending?

“Perhaps if they were faster at building real roads, this excess spending wouldn’t be necessary. This is evidence of a broken system, and reason for major cost-saving, results driven reform.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is defending taxpayers after New Zealand’s COP29 National Statement laid out $30 million dollars in additional commitments to send taxpayers’ dollars overseas.Responding to this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“This statement puts shipping Kiwis’ hard-earned tax dollars overseas for foreign countries ahead of focusing on the issues facing New Zealanders at home.”

“Despite being a country with only a fraction of the emissions, people and resources of other countries, this Government has just made $30 million in commitments to climate handouts in Azerbaijan, a country dedicated to fossil fuels.”

“This decision proves how out-of-touch this tax more, spend more, ship more overseas Government is with New Zealand taxpayers. Fix your house first before you go fixing the neighbourhood.”

Stuff today reported on a stoush between Napier City Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Hawke’s Bay disagrees with Napier’s decision to mark a potentially flood-prone parcel of land as suitable for developing 660 homes upon.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers' Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“While Hawke’s Bay ratepayers still carry the can in the event of a natural disaster, it’s natural for the regional council to be a tad gun-shy about development. That then begs the question, why are ratepayers carrying the risk?”

“Private insurance exists for a reason. It’s insurance firms’ entire purpose to work out what risks are financially sensible. Councils second-guessing this simply drives up costs.”

“If we’re wanting to climb out of a national housing crisis, we need to stop Councils getting stuck with the legal risks of consenting.”

“Flood defences should be factored into the private cost of a development, if that’s what potential homeowners want to pay for. Denying homebuyers that choice in the long run only ends up denying people the ability to buy homes at all.”

With one of the lead organisers of Hīkoi - Eru Kapa-Kingi - being a paid Parliamentary staffer working for Te Pāti Māori, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said “if taxpayer money is being spent, we need to see the receipts.”

“Parliamentary budgets are for helping constituents, not political campaigning. Parliament’s exceptional carve-out from freedom of information laws means we’ll never know if taxpayers had to stump up the cash.”

“Te Pāti Māori are far from the only party doing this. All parties use public money for campaigning, and then have the gall to tell us we’re not allowed to know how a cent of it is spent.”

“Taxpayers’ money is not a political slush fund. MPs shouldn’t be able to hide how they’re wasting our money, and it’s long-past time their budgets were covered by the OIA.”

"18,397 Kiwis submitted to Parliament demanding to open the books. How much longer are MPs going to bury their heads in the sand?"

The Taxpayers' Union is supporting the Department of Conservation’s discussion document that includes a proposal to charge for access to sites in the conservation estate, as long as that means taxpayers end up footing less of the bill.

Commenting on the Government-led directive, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Taxpayers are right to applaud DOC’s decision to consider alternative paths of raising revenue without burdening taxpayers.”

“With 83 percent of DOC’s current budget coming from the taxpayer tab, the department is correct in looking for ways to only charge those using its services.”

“User pay systems are in use all around the world, and lower the burden on taxpayers footing the bill. The DOC now needs to use these resources to lower the extreme proportion of funding they currently receive from the taxpayer.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act that planned upgrades to the Wellington Botanic Garden, Begonia House have reached $25 million, with $7.8 million budgeted until 2027.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, James Ross, said:

“Rates are so high that people can’t afford to stay in their actual houses, and the Council is locking in millions of dollars for a great big greenhouse. Where are the priorities?

“The Council can’t keep kicking the can down the road. Even whilst the project’s treading water, it’s costing ratepayers nearly $100 for each and every single household in the city. If the full project goes ahead, more than triple that.

“Reducing how often the plants get cycled out isn’t nearly good enough, especially given the Council has already wasted $318k on project management since July and is estimated to need another $2.64 million for a glazed roof alone. Wellingtonians need smaller rates bills, not a slightly bigger cafe.

“Every option needs to be on the table to fix Wellington Council’s financial shambles. If even ones like this aren’t obvious candidates for the scrap heap, then ratepayers can’t hold out much hope.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is responding to comments made by the head of New Zealand’s delegation to COP 29, Todd Croad, who is suggesting additional pathways of climate reparations for the Vanuatu government to be paid by New Zealand taxpayers.

Commenting on NZ’s decision to sign a $4million taxpayer funded bailout for Vanuatu, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Instead of providing services for the people of New Zealand, MFAT has decided to ship boat loads of taxpayers’ money overseas to Vanuatu.”

“Not only do taxpayers appear to be on the hook for $4 million dollars of climate reparations, but the comments made by Mr. Croad discussing additional ‘pathways’ to forfeit more New Zealand tax dollars to Vanuatu are both out-of-touch and disrespectful to hardworking taxpayers.”

“Kiwis shouldn’t be responsible for picking up the climate reparations tab when New Zealand contributes less then 0.1% of global carbon emissions while large emitting countries such as China and the United States aren’t paying a dime.” 

Following reports in the Otago Daily Times this morning that Dunedin Railway is being subsidised by ratepayers to the tune of nearly $550 per passenger, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes said “Andrew Simms is bang on the money. This gravy train needs to end.”

“If Dunedin Railways’ finances have gone off the rails, ratepayers can’t keep getting stuck with the bill. At some point, we have to pump the brakes.”

“Dunedin ratepayers have been smacked with a 17.5% rates hike just this year alone. Ratepayers can’t afford to keep coughing up freight-loads of cash for council vanity projects.

“The message to the Council is clear - dump the money pit, and let ratepayers keep more of their money.”

The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll for November shows National up 3.9 points on October’s poll to 38.8%, while Labour gained 1.2 points to 31.5%. This represents a rebound for National from last month and the highest result for Labour in 17 months.

The Greens are down 1.1 points to 9.3%, while ACT are down 1.2 points to 8.5%.New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 6.5%, while Te Pāti Māori are down 0.5 points to 2.5%.

The full poll results can be found here on the Taxpayers' Union's website here at https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/poll_nov2024_cutunz

For the minor parties, Outdoors and Freedom are on 1.3% (up 0.8 points), whilst the combined total for other parties is 1.7%.

This month's results are compared to the last Taxpayers' Union – Curia poll conducted in October 2024, available at https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/oct2024_poll

Based on these results, National are up four seats on the last poll to 48, while Labour gains one to 39 seats.

The Greens are down two seats to 11 while ACT is down one to 11 seats. New Zealand First are down one seat to 8 from the last poll, while Te Pāti Māori remains on 6.

The combined projected seats for the Centre-Right is up two from the last poll to 67. The combined seats for the Centre-Left is down one to 56.

On these numbers, National and ACT would require the support of New Zealand First to form a government. This calculation assumes that all electorate seats are held.

A summary of the results, including preferred Prime Minister scores, are available on our website here: https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/poll_nov2024_cutunz

Major Voting Issues – Appearance in Top Three

The Taxpayers’ Union is again publicly releasing the results of the “Major Voting Issue – Top 3” – which suggests that voters consider the Cost of Living the most important issue. The number of voters putting Health in their top 3 has dropped significantly.

37.9% of respondents named the Cost of Living as one of their top three issues (up 1.4 points), followed by the Economy more generally at 31.1% (down 2.6 points) and Health at 27.4% (down 8.1 points), Law and Order at 19.1%, Education at 18.0% and Treaty at 16.9%.

Get the full report – join the Taxpayer Caucus

As part of the same poll, favourability data for party leaders and other notable politicians is collected monthly. This month, results were obtained for Labour’s Finance Spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, and Willie Jackson as well as Labour’s Leader, the Prime Minister, and the coalition parties’ leaders. All of these results are detailed in the full Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll report made available exclusively to members of the Taxpayer Caucus

Hi 

A lot to cover this week: we expose yet another Government department's wasteful spending, #FactCheck Radio NZ on its [dis]reporting of a poll, plus a campaign win.

And, we reveal November's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll.

But first, what happens when you threaten to expose MPs' spending rorts?

Parliament hits the panic stations, but eventually accepts 'Open the Books' submissions 🔥🚨

Last week we asked supporters to back our campaign to Open the Books at Parliament and bring MPs' spending into line with Ministerial spending and open to the public.

We were delighted that 18,397 backed the campaign and made a submission at OpenTheBooks.nz in just five days.

Plus, more than 200 have asked to present orally to the Select Committee and ask MPs to their faces why they think taxpayer-funded expenses should remain hidden. 

It wasn't smooth sailing, first Parliament banned email submissions, so we printed them out to take down to Parliament. It took five of us to carry them all, and stacked up they were taller than Jordan. 

Watch the video over on Facebook.

Suddenly (when it looked like they might have to do some work!) the Select Committee Officials were very happy to accept a digital copy of the responses after all. What a surprise!

This fight's not yet won, but if the reaction by MPs is anything to go by, we have certainly made a splash.

Yoga retreats and vegan platters? Stick it on the taxpayers' tab 😂🧘🥕

MPs aren't the only ones living it large on the taxpayer tab. In just six years, bureaucrats at the Ministry for the Environment blew north of $2 million on staff retreats, planning summits, and team-building workshops. 

Now we're all for team building here at the Taxpayers' Union, but what's wrong with a quick round or two of minigolf? At the Ministry, it seems putt-putt golf has been replaced with golf resorts – at least in terms of budget...

Back in 2018/19, the budget for staff jollies, sorry, training was $98,000. But by 2022/23 the figure blew out to more than $822,000. That's an eight-fold increase in just five years.

Right now, Ministers are readying their 'budget bids' (and nominations for saving money) as part of the annual budget process. No prizes for guessing a department we will be nominating for a haircut...

Media not giving context: Those "nasty cuts" you heard about on RNZ? More like paper cuts actually... 📝✂️

With more than 18,000 extra bureaucrats hired over the six years of the last Government, there's plenty of scope for the Government to cut spending and reallocate resources to front-line services.

The Department of Internal Affairs has listened to the Ministers' calls and decided to make some cuts in its latest reshuffle. 

The public sector unions and the media are upset about a restructure that results in a net reduction [checks notes] of just 17 jobs!

But they fail to give you the context: in the five years to June, the same agency increased their staff count by 477 roles. 🤦

Radio NZ #FactCheck – Do 65% of Kiwis really support a Capital Gains Tax? 🗞️

Last week, the IPSOS Issues Monitor survey results were released, including on whether New Zealand voters want some form of capital gains tax. 

We raised our eyebrows when we heard Radio NZ's Guyon Espiner putting it to Prime Minister Luxon that "recent polling showing [that] a majority supported a capital gains tax".

Here's the write-up that got us thinking:

That certainly doesn't match the polling we've had conducted. So we did an investigation of what was behind Radio NZ's claim.

If you don't like the answer, change the question... 👀

It's actually quite clever, albeit extremely misleading. Because Radio NZ can't find a poll to back their campaign in support of reporting on introducing a Capital Gains Tax that supports their "unbiased" position, they've combined the number of voters who supported any particular kind of tax on capital gains!

So they asked in the poll whether the voter supported introducing a capital gains tax on:

(a) investment property;

(b) the sale of a business;

(c) the sale of other assets; or

(d) the sale of the family home

Radio NZ then summated the responses (i.e. you only needed to support just one to count as supporting 'a capital gains tax') to produce a highly misleading claim that "two-thirds" of voters support a capital gains tax!

The question is also highly misleading.  Because of the bright-line test, a capital gains tax already applies for investment properties bought and sold within a defined timeframe, property bought with an intention to sell it, and for those who deal in property.

Let's apply Radio NZ's methodology 😂

As ever, your humble Taxpayers' Union strives to be helpful to our friends in the media. Let's look again at those poll results:

57% support a CGT on investment property.

43% support it on the sale of a business.

22% for the sale of other assets.

Only 13% support a CGT on the sale of a family home.

In the same way Radio NZ interpreted the above, they could just as easily run the line to Mr Luxon that "recent polling shows that 90 percent of Kiwis oppose a capital gains tax"!

And by the way...

Just to break the media narrative further, our own polling shows that only 29 percent – less than one in three Kiwis – wants to see a capital gains tax increase the overall tax burden. Even those who do want a capital gains tax want to see other taxes cut or abolished to compensate.

Very clearly, the takeaway from this is that the vast majority of Kiwis think they're already taxed enough. It would be nice if the media reflected it.

BREAKING: New Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll: National bounce back, but Labour keep climbing 📉📊

This month's exclusive Taxpayers'' Union-Curia Poll is here.

National is up 3.9 points from October to 38.8 percent while Labour is up 1.2 points to 31.5 percent. The Greens are down 1.1 points to 9.3 percent, while ACT are down to 8.5 percent (-1.2 points). New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 6.5 percent while Te Pāti Māori is down 0.5 points to 2.5 percent.

Translating this into seats, National is up four seats on last month to 48 while Labour is up one seat to 39.

The Greens are down two to 11 while ACT is down one on last month to 11 seats. New Zealand First is down one on last month to 8 while Te Pāti Māori is unchanged on 6.

On these numbers, the current coalition would be able to form a Government with 67 seats, compared to the Centre-Left bloc's 56.

As a follow-up to last month's release of our "Major Voting Issue - Top 3" results, there's been a major swing this month.

37.9 percent of respondents named the Cost of Living as one of their top three issues.  However, Health fell 8.1 points down to 27.4 percent, putting it in third place behind Economy more generally at 31.1 percent.

See the results, including preferred Prime Minister, on our website here.

Your Taxpayers' Union needs you! 🫵🥸

The team here in Wellington are like truffling pigs, digging through the Government's books rooting out all the waste we can find. Some of the biggest stories we've broken over the years have come from you guys.

If you have a tip you'd like to share with us, we want to know about it!

Our tipline is completely anonymous. But the work we do here wouldn't be possible without the help of people tipping us off to the worst excesses of waste in Wellington.

So if you're reading this and have any info to share, just point us in the right direction and we'll bring the waste to light. Happy hunting!

That's all for this week, on to the next one!

James Ross Policy and Public Affairs Manager New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

National is up 3.9 points to 38.8% from October while Labour is up 1.2 points to 31.5%. The Greens are down 1.1 points to 9.3%, while ACT are down to 8.5% (-1.2 points). New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 6.5% while Te Pāti Māori is down 0.5 points to 2.5%.

For the minor parties, Outdoors and Freedom is on 1.3% (+0.8 points), TOP is on 0.9% (-1.6 points), and Vision NZ is on 0.4 (+0.1 points).

Stuff reported yesterday that Wellington City Council has already begun tearing up recently completed roadworks on Thorndon Quay, to remove raised safety platforms.

“We could see this planning failure coming, half of Wellington saw this coming, so how didn’t the Council? Do Council staff not talk to each other?” said James Ross, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Taxpayers’ Union.

“Businesses along Thorndon Quay didn’t want these business-destroying roadworks in the first place, and now they have to go through it twice. If the Council’s plan is to reduce traffic by destroying Thorndon Quay as a shopping destination, then they’re well on their way.”

“When the decrepit pipes under Thorndon Quay go bang in the near future, the roadworks are getting dug up yet again. The Post called this ‘utter madness’, but that doesn’t go far enough to explain this gross incompetence. If this is the best the Council can muster, it’s no wonder ratepayers’ bills are tripling.”

The Taxpayers’ Union agrees with the Labour Party’s assertion that the Ministry of Social Development’s recent decision to stop publishing weekly updates on benefit numbers "stinks of a cover-up”.

Commenting on the attempt to sweep critical details under the rug less than a month after a record 392,211 people were reported to be on a main benefit, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Minister Louise Upston’s decision looks like a deliberate attempt to sweep critical details about the effectiveness of serious amounts of spending from the public eye.”

“The public were rightly sceptical of the reasons for the previous Government sweeping health details under the carpet. Once again, Ministers seem far too quick to put their political interests ahead of facing up to harsh realities.”

“The Government can’t just turn off the scoreboard once they don't like the score. It’s time for Minister Upston to come clean, reverse her decision, and return to weekly updates.”

As the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill’s second reading has been postponed this week, “the Government might finally be seeing sense”, said James Ross, the Taxpayers’ Union’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager.

“Carbon-copies of this bill have been tried overseas, and the results have been disastrous. Ask Canadians who can no longer access news through Facebook what they think of the Online News Act.”

“The only options it leaves for tech firms are to either pull out of New Zealand or be exposed to near-unlimited liabilities. Clearly someone in the Beehive has cottoned on to the fact these tech companies aren’t bluffing.”

“A pause is good, but this Bill needs to be scrapped. National knew before the election bailing out untrusted media firms wouldn’t work, now that needs to be put into practice.”

Responding to Todd Stephenson MP’s calls for an end to taxpayer funding of political parties, James Ross of the Taxpayers’ Union said:

“As we said to the Justice Committee back in August, not a single Kiwi should be forced to fund a political party they disagree with against their will.”

“Ending the Broadcast Allocation would go a long way to solving this, and put $4m-per-cycle back into taxpayers’ pockets. But that only solves half the problem.”

“We’ve all heard about party-related spending like conference travel going straight on MPs’ expenses accounts. And you only need to look at a few party-political ads before you’ll spot the ‘funded by the Parliamentary Service’ banner. The rort goes much deeper than just the Broadcast Allocation.”

“Taxpayer funding of political parties won’t actually end as long as the Parliamentary Service isn’t covered by the OIA. 18,397 Kiwis submitted to Parliament demanding we open the books on MPs’ expenses, and the calls for transparency aren’t going away.” 

Following news yesterday in the NZ Herald on Wellington, the Taxpayers' Union can reveal through official correspondence that Christchurch City Council has also undercut Auckland's $1.3 million Christmas tree, $800k of which was funded by Auckland Council's targeted rates.

“For only four percent of the total cost, Christchurch has managed to undercut Auckland's spending, while ratepayers don't need to worry about losing their Christmas Bonus" said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“Purchased by Christchurch in 2023 for $43,990 and transported for $11,880 – the central city tree shows that bigger doesn’t always mean better. With an installation and take-down price of $8,000, the Super City is again being shown up.

"With Wellington spending around the same as Christchurch this year for three trees and decorations, Auckland needs to take a look at other councils' spending to understand value for money."

Commenting on former Tasman and Gisborne Council Chief Executive Lindsay McKenzie’s appointment as Crown Observer at Wellington City Council, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Some experienced hands to knock heads together at Wellington City Council won’t go amiss, but real cultural change is needed.

“Officers pulling strings behind the scenes has seen accountability melt away. That’s the real lingering blight on Wellington’s governance.

“Weakening democracy further by installing Commissioners will only make the issues worse. For Wellington’s sake, a Crown Observer can’t be the first step on this slippery slope.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is commenting on the recent news that Pure Tūroa will have to restart its consultation process to operate the Mt Ruapehu ski field. This comes after receiving $27.35 million from taxpayers over two years.

“Our comments eight months ago that the Government was throwing good money after bad, after bad, are truer now than ever” said Communications Officer, Alex Emes.

“The fact taxpayers have been on the hook for more than $27 million dollars, only to have it spent on a non-operational ski field, is the equivalent of setting money on fire.”

“The Government needs to put a stake in the ground and promise taxpayers there will be no more handouts towards this boondoggle.”

The Taxpayers’ Union’s Open the Books campaign has been calling for backbench and opposition MPs’ expenses - as well as Party Leaders’ budgets - to be covered by the Official Information Act.

“Why should MPs not be held to the same standards as Ministers? If you’re spending taxpayers’ money, the public need to see the receipts” said James Ross, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Taxpayers’ Union.

“More than 18,400 New Zealanders submitted their views to Parliament through OpenTheBooks.nz within the space of 5 days. The sense of outrage can’t be ignored.”

“MPs can’t bury their heads in the sand anymore. Kiwis know the expenses grift is completely unaccountable, and they’re demanding answers.”

“This is just the start. New Zealand’s Parliament needs to get with the times by fronting up to the public on what’s being chucked on the expense accounts, and this fight isn’t going away.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is asking “where does the buck stop” following Revenue Minister Simon Watts’ comments that IRD took “appropriate action” over its leaking of more than a quarter of a million taxpayers’ data.  Despite leading the Department, Watts’ has simply “expressed [his] disappointment” over the leaks.

Commenting on the Minister’s weak response, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Minister Watts needs start to show up for the - at least - 268,000 Kiwis who are victims of IRD’s betrayal and incompetence.

“Does he not realise that he is the Minister in charge of the people who perpetrated this travesty? The people who have been affected need to see action, instead of the Minister’s ‘disappointment’.

“Heads need to roll, and the only acceptable answer is the Minister ensuring those responsible pack up their desks and look for a new job. It's time he remembered he was elected to represent the people of New Zealand, not just the IRD’s spin doctors.”

IRD’s data leak was far worse then feared with IRD’s admission that despite earlier public assurances that all taxpayer data provided to social media companies was “hashed”, officials had emailed an unencrypted spreadsheet of taxpayer data to Meta (owners of Facebook) containing sensitive taxpayer information of more than quarter of a million taxpayers.

“Only yesterday, IRD Commissioner Peter Mersi took a swipe at the Taxpayers’ Union and falsely accused us of ‘misrepresenting facts’. But just 12 hours later, we learn that in fact there as a mistake: IRD’s data leak was far worse than anyone had imagined.”

"Since we became aware of IRD using taxpayer information to run targeted social media campaigns, New Zealanders have been assured that it's all ok because the data was hashed.  They mislead the public about the protection that process provides, but at least it was something they could fall back on."

"Now they've come clean that it was a ruse all along. Unencrypted data was being sent by email from the IRD's social media team. It is beyond belief. Email is inherently insecure."

“Somehow, IRD’s data-protection is so bad, social media staffers are able to access information from the tax administration system. That alone is a blatant breach of trust for New Zealanders who must entrust IRD with their data.”

“IRD are trying desperately to down play this. They claim there is 'no risk of serious harm' when in-fact any foreign actor or sophisticated cyber criminal can easily penetrate a unencrypted email."

"This is the most serious breach of taxpayer information in the English-speaking world. None of our sister taxpayer groups are aware of anything near this scale or seriousness.”

“Commissioner Mersi’s comments to the media yesterday, political attacks, and lack of straight answers suggests that he has either been misled by his staff or is deliberately obfuscating the seriousness of the issue. Either way, heads must role.”

The IRD had been leaking taxpayers’ data to overseas tech firms in what Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, described as “shameful, and frankly it beggars belief that it is legal.”

“Even now, IRD Commissioner Peter Mersi is still refusing to front up to the millions of Kiwis his department has put at risk."

“Rather than saying IRD is ending the leaks because it was wrong to leak data, he’s blamed the Taxpayers’ Union’s campaign for drowning Inland Revenue in complaints from concerned taxpayers. Well we’re proud that the 9,000 of our supporters who wrote to the IRD demanding answers can claim this win.”

“Commissioner Mersi needs to stop burying his head in the sand, and explain to Kiwis how his department are going to clean up the mess of the data they’ve already leaked.”

“At the absolute bare minimum, we know 268,000 taxpayers have had their data leaked without even the skin-deep ‘protection’ of hashing. Heads need to roll over this.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Ministry for the Environment has spent $822,362 dollars during just fiscal year 2023 on “internal events”. Since 2018/19, the ministry has spent more than $2 million. Yearly costs for internal events have gone up more than 8x since 2018/19 when annual costs were only $98,045. More details regarding spending details are available through the Taxpayers’ Union Official Information Act request.

Commenting on the exuberant costs, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes said:

“While every business dedicates some money towards events, the fact the ministry has been jacking up their events budget during a time when Kiwis were told to stay home is another example of rules for thee but not for me.

“With the money they decided to fork out on events, they could have instead planted more than 2000 hectares of trees. At least that would have been an attempt to do their actual job of helping the environment rather than playing around in workshops, retreats and lavish events.

“The Ministry needs to come clean on what has led to this latest budget blowout scandal, and how they plan to reign in their bloated event bills. The Taxpayer tab needs to end at all departments, and that includes the Ministry for the Environment.”

For the first time, a Parliamentary Select Committee is blocking members of the public from emailing submissions on a Bill before Parliament to MPs.

Nearly 10,000 individual New Zealanders have used the submission tool at OpenTheBooks.nz to ask the Parliament Bill Committee to remove the secrecy provisions that protect MPs from transparency on how they spend taxpayers money on themselves and their offices.

Ministerial expenses are already subject to the Official Information Act, and the Taxpayers’ Union argues that the same should apply to opposition MPs, backbenchers, and Party Leader’s Budgets.

“Blocking Kiwis from contacting their MPs to demand transparency is nothing short of arrogant self entitlement” says Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union.

“We’ve in the past seen Select Committees try to treat thousands of emailed submissions as just one, or even try to ignore them entirely, but never have we had literally thousands of members of the public actually be blocked from contacting MPs.”

“Online submission builders are a common occurrence on both sides of the political divide all around the world. They make it easy for the public to ‘have their say’ and increase the accessibility of the political process.”

"For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't some petition or spam tool. Every submission sent is able to be edited, and is manually sent by a member of the public."

“We knew that many backbenchers and opposition MPs would be annoyed we are highlighting their precious secrecy and carve out of freedom of information law.  But to actually go as far as to block New Zealanders from sending emails to MPs is disgraceful.”

Submissions on the Parliament Bill close this Wednesday night. Regardless of whether the email block is lifted, the Taxpayers’ Union will print all submissions made at www.OpenTheBooks.nz and deliver them to Parliament.

The Taxpayers’ Union is launching a major campaign for Kiwis to demand MPs’ expenses no longer enjoy a special carve out from the Official Information Act.

"Submissions on the Parliament Bill close this Wednesday and we are encouraging taxpayers to make their voice heard at OpenTheBooks.nz," says James Ross, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Taxpayers’ Union.

"This campaign is to force MPs to justify why their spending should be a state secret when almost every other area of public spending is subject to public scrutiny. Government Ministers' spending is already covered by freedom of information laws, and it's about time opposition and backbench MPs were brought into line with normal practise overseas."

“In the UK, the expenses scandal blew the lid on widespread fraud – one MP even used Parliament's secret slush fund to clean a moat. Without transparency, we have no idea if the same sort of thing happening in New Zealand because non-Ministerial expense accounts and opposition party spending is a black hole."

"As it stands, the Parliament Bill actually opens up what MPs can spend taxpayer money on. For example, MPs won't even need their party leader's permission to pay for trips overseas."

"We say, MPs can't expect even more leeway to spend taxpayer money on themselves without the public having full transparency over every dollar."

The Taxpayers’ Union is weighing in on DIA’s ‘fat trim’ of 17 senior staff that were bringing home an average salary of $152,000. This comes after the bloated department has added 477 more bureaucrats in just 5 years.

Commenting on the relatively small cuts, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes said:

“It’s nice to see that the DIA is starting to make cuts at the top by beginning with the crème de la crème of the bloated bureaucracy at DIA.

“While there may be cries from the DIA that they have been hard done by, the 17 bureaucrats that were canned were bringing home exuberant salaries. DIA has been taking taxpayers for a ride over the last number of years, so it is nice to see a turn in the right direction.

“However, more needs to be done to return the DIA bureaucrat bubble back to normality. The agency still has about 2700 FTE who continue to milk the pocketbook of taxpayers.”

Today’s Otago Daily Times reports that the government was advised of serious concerns about Waikato University’s ability to fund its contribution to the new medical school and with the assumptions used in the cost-benefit analysis that had been prepared. This advice, from the Tertiary Education Commission and the Ministry of Education, came two months before the government decided to progress the project to a detailed business case.

Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, stated that “it is concerning that the government may be progressing a substantial investment without a cost-benefit analysis based on sound assumptions and fully considered viable alternatives such as expanding the capacity of the two existing medical schools.”

“We share the reported concerns of Green MP Francisco Hernandez that the government may be cherry-picking evidence to predetermine the outcome it wants rather than being informed through an evidence-based process. There is no substitute for a robust cost-benefit analysis, and it appears this may not have been done.”

“It is our view that the government should pause the development of the detailed business case until it has completed a much more thorough cost-benefit analysis. The business case should only proceed if the Waikato option is realistically expected to be superior to expanding either or both of the existing medical schools. Anything less risks wasting taxpayers’ dollars.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Health NZ to “control their catering cravings”. This is the second spending scandal involving conference catering in just over a week for Health NZ.

Commenting on the colossal $95,584 catering costs, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes said:

“Once might be considered a mistake. But to have multiple of these meet and greets within one year is a belligerent effort to take advantage of taxpayers.

“The fact that the conference was exclusive to 400 Health NZ finance staff is truly ironic. How many Health NZ finance staff does it take to control a conference budget?

“Given that Health NZ’s books are in the bin, we are calling - once again - for Health NZ’s taxpayer tab to end.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act New Plymouth District Council has allocated $1,280,841 towards ramps and stairs for Fitzroy beach. This follows September’s news that Auckland Council spent $263,000 on four sets of stairs at Milford Beach.

"Accessibility, especially for the disabled, was obviously an important factor in the ‘Beach Street Access for all’ project by New Plymouth District Council” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

 “However, with virtually all beaches in New Plymouth being connected by the coastal walkway and fully accessible from other points – was this massive price tag to fix some stairs and build a ramp truly justified in such challenging economic times?”

“Like all councils projects, the job is sure to blow out in costs, and $1.2 million already seems to be a large estimate for a relatively small project. Ratepayers would be within their rights to demand a breakdown of costs in projects like this. Perhaps they will discover the ramp is gold plated!”

“With local rates already raised by 11.5 percent, the Council must justify not only each project but every dollar allocated within it.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act that Otago Regional Council has spent more than $200,000 redeveloping its website, which has virtually been unchanged since 2017. While Council branding remains mostly unaffected, the redevelopment apparently has more features, and enhanced relationships with Mana Whenua.

“Otago seems to have outperformed most of its northern counterparts by spending $221,764.12 without shelling out another bundle on changing its logo or corporate identity" said Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers' Union, Sam Warren.

“Interestingly, the project contained $15,176.90 worth of local Māori engagement, which includes translation services and the integration of ‘Whakataukī’ – or Māori proverbs. Comparatively, the website testing phase cost Otago ratepayers a more modest $553.06"

"A few more features are well and good, but after looking at an indexed version of the council’s website from 2017, we aren’t actually convinced this project was much more than a vanity project footed by ratepayers.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling out Wellington City Council for the recent reports that they plan to blow $30 million on a new waterfront fence.

Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“If the council can't build a fence at a reasonable cost, how does that fare for actually difficult projects like pipe renovation? A $7 Million budget is more than enough for some safety measures."

“Wellington’s waterfront is one of the hallmarks of the city, surely there were alternatives to ensure citizens safety instead of setting back Wellingtonian households $370 each to fence off the harbour from citizens.”

“Ratepayers across the city are facing tripling rates over ten years, and people are already having to sell the family home to make ends meet. This Council's fencing failure needs to stop.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an official information act request that Sports NZ's "Say Thanks to Your Coach" campaign cost $171,598, with Sports NZ contributing $131,598 and Coach for Life contributing a further $40,000. The campaign featured a website for a month, which was used to send e-cards and video messages.

Sports NZ’s ability to somehow spend more than $575 per thank-you email takes the gold for government waste. For the $171,598 cost, Sports NZ could’ve bought 8,580 rugby balls. Instead, they sent a few pixels.

While the Taxpayers’ Union genuinely applauds the work of New Zealand’s volunteer coaches, surely someone at Sports NZ could dream up a more cost-effective way to thank them? For starters, they could’ve bought the 298 coaches fourteen crates of Speights each and still had change to spare.

Sports NZ need pulling into line, because clearly someone at the agency doesn’t care about delivering value for money. The only question that matters now is how will they be held accountable?

The Taxpayers’ Union is warning the government to “proceed with caution” after Nicola Willis’ comments about performance pay for public service executives.

Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“While it would be a nice change to see bureaucrats paid just like the rest of us by pegging their pay to whatever value they provide, leaving the government to implement such an idea could go terribly wrong.”

“If the programme is drawn up to only top up and throw away more taxpayer dollars at the already bloated pockets of public sector chief execs, this decision would only increase the bureaucrat pay gap already crippling New Zealand.”

“While offering market-like incentives to start delivering value for the taxpayers’ money might improve outcomes, we also need to make sure underperforming bureaucrats’ salaries aren’t safe from being slashed.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the New Zealand Transport Agency to “work on their negotiation skills” after documents were obtained from an Official Information Act request showing they spent $270,000 on design costs and $390,000 on installation for a 14 metre tall art sculpture outside a rest stop near Tekapo. The documents also show that more than $50,000 was spent on a piece of cultural panelling down the road in Burkes Pass.

Commenting, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“The first sentence on the NZTA’s website states ‘our primary function is to promote an affordable land transport system’.  Whichever bureaucrat approved this expensive piece of artwork needs to be reminded that this object is neither affordable, nor a land transport system.”

“Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but no one is stopping their car mid-journey just to see a 14m tall metal eyesore when the stunning Mackenzie Basin is in the backdrop. And the mountains didn’t cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands to commission.”

“The Transport Agency can’t tell the public how much they’re wasting on questionable art across the country, because even they have no way of keeping track of the massive sums. Maybe if these bureaucrats focussed less on decorations and more on roads, our highways wouldn’t feel quite so much like the surface of the moon.”

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown is set to appoint a Crown Observer to Wellington City Council.

"With the city’s governance being at rock bottom, no one is surprised the Government felt the need to hold the Mayor’s hand” says James Ross, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Taxpayers’ Union.

“With both rates and the debt ceiling being lined up to triple, the capital’s finances are fit to blow. Something has to give, and someone to bang some heads together in the back office is sorely needed.”

“But this cannot be the first step towards undemocratic Commissioners. It is well past time to allow Wellingtonians the power to toss out the city’s incompetent leadership themselves, by holding recall elections.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal Napier City Council staff are required to work in the office just 60 percent of the time, and Chief Executive Louise Miller, only three days per week.

“In September, the Public Service Minister sent a loud message to civil servants that she expected them to return to the office, curtailing the Work from Home culture many bureaucrats have come to milk since Covid restrictions" said Taxpayers' Union Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“There is no reason why local councils like Napier shouldn’t follow suit. Napier’s policy of working from home applies to about 554 council staff. By allowing a 60-40 split between office and home, Mondays and Fridays must look like an absolute ghost town.

“Louise Miller, on her $388,500 Chief Executive salary, needs to lead the charge on working onsite, and cut out the ‘show-up-when-you-feel-like-it’ mollycoddle that most private sector workers would disparage."

The IPSOS Global Infrastructure Index for 2024 reports that only 27% of New Zealanders are fairly or very satisfied with the nation’s infrastructure. However, only 17% consider we have a strong record of delivering infrastructure, putting us dead last with Hungary.

Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, stated that “everyone’s far too familiar with bursting water pipes and pot-holed roads, so these results come as no surprise. Central government has been distracted from the core investment that is vital to productivity and growth.”

“Chuck in a local government sector which can’t stop wasting resources on ‘nice-to-haves’ and the crisis only gets worse. Cost-control is just not in their lexicon, and where better sums that up than Wellington’s bike rack and town hall blowouts whilst half the CBD is submerged in sewage.”

“It’s no wonder we’re approaching the bottom 10% of OECD countries for the ‘bang for buck’ we get from infrastructure investment. Chucking more and more of the taxpayer’s money down the drain and hoping that fixes our infrastructure problems hasn’t worked.”

“There needs to be an urgent national conversation on developing metrics to measure the efficiency of infrastructure spending at both the local and national level. Without developing these, taxpayers and ratepayers will never know if their money is being well spent. You cannot manage what you do not measure.”

Following this weekend’s victory in Barcelona, Team New Zealand has expressed interest in the possibility of defending the America’s Cup in Auckland once more, saying ‘it’s not off the table’.

“Dalton and his team’s win has been nothing less than historic” said Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman, Sam Warren.

"But before any agreement can be made to bring the Cup home, a full and transparent cost-benefit analysis must done before any public funds are committed.

“Auckland is in a bad state, with virtually no money to offer financial support. The country itself isn't in much better shape, either. Both the Mayor and Minister for Sports seem to agree.

“Dalton and his backers have long been open about propping up the team themselves, but for the infrastructure required locally – and the remarkably short runway before the next series – it’s looking more likely that the Cup will be raced in Spain, or potentially the Middle East.

“Realistically the cost would be in the hundreds of millions, and we are simply not prepared right now.

“Back home, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure are falling apart. On the remote chance the America’s Cup does make a return to the Auckland Harbour, it's essential that full economic consideration is first given to demonstrate real value for money."

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Health NZ to “focus on the figures, not the food” after an OIA was published by RNZ disclosing more than $60,000 on catering for 300 senior management.

Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Senior Management at Health NZ need to focus less on feeding off the taxpayer tab and more on balancing the books. $32 per canape - was it caviar dusted with gold?”

“Who is in charge of the books? In a time when they are losing $147 million a month – spending more than $60,000 on catering is completely disrespectful.”

“It is quite sad to see how out of touch the people in charge of our health system have become. Savings need to be found – and it looks like senior management might be a good place to start.” 

Like rust, government waste never sleeps, and your humble Taxpayers' Union has been in the media this week exposing it.

We also fact-check an ACT Party brag, and have bad news if you're an ASB Bank customer.

EXCLUSIVE: Film Commission's $145,000 French soirée  🎥🇫🇷🍾💸

The Taxpayers' Union is not very popular down at the Film Commission thanks to our tipping-off the media about their latest junket.

The Film Commission consider their entire raison d'être is hobnobbing with the glamorous – after all, it's hard work convincing foreign media bigwigs to pleeeease take our taxpayer money film subsidies.

Hot on the heels of last week's Climate Change junket to Bonn, our investigations team this week revealed that just four hungry little bureaucrats from the Film Commission managed to chew through more than $145,000 on a single trip!

The junket, sorry, work trip to the Cannes Film Market (held in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival) was taxing. Kiwi taxpayers laid it on, hosting booze-laden champagne parties for Hollywood bigwigs visiting the French Riviera.

Making Sir Les Patterson blush 🍾🥴

The Film Commission's business model, as best we can tell, is to fly around the world with an unlimited expense account, trying to soak producers in enough liquor and caviar that they agree to produce a film in New Zealand. 

And then if and when they do, New Zealanders get stuck with the bill for millions of dollars in film subsidies (with screen production grants forecast to cost us $86 million this year alone).

Arts Minister not impressed 🤨

Down at Parliament, all hell broke loose (we hear some MPs were livid they weren't invited!).

Media Minister Paul Goldsmith was more restrained, issuing a classic understated "not impressed" comment. He told the NZ Herald that the spending "does seem excessive" with his spin doctors saying "he'll have to get the details".

You didn't hear it from us, but we are reliably informed that the Beehive's political staff are seriously annoyed that the Film Commission didn't give their Minister a heads-up about the spending, or that the information had been released to the Taxpayers' Union.

We're here to help. 💁

ACT's Todd Stephenson was more to the point:

"The new Government had repeatedly emphasised the need for spending restraint, but the Film Commission – hardly a core government agency – doubled down on discretionary spending. In a single two-week blowout, four staff spent more than $24,000 on food and drink including fine French dining and dozens of bottles of wine and craft beer. In addition, $21,704 was spent on travel, $24,329 on accommodation, and $74,795 on ‘operational’ costs – including office rental and utilities."

“Browsing the receipts, obtained by the Taxpayers’ Union, is enough to make you sick."

Indeed.

Left-wing, taxpayer funded, arts listicle website The Spin-off  having a sook 🤭

You know you're on the right track when the luvvies down at the taxpayer funded millennial website The Spinoff are upset. 

Proving that they have a sense a humour (or are drunk on their own taxpayer funding?) they literally compared third rate bureaucrats plying film producers with booze to – wait for it – Prime Ministerial Trade Delegations. 😂

Jesus wept.

If you agree it's time to roll credits on the Film Commission click here to sign the petition. ✍️

CTRL+ALT+WOKE? Language Commission's blows $600k on custom te reo keyboards ⌨️⭐

Thanks to an insider tip-off at the Māori Language Commission, we've gone public revealing that at least $600,000 has been spent to develop customised Māori language keyboards.

The $600k was given straight to PB Tech to develop the keyboards. But here's the thing, PB Tech had been working on an identical project well before the Language Commission became involved (or offered a juicy cheque)!

This is a classic case of a government agency trying to jump aboard a private company's project to bask in the glory. PB Tech had already spotted a gap in the market.

PB Tech reckon there's potential big business in satisfying the bureaucrats who (like the Solicitor General) need Māori macrons on their keyboards to 'de-colonise' their computers. 

Without paying a cent, your humble Taxpayers' Union have managed to obtain a sneak peak at the latest keyboards the public service are rolling out...

Oh, and we say "at least" $600k because we understand (but have not yet nailed down) that PB Tech was just one of many companies the Māori Language Commission have been writing cheques to.

Ka pai 👏

We have to talk about Wellington City Council. Again. 🔥🚨🥱

While the Wellington City Council continues to drive itself off a cliff – for the rest of New Zealand, this soap opera needs to also come to an end.

The short point is the Council has no money and they can't borrow more. Thanks to a laundry list of unaffordable boondoggles by successive Mayors, Wellington ratepayers are already in line for a near tripping of rates over the next decade.

And with the u-turn on selling off the Council's stake in Wellington Airport, the capital's 'fiscal strategy' is about as steady as the Mayor is [allegedly] inspecting Courtenay Place's nightlife.

Writing in the NZ Herald, Ryan Bridge picked up on our sobering calculation that every household in Wellington is already paying $800 a year in interest on the Council's existing debt.

Triple that debt, watch the credit rating downgrade, and it's not hard to see how this soap opera ends...

Unelected Commissioner? Careful what you wish for... 👀 🏴‍☠️

As James said in The Post, while it's tempting to call on the Government to replace the Mayor and Council with commissioners, we saw in Tauranga, it "isn't some magic solution":

"When commissioners stepped into Tauranga, the city carried on sliding into ruin."

"There's a ready-made solution for getting rid of incompetent representatives: voting. The real problem is voters are only allowed a voice once every three years."

Clearly Wellington needs a change in leadership. We say a better mode for Government intervention would be to establish provisions for 'recall elections' as is common in local government overseas.

Back in 2020, we published a joint Proposal Paper calling for the introduction of recall elections across local government (read it here).

Even in Wellington's Green Party-dominated suburbs, confidence in Green Party Mayor Tory Whanau is gone. So give the voters the tools to hit the eject button. Problem solved.

The Kāinga Ora way: Pay for a mansion, get a dunga 🏚️🧱

Kāinga Ora (formally known as Housing New Zealand) has been tangled in scandal yet again this week.

They were slammed for spending over $1.2 million building each apartment in its Meadowbank complex. Worse still, add in the cost of the land and it's $1.7 million!

It's easy to put this down to the last Government's build it at any cost philosophy, but serious questions still need to be asked about what led Kāinga Ora to rack up $12 billion in debt (that's about six grand in extra government debt per New Zealand household).

On Newstalk ZB on Monday, our Local Government guru, Sam Warren, called for a Select Committee inquiry into the Kāinga Ora fiasco. An inquiry with the power to summon witnesses and demand answers is needed so that lessons can be learned.

We've also written to the Social Services Select Committee setting out the reasons they should take a good look. You can read that here.

FACT CHECK I: Have ACT actually cut Labour's bureaucrat bonanza? 😲

Last week, Taxpayer Update included a missive about how little the current Government has done to reverse the explosion in bureaucracy numbers. We said:

Despite all the crowing about "brutal" and "unfair" public service cuts in Wellington, we now know that there were still more bureaucrats in July 2024 than there were 12 months earlier!

There's a hell of a long way to go to sling out the extra 18,000 taken on under the last Government (see Connor's excellent visualisation that got us into trouble with Parliament's Speaker here).

And while the [taxpayer funded] spin doctors in Nicola Willis' Beehive office are keen to promote the 13 percent ($274 million) reduction in spending on contractors and consultants, the fact is the Government has cut less well paid (see below) pen pushers than Chris Hipkins hired in his last few months in office! Even the spin doctors couldn't omit the key figure: the Government has 421 more employees as at 30 June 2024 than 12 months earlier.

At about the same time, those cheeky spin doctors working in the ACT Party issued their own crowing newsletter and social media posts about how well they're doing. ACT included this graphic:

To our astonishment, some Taxpayers' Union supporters are also signed up to ACT's newsletter. A couple emailed in to ask who had it right. 

Fortunately the Disinformation Project can down tools: It turns out ACT aren't wrong per se in their graphic, but eagle eyed readers will see that ACT's graphic is a little selective in only going back to June 2022. And there's that convenient little squiggle in the y-axis. 🤨

Always here to provide you with full context, we fixed it. 💁

ACT are right to say that some progress has been made, but as shown by the latest batch of figures released by the Public Service Commission, there were still more public servants as at June this year than twelve months earlier.

Labour hired an extra 18,000 bureaucrats in their time in office. ACT and the other coalition partners in the current Government need to do more than scratch the surface.

Progress is good. 'Mission accomplished' would be better.

FACT CHECK II: 'Out-of-touch w banker of the week' 🏦💭

Not to be outdone by the 'you should pay a capital gains tax' ANZ CEO, New Zealand's top paid female exec – ASB Bank Chief Executive Vittoria Shortt – has joined the bandwagon to argue that you should pay more in tax!

“I think New Zealand has to really lean into taxes,” Shortt told Stuff's The Post. 

Apparently, we need to tax Kiwis harder to "invest more in the infrastructure". 

If Ms Shortt wants to pay more tax, then she can go right ahead and make a donation to the Government (the details on how to do that are here).

But Shortt should hit the books before she pontificates about infrastructure spending. The ASB Bank boss couldn't be more wrong in claiming New Zealand's infrastructure deficit necessitates ever higher taxes.

Our media response explains:

That's it for this week, have a great weekend. 😊

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

Record numbers of young Kiwis leaving the country for better economic opportunities overseas remains a serious problem not easily solved, economists warn.

“These kids need a reason to stay” said Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman, Sam Warren.

“Countries overseas are offering incentives to attract bright minds to settle, work and thrive in their economies. What is New Zealand doing to compete?"

“Digital Nomad Visas are being used in places like Bali to entice young tech experts, and the likes of Portugal are offering tax breaks for people under 35 to encourage locals to stay, build and invest in a life at home.”

“Back home, many young Kiwis are convinced they have no place. They are overtaxed, uninspired, and home ownership has now become a pipe-dream until well into their forties and fifties.”

“The only solution is for us to be laser-focussed on sustainable growth. Creating the right jobs and opportunities to convince our brightest that they do have a future in New Zealand. This won’t happen on its own, we need to see pro-growth reform – including tax cuts and full capital expensing – at the top of this Government’s priority list.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling the Public Service Commission’s recent figures posted in an RNZ article “a failure of the coalition to get spending back on track”. The figures show bureaucrat salary costs have increased to more than $6.5 billion, an increase of 5.3 percent.

Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“This Government was elected on a promise to put the country’s finances ‘back on track’. However, after going off of these figures, their one year report card would have a big fat ‘F’."

“New Zealand is still seeing bureaucrats’ salaries balloon much quicker than growth in the private sector. We can’t afford to keep squeezing the productive sectors of the economy to funnel cash into the pockets of bureaucrats who are already failing to deliver value for taxpayers’ money.”

“It’s time for this government to stop pumping so much into armies of spin doctors, put the hardworking private-sector taxpayers actually providing for their paycheques first, and deliver on the promise they made to voters last year to put spending ‘back on track’.” 

Minister Simon Watts was quoted today in an article by RNZ saying that the tools used for anonymising sensitive client data are “completely irreversible.”

“IRD seems to be trying to pull the Minister’s strings by having him do their PR”, said Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes.

“The Hashing process used to protect data has been widely criticised for its reversibility by tech experts across the world, and has even been successfully reversed here in New Zealand.”

“Claims from Inland Revenue that they ‘continuously review their processes to ensure we are safe’ are a complete coverup. Had this actually been the case, they would not have leaked private client data to social media companies in the first place.”

“Minister Simon Watts needs to stop parroting the lines of bureaucrats, stand up for Kiwis and start holding the Inland Revenue Department accountable to the people they are supposed to serve.” 

Statistics NZ today released their latest figures for New Zealand’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). This dropped to 2.2%, which is within the target range of 1-3%.

Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said “that’s only half the story, and the inflation beast isn’t slain yet.”

“Domestic inflation is still around 5%, which is proof beyond doubt that the Government needs to go further and faster in slashing wasteful spending and balancing the books.”

“Let’s not forget it’s taken a Reserve Bank-induced per-capita recession worse than after the Global Financial Crisis to try and get inflation to these levels.”

“The ‘medicine’ the Reserve Bank dished out has battered the economy and Kiwi households. Now, with interest rates decreasing, there is hope for a recovery. But the Government must increase its efforts to reduce expenditure, live within its means and ultimately start paying down some of its spiralling debt.”

Queenstown cafes and restaurants have been rocked by a near 1500% increase to al fresco dining charges following a decision made by Queenstown Lakes District Council.

“After years of near impossible trading conditions, only now is the sector starting to get off its knees” said Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren.

“One restaurateur said, until now, he paid $3,200 each year to operate with tables outside his premises. Under these new changes, he is expected by council to cough up $51,000 each year in an industry already infamous for its razor thin margins.”

“The fee has not been changed since 2006 and, there was consultation on the possibility of an increase, there was no indication that on math that led to a far higher increase than what would have ever been considered reasonable.”

“Concerns have been raised over how this number has been calculated. The increase has been based on a percentage of the value of indoor rental rates – not just for hospitality businesses, but for all commercial properties, which have very different operating dynamics, in defined areas."

“No one is arguing that a fee should not be paid for using public space for dining purposes, but sensible minds will agree that it needs to be realistic. If council is really that keen on destroying local hospitality, my advice to them would be to keep doing what they’re doing.”

Nicola Willis' comparison of Wellington City Council to a butcher's slaughterhouse is demeaning to both the ratepayers of Wellington, and hard working, decent, blue collar butchers around New Zealand, says the Taxpayers' Union.

"Nicola Willis' comments on Newstalk ZB this morning were totally over the top. While Wellington City Council might be a sea of red ink, with blood up the walls, backstabbing and skulduggery, this sort of polarised rhetoric is not called for."

"Wellington's Town Hall might appear like a horror movie, but to call it a butcher's slaughterhouse is a step too far."

"Wellington needs adult, respectful, political leadership. Not blood curdling slurs.  Butcheries from the Hutt to Petone would be horrified to have their professions compared to the actions of the Mayor and councillors as a so-called 'shambles'."

Tauranga City Council has today faced backlash from local cafes and restaurants following changes to outdoor dining fees that would see further costs piled onto hospitality businesses offering alfresco dining options.

“It’s a table-tax, plain and simple.” said Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union, Sam Warren.

“Mayor Drysdale needs to dip his oar in the water and work with local businesses, not against them. Taxing them further into the ground is hardly the right thing to do.

“Owners are desperate for a reason to open their doors in the morning, and a meek gesture of temporarily waiving this table-tax until next year doesn’t scream optimism.

“This change has been justified under the guise of ‘fairness and consistency’ so that now every business gets its fair share of suffering. Or, if it’s footpath congestion Council is worried about, why not explore more constructive solutions?

“Burdened with forever-vanishing carparks, rising rates and insurance costs, this is one more nail in the coffin for a dying CBD and its neighbouring streets. This will be a real test for the Mayor to determine if he's comfortable rocking the boat, or rowing in the wrong direction.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers Union can reveal through an Official Information Request that $605,499 of corporate welfare was given by the Māori Language Commission to PB Tech for the development of Te Reo Keyboards.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Instead of using taxpayer dollars to improve the lives of Māori, the government is giving corporate handouts straight into the pockets of big business. Subsidising PB Tech with Kiwis’ hard-earned money is the equivalent of throwing taxpayer dollars in the bin.”

“Taxpayers have wasted more than 600k on an initiative that PB Tech had already started working on. Clearly the business case already existed without corporate welfare, so why are the public now on the hook for the costs?”

“If the private sector is already delivering or creating a product that the market demands, the public purse does not need to be subsidising it. PB Tech can more than afford to stand on their own two feet.”

As Central Government intervention in Wellington City Council seems to be getting more and more likely, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, warned commentators to “be careful what you wish for.”

“We’ve all seen this movie before. When commissioners stepped into Tauranga, the city carried on sliding into ruin. Replacing elected leaders with unaccountable bureaucrats isn’t some magic solution.”

“There’s a ready-made solution for getting rid of incompetent representatives: voting. The real problem is voters are only allowed a voice once every three years.”

“Recall elections would let Wellingtonians sling out their busted leadership without throwing democracy onto the sacrificial pyre. Central Government needs to step up, legalise democracy, and let Wellingtonians take their city back from the brink.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through the Official Information Act that the New Zealand Film Commission has spent $145,354.81 for just four staff members to spend two weeks in France attending the Cannes Film Market.

Receipts showed $24,329.08 in accommodation, $24,525.36 in food and drink, and $21,704.54 on travel.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Last year, the Taxpayers’ Union called out the Film Commission for wasting $73,000 at the Cannes Film Festival. Taking that as a challenge, this year they’ve blown more than double that at the Cannes Film Market.”

“Bureaucrats are no strangers to jetting off having fun at the taxpayers’ expense, but Film Commission staffers blow through cash like it’s going out of fashion. Kiwis struggling to put bread and milk on the table shouldn’t be forced to stump up for champagne and caviar.”

“Bear in mind that this was the same agency that was criticised in July for having four staff office parties in less than a fortnight, costing over $16,000. Living the A-lister party lifestyle and not having to pay a penny out of pocket, not a bad gig if you can get it”

“Even if plying Hollywood big wigs with taxpayer-funded champagne was successful in attracting a film production to New Zealand, Kiwis would still be on the hook for millions of dollars of film subsidies. Either way, taxpayers lose.”

“This entire agency's purpose seems to be corporate welfare and popping corks. It’s time to roll credits on the Film Commission.” 

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on ASB Bank CEO Vittoria Shortt to put her money where her mouth is and make a donation to the Government given her call for New Zealanders to be taxed even more.

Stuff reports that Ms Shortt says “New Zealand has to collect more tax to invest in the infrastructure the country so desperately needs.”

“Ms Shortt needs to get out more,” says Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union. “The Infrastructure Commission reports that despite New Zealand spending a higher percentage of GDP on public infrastructure than Australia and the OECD median, we rank near the bottom of high-income countries for infrastructure efficiency.”

“Contrary to what the banker says, it’s not that we’re under-taxed or are under spending, rather it’s a productivity problem.”

“Since 2017 tax revenue to the Government increased by 59%.  Inflation over the same period was just 27%. The Government does not have a revenue problem – it already collects more than enough. The Government has a spending problem and has no metrics that it can use to evaluate the efficiency of the spending and whether it’s delivering value for money.“

“If Shortt is serious, we invite her to donate some of her reported $5million annual salary to the Government. Or did she only mean for her ASB customers to pay more?”

ASB Bank takes distinct position from Australian parent on bank excess profit tax

“We also note Shortt’s comments appear to contradict the views of her Australian bosses.” said Williams.

Six weeks ago the Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn, described a proposed excessive profits tax for Australian banks as “insidious populism” and labelled criticism of profitable businesses as “fact-free rhetoric” that is damaging trust in public institutions. (see https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/aug/29/commonwealth-bank-ceo-labels-greens-tax-policy-insidious-populism-after-firms-98bn-profit)

“Is ASB saying that they support a tax on the extra-ordinary profits the Australian-owned banks are making on their New Zealand operations?  If not, why is what Shortt says is good for the goose, not good for the gander?” asked Williams.

The Taxpayers' Union is calling out Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger who admitted on TVNZ's Q&A that “I didn’t do what I promised” when asked about Christchurch’s recent rates hikes, but claimed, bizarrely, that it isn't a "broken promise".

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

"Does Mayor Mauger live on another planet?  Not fulfilling a promise is the definition of breaking a promise. That holds true even in local government-land."

"When you stand on a promise to cap rates at 3-4 percent but then ram a 9.4 percent hike down ratepayers’ throats, that’s a betrayal to the people who trusted him with their vote. To claim otherwise is nothing short of gaslighting."

"Mayor Phil's credibility on rates is shot. He's opted to rate $4000 from every Christchurch household for a lavish stadium. He should at least own the decision.”

Kāinga Ora was slammed yesterday following revelations it spent $1.2 million per apartment build, as part of its new Meadowbank complex.

“This appalling cost warrants urgent review across the organisation.” said a Taxpayers’ Union spokesman, Sam Warren.

“A Select Committee is needed to determine what went so wrong, with powers to compel witnesses under oath. Accountability needs to be shown.

“This is either an example of the former Labour Government’s ‘build-at-all costs’ philosophy that saw Kāinga Ora rack up $12 billion of debt in just 5-years, or something even more insidious is going on within the agency.

“These revelations come less than one week after former Board member, Philippa Howden-Chapman, criticised the Government’s review into Kāinga Ora in her resignation letter, claiming the scrutiny would further exacerbate homelessness.

“We cannot allow thinly veiled attempts to exonerate accountability and stop improvements. It's critical that Kāinga Ora is both effective and sustainable. If we find ways to do more with less, more homes would be built – plain and simple. But when KO builds lower spec’d homes at unacceptably higher costs than other developers, something must be done.”

Lowest support for National in 15 months; highest for Labour in 16 months; in latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll 
 
The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll for October shows National down 4.1 points on September’s poll to 34.9%, and Labour up 3.6 points to 30.3%. This is the lowest result for National in 15 months and highest for Labour in 16 mounths. 

The Greens are down 0.6 points to 10.4%, while ACT rises 0.9 points to 9.7%. 
 
New Zealand First are up 0.8 points to 7.6%, while Te Pāti Māori are down 2.0 points to 3.0%. 
 
The full poll results can be found here on the Taxpayers' Union's website here at https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/oct2024_polling 
 
For the minor parties, TOP are on 2.5% (up 1.4 points), whilst the combined total for other parties is 1.6%. 
 
This month's results are compared to the last Taxpayers' Union – Curia poll conducted in September 2024, available at https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/poll_sept2024 
 
Based on these results, National are down four seats on the last poll to 44, while Labour gains five to 38 seats. 
 
The Greens are down one seat to 13 while ACT is up one to 12 seats. 
 
New Zealand First are up one seat to nine from the last poll, while Te Pāti Māori remains on six. 
 
The combined projected seats for the Centre-Right has fallen two from the last poll to 65. The combined seats for the Centre-Left is up four to 57. 
 
On these numbers, National and ACT would require the support of New Zealand First to form a government. This calculation assumes that all electorate seats are held.   

A summary of the results, including preferred Prime Minister scores, are available on our website here: https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/oct2024_polling 

Major Voting Issues – Appearance in Top Three 

For the first time, the Taxpayers’ Union is publicly releasing the results of the “Major Voting Issue – Top 3” – which suggests that voters are considering health an increasingly important issue.  

36.5% of respondents named the Cost of Living as one of their top three issues (up 0.5 points from last month), followed by Health at 35.5% (up 4.2 points), the Economy more generally 33.7% (up 3.6 points), Law and Order 16.5%, Poverty 16.3%, and Housing 12.1%. 

Get the full report – join the Taxpayer Caucus 

As part of the same poll, favourability data for party leaders and other notable politicians is collected monthly. This month, results were obtained for Labour’s Deputy Leader, Carmel Sepuloni, and Megan Woods as well as Labour’s Leader, the Prime Minister, and the coalition parties’ leaders. All of these results are detailed in the full Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll report made available exclusively to members of the Taxpayer Caucus. 

Huge Taxpayer Update today.

NEW POLL (not good news for Luxon); boat sinking (not good news for taxpayers); Government books even worse than feared (not good news for those who wanted Nicola Willis to tackle the last Government's wasteful spending).

We do have some good news for your Friday though: Jordan's been digging into the Government's proposed replacement for the Resource Management Act, and it's looking promising. He sat down and interviewed one of the two MPs driving the effort (video of the interview below).

State of the Government books is a serious wake-up call ⏰

Yesterday, Treasury released the Financial Statements of the Government for the Year Ended 30 June 2024. It had about as much good news as your council rates bill.

As soon as the report landed, our team compared the actual numbers with the projections that were released back in May as part of the Budget. Are we doing better or worse than expected?

Only the fiscal sadists left the Treasury lock-up smiling.

Despite the change of Government, government spending continues to grow faster than revenue.

Our in-house Economist, Ray Deacon, sent a note around the campaign team and interns last night. I couldn't have put it better:

To give some perspective on the situation, take a look at how key elements of the Core Crown account have changed since 2016/17. This is the part of government that covers the core policy ministries and operational departments but excludes crown entities, state-owned enterprises and mixed ownership entities.  Consumer price inflation over the period amounted to 27.2%.

Audited data doesn't lie. The Government does not have a revenue problem – it already extracts too much – it has an expenditure problem! Whilst the current Government cannot be held entirely accountable for the current state of the government accounts, it will be accountable for not quickly improving the situation going forward.  Only a much more rigorous examination of government expenditure and deletion of entire programmes (especially the corporate welfare handouts) can hope to achieve the strong fiscal consolidation that Sir Bill English achieved post the global financial crisis and which got New Zealand back into surplus.  Leaving it to officials to decide where to make cuts won’t work – Ministers must make these decisions and remove any obstacles in their way.

There endeth the sermon.

Ray also highlighted the issue with the deficit spending being "structural", according to Treasury officials. That means that even when the economy bounces back, the books are still not expected to return to surplus.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in fiscal policy if New Zealand is to avoid what happened in the mid-80s and then again in the early 90s: the government running out of money.

He's green, he's hungry, and he's now coming for the kids 👀

Nicola Willis is borrowing a million bucks an hour to keep New Zealand Wellington afloat.

That's even faster than the rate Grant Robertson borrowed.

The times of cheap money are over. This year interest payments will amount to more than $9.2 billion – that's $4,622 for your household (and every other household in New Zealand)!

That’s the same as what the Government will spend on primary schools, secondary schools and the Ministry of Justice combined.

So rather than paying for a scary movie this weekend, just head on over to the Official Debt Clock.

It's running hotter than ever.*

*note Debt Clock figures track government debt in real time rather than as at 30 June.

Job losses in Wellington? What job losses? 🤷

Remember how the Government was going to sack those 18,000 extra bureaucrats Labour hired in the last three years of its reign? Well, yesterday, there was another set of figures being released by the Public Service Commission (ironically, just across the road from the Treasury lock-up at No.1 The Terrace, in the Reserve Bank Building at No. 2, The Terrace).

Sir Humphrey reported as being 'safe and sound'... 😮‍💨

Despite all the crowing about "brutal" and "unfair" public service cuts in Wellington, we now know that there were still more bureaucrats in July 2024 than there were 12 months earlier!

There's a hell of a long way to go to sling out the extra 18,000 taken on under the last Government (see Connor's excellent visualisation that got us into trouble with Parliament's Speaker here).

And while the [taxpayer funded] spin doctors in Nicola Willis' Beehive office are keen to promote the 13 percent ($274 million) reduction in spending on contractors and consultants, the fact is the Government has cut less well paid (see below) pen pushers than Chris Hipkins hired in his last few months in office! Even the spin doctors couldn't omit the key figure: the Government has 421 more employees as at 30 June 2024 than 12 months earlier.

Nicola fought the blob, but the blob won?

...and rather well paid 🏝️

And buried in the Public Service Commission data:

Remuneration: The average annual salary for public servants was $101,700, a 4.6 percent increase on the previous year. Increases were higher at the lower and middle salary levels driven by the Public Service Pay Adjustment and incremental change. At the other end of the scale, there were more modest increases, with average salaries for tier 2 managers increasing 2.1 percent. Private sector average earnings increased 4.0 percent over the same period, according to Stats NZ's Quarterly Employment Survey.

For comparison, $83,824 is the average wage for the same year ended 30 June (Stats NZ).

New Zealand's longest "real" recession 😧

There was some celebration this week with the Reserve Bank cutting the official cash rate (the main driver of interest rates) down to 4.75%.

But if you think it'll be enough to fix the economic woes, I have an Interislander ferry to sell you. As James put it in his comments to the media:

“High interest rates have caused a bigger per-capita recession than the one experienced in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and the backsliding of Kiwis’ living standards doesn’t look set to stop any time soon.

“Growth is the only answer, and slashing interest rates could be the first step in the right direction. But the risk of long-term damage hasn’t gone away, and the Government needs to work to make sure this OCR cut pays off.

“Domestic inflation still hangs at 5.4% thanks to the reckless previous Government’s overspending. The current Government must double down on any efforts to cut wasteful expenditure, and any savings should be used to start chipping away at anti-growth tax policies like one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world.”

The media like to talk of "technical" recessions (that is, two successive quarters of negative growth). But the real number is always per capita growth. If the population grows faster than the economy, we're still getting poorer.

On that per person measure, New Zealand is in the longest recession since records began. Ouch.

From one shipwreck to the next... 🚢🤔

The HMNZS Manawanui went down this week, seemingly hitting a reef and sinking off the coast of Samoa. Thankfully, everyone escaped with their lives and only taxpayers were seriously injured ($100 million of Royal Naval taxpayer assets disappeared below the waves).

Quite rightly there will be a Court of Inquiry to work out what went so wrong. But a Court of Inquiry is not enough. Unlike civilian judicial proceedings, the public has no rights whatsoever to observe the Court of Inquiry or even know the findings.

It may not be about blame (the Taxpayers' Union is not interested in a pile-on against the Captain) but we say New Zealanders are entitled to know whether the Navy is incompetent or just cursed.

Courts of Inquiry operate in secret because much of their matters relate to national security and military discipline.

But let's get real, the Manawanui was fighting coral, not commies. It should be an open court process determining what went wrong.

Defence Minister Judith Collins should be ensuring taxpayers are not left in the dark so that we know for sure that this wasn't just an Interislander-style "left the autopilot on" SNAFU. 

New Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll: lowest results for Nats in 15 months 📉📊

That's not the only bad news for the Government this week, as our hot-off-the-press poll revealed today.

National is down 4.1 points to 34.9 percent from last month while Labour is up 3.6 points to 30.3 percent.

That's National's lowest number in 15 months, and the highest Labour have been in the polls for 16 months.

The Greens are down 0.6 points to 10.4 percent, while ACT are up to 9.7 percent (+0.9 points). New Zealand First is up 0.8 points to 7.6 percent while Te Pāti Māori is down 2.0 points to 3.0 percent.

For the minor parties, TOP is on 2.5 percent (+1.4 points), and no other parties polled above 1.0 percent.

Translating these numbers into seats in Parliament, National is down four seats on last month to 44 while Labour is up five seats to 38.

The Greens are down one to 13 while ACT is up one on last month to 12 seats. New Zealand First is up one to nine while Te Pāti Māori is unchanged on six.

On these numbers, the current coalition would still be able to form a Government, holding 65 seats to the centre-left bloc's 57.

For the first time, we are also releasing data on "Major Voting Issues – Top 3" usually reserved for our "Very Important Taxpayers" who support the Taxpayers' Union most generously.

We've made it public because it shows what might be driving the changes in this month's poll: Health has seen a surge in voters' priorities (now second), and with the difficulties the Government has had with this portfolio, could it be this which is hitting the National Party's ratings?

36.5 percent of respondents named the Cost of Living as one of their top three issues, followed by Health at 35.5 percent, the Economy more generally on 33.7 percent, Law and Order on 16.5 percent, Poverty on 16.3 percent, and Housing on 12.1 percent.

MfE & MFAT climate change high flyers: Chucking taxpayer money onto the 'Bonn-fire' 🔥🇩🇪

Regular readers of Taxpayer Update will know that we like to follow those hard working big-spending officials who are selflessly fighting climate change one business class flight at a time. 🍾

One civic-minded public servant's tip-off to the Taxpayers' Union led us to go digging into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the Ministry of Primary Industries, and Ministry for the Environment's joint jaunt work trip to Bonn, Germany, for the UN's latest Climate Change conference.

Over the course of just a few days, the New Zealand delegation managed to blow more than $150 grand catching-up with their equivalents from around the the world.

And that's just what MFAT would tell us! Officials refused to say how much was spent on entertainment, food or drink (and if anyone's familiar with diplomats' expenses, you'll know they're not afraid to pop a cork or two). Either there's so much it is in fact 'too hard', or they just don't want you to know. Sounds like quite the party...

Speaking to the Platform James said:

"You've got all these bureaucrats at the minute saying they can work from home just fine, and use Zoom to join their meetings."

"But they can't do the same when there's a free trip on offer."

[click to watch]

Bang on, James.

Some good news this Friday: RMA reform imminent 🎉

The Resource Management Act is New Zealand's largest regulatory tax. No other piece of legislation does more to keep New Zealand poor and our living standards down.

When the RMA was introduced in 1990 it was seen as "world leading".  We shouldn't have waited 34 years to get the hint when no one followed!

Last week I sat down with one of the two MPs who are shepherding the next generation of land-use, planning, and environmental management law.

ACT's Simon Court has been head-down with Minister Chris Bishop on what comes next. For those interested in RMA reform, their "joint speech" is well worth the read.

Credit where credit's due, these reforms are looking to be a huge win for New Zealand.

If what the Government announced earlier in the month holds firm, we are on the cusp of a huge win for New Zealand and our future living standards. Freeing up New Zealanders from the type of 'command and control' central planning model will likely be the biggest thing the Luxon Government is to be remembered for. It is akin to the removal of import licences back in the 1980s.

So after seeing the speech, I asked Simon Court to come into our office and discuss the Government's workstream on replacing the Resource Management Act. 

Simon Court is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister for Infrastructure and the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform. First elected in 2023, prior to this Simon worked as a civil and environmental engineer with 23 years experience across the public and private sectors.

You can get this episode over on YouTube, or listen to the audio version over on our website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or iHeart Radio.

One more thing...

The Taxpayers' Union is made possible by the thousands of supporters who share our vision for a prosperous New Zealand with efficient, effective, and accountable government.

Your support means we can keep the lights on – as well as keep the pressure on Wellington on behalf of you – the taxpayer.

Thanks for making the work possible.

Have a great weekend! 😊

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

The Government has released its financial statements for fiscal year 2024 yesterday. Its financial statement saw a 1.8% increase in net core crown debt and interest charges (total charges more than $10 million dollars) despite higher tax revenue. They assert the higher levels of revenue were caused from ‘higher levels of inflation’.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“This is not a good look for this government’s first financial statement. They were elected on a promise to deliver real tax relief during a cost of living crisis that hardworking Kiwis are facing every single day.

“The numbers show that, while everyday New Zealanders have been struggling to meet the new realities caused from inflation, this Government has profited more than $14 million dollars. This is proof that their July milk toast tax relief just wasn’t enough.

“During a time of increased profits on the backs of the working-class, the Government has increased spending even more than its predecessor. Instead of higher revenues, greater debt and more interest on the back of taxpayers, it’s time the Government turns the table and delivers meaningful tax relief.”

Councillors today voted not to sell the airport shares, in what Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, says “could be shaping up to be an incredible act of economic sabotage.”

“Wellington City Council has already breached its debt limit, and as the airport shares have not been sold, officers are now warning the debt ceiling might need to triple.”

“Wellington households are already paying more than $800 a year in interest on the council’s debt, not to mention more than four grand servicing central government debt. Now that bill is set to skyrocket even higher”

“The answer was clear. The airport shares had to be sold and the money used to pay down some of the massive debts on Wellington’s books.”

“It’s about time the council stopped treating ratepayers like an endless piggybank and made some big choices to start putting their finances first. Starting with selling the airport, then slashing wasteful spending on back-office staff and vanity projects like the ever-growing cycle network.”

Andrea Vance reports in The Post today on the horribly, messily complicated sale (or not) of Wellington City Council’s airport shares.

“Whilst the Council’s complete dysfunction is widely understood, these new developments, as reported by Vance, are deeply disturbing” said Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross.

“Vance reports that the two unelected mana whenua representatives, who do not sit on the full council where the vote will take place, are threatening to pull out of an iwi-council partnership over the vote. This is a blatant attempt to strong-arm elected representatives with the threat of feigned offence if the Council does not vote the ‘right’ way.

“But even worse, Vance reports that representative Holden Hohaia has a vested interest in the outcome as his iwi has aspirations in buying the shares. That should automatically disqualify him from having any input into the process or deliberations. It is therefore fortunate that he has no actual vote on the sale at the full Council. However, if Vance is correct, his threats are inappropriate and call into question the wisdom of having unelected representatives on councils or council committees.”

The Reserve Bank has today slashed the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 50 basis points, to 4.75%.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“High interest rates have caused a bigger per-capita recession than the one experienced in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and the backsliding of Kiwis’ living standards doesn’t look set to stop any time soon.

“Growth is the only answer, and slashing interest rates could be the first step in the right direction. But the risk of long-term damage hasn’t gone away, and the Government needs to work to make sure this OCR cut pays off.

“Domestic inflation still hangs at 5.4% thanks to the reckless previous Government’s overspending. The current Government must double down on any efforts to cut wasteful expenditure, and any savings should be used to start chipping away at anti-growth tax policies like one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world.”

Health NZ’s predicted deficit by June 2025 has grown to $1.76 billion, ballooning from $1.4 billion only a few months ago.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“Overspending by $147 million a month is staggering. It’s clear the centralise-at-all-costs model has blown up in our faces, and serious decentralising reform is needed to keep our health system afloat.

“Our health system is in crisis, and the Government need to stop tinkering around the edges. Taxpayers need answers on how things went so wrong, but there’s no longer any choice except to try and find drastic savings.

“The new Commissioner needs to be ruthless about putting spin doctors and policy wonks on the chopping block, before the whole house of cards tumbles down.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) has spent $9,957,895 co-funding EV chargers across the public service.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“EECA funding half the public service’s EV charger bill is as ridiculous as it is useless, and it’s time to pull the plug on this nonsense. Whether its departments themselves or EECA funding these projects, it’s still taxpayers getting slapped with the bill.

“Back in August, we revealed the $2.2 million cost of the Ministry of Education’s EV charger escapades. We now know shockingly that pales in comparison to Health New Zealand’s around $8 million.

“Under the Emissions Trading Scheme, the Government could spend its entire budget on EV chargers and it wouldn’t reduce emissions by a single gram. This is subsidising already well-off EV drivers, taking people’s hard-earned money to waste on subsidising luxury travel.”

The New Zealand Defence Force-led inquiry to determine the cause of the HMNZS Manawanui’s sinking may be kept secret from the public.

“The reasons for the demise of the HMNZS Manawanui must be made known” said a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union, Sam Warren.

“The vessel itself was a $100 million asset to New Zealand and her strategic defence. Determining the cause of its sinking sits entirely within the public’s interest.

“Promises made by the Minister for a ‘short-and-sharp’ inquiry are only as good as the transparency that follows.

“Conjecture is running rampant on what might have caused such a costly loss to New Zealand. She was a 20-year old ship performing presumably a low-risk exercise. Was there a technical problem? Issues of poor procurement? Or was there something else that resulted in such a significant loss to the country?

“The Defence Force must reveal as soon as practicable the cause of this disaster so that the public can have confidence this will not be repeated."

Following yesterday’s strategy meeting, TVNZ has proposed outsourcing its daily operations and shutting down the 1News website and app in an attempt to find $30 million dollars in savings.

Commenting on this, Taxpayer’s Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“It’s nice that TVNZ is finally looking to cut costs and start showing an interest in cleaning up the financial boondoggle they have got themselves into.

“However, the timing of this announcement begs the question ‘why didn’t they decide to save $30 million earlier?’. Had they acted sooner, the public purse wouldn’t have needed to bear the brunt of TVNZ’s $85 million loss this year.

“This cut-cutting exercise is evidence they are running a failed business model. With the company burning through cash and now unable to deliver the services it is supposed to be providing New Zealanders, it’s time the government sells TVNZ before this fiasco gets even worse.”