Taxpayer Update: Winston v Christopher 🥊 | Surprise results on India FTA 🇮🇳 | Govt logo bonanza 👨🎨
Dear Supporter,
For the politicians, it's all go up in Waitangi this week, and where the politicians go, your money is sure to follow – whether you like it or not.
"We've done it for decades"
— Winston Peters
Last week was a case in point, as politicians assembled at the Rātana church:
As reported by Radio New Zealand: Government announces $10m for Ringatū marae in Bay of Plenty
The government has announced $10 million for Ringatū marae in Bay of Plenty.
[...]
Earlier, Winston Peters also pushed back on the idea such funding could constitute a political bribe.
"No... you should understand that when we've come here, we've always left a gift. It's the Māori way and we've done it for decades in successive governments," he said.
“A gift” in this case appears to be a classic case of pork barrelling - that is, using government government fund for projects in specific electorates you hope to persuade to vote your way at the next election.
And Ringatū isn’t the only case. We’ve totalled more than $73 million in such spending this year alone. If politicians keep on at this rate, that would be $1.4 billion - $700 per household - spent by the election. More on this next week...
So your humble Taxpayers' Union will be up in Waitangi – spreading the word of fiscal restraint to monitor the election year pork barrelling sorry, ‘gifts'.
India Free Trade Agreement: What's Actually in it? 🕵️♂️
Just before Christmas, the Government announced it had reached a free trade agreement with India aimed at boosting access for Kiwi exporters into one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies.
But politically, it’s proving complicated. New Zealand First triggered the coalition’s “agree to disagree” clause, signalling it won’t support the enabling legislation when it comes before Parliament. That leaves National in the unusual position of needing Labour’s votes to get the deal across the line.
And in recent days it's got even messier with National and New Zealand First at logger heads at what the agreement even contains – and what concessions have been made on immigration.
As proponents of transparency, our chief nerd Head of Policy, James, was straight into the media, calling for the obvious way to settle it one way or the other. Responding to the public disagreement, James said:
“Kiwis shouldn’t have to rely on hearsay and rumour to work out what their Government has committed them to.”
“When two of New Zealand’s most senior politicians are sniping at each other over a deal the public still can’t read, it’s absurd to not give Kiwis the chance to work out the truth for themselves.”
“Regardless of the content, the agreement has already been signed in New Zealanders’ name. What’s the harm in some public accountability?”
With all that going on, we thought we'd ask our Polsters to find out what Kiwis make of the deal.
Surprise Poll Report: Kiwis generally supportive of India FTA 🇮🇳🛍️
While Mr Luxon and Mr Peters might be at loggerheads, public opinion is far less divided.
As part of January's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll, Kiwi voters were asked if they thought the recently concluded trade deal was “overall good or bad for New Zealand”.
Just over half answered yes (54 percent), while 17 percent thought it was bad and 29 percent were unsure ‒ leading to a net approval rating of +37 percent.
You can read the coverage here over on The Post.
What surprised many was the party breakdown. The poll suggests that the India FTA is broadly popular with voters of all parties except for Te Pāti Māori. That means that even among NZ First supporters, more people back the agreement than oppose it.
Why we’re calling out the Government’s logo addiction 📰🎨
Last year, we crowned Brooke van Velden a "Taxpayer Hero" for her intervention at the Department for Internal Affairs, when she called out designers for wasting 50 hours of staff time on redesigning their logo to change it back to English. Van Velden even offered to re-do the logo herself on Photoshop so her department wouldn't waste the money!
If only other Ministers took van Velden's approach!
From NZ Qualification Authority’s $2.9 million logo and website blowout to six-figure “brand refreshes” across the public service, agencies keep burning taxpayer cash on new colours and slogans.
The frustrating part is that there’s already a fix: Since 2021, official guidelines say agencies should use the New Zealand Coat of Arms as their logo. One government. One symbol. No cost.
But even the Public Service Commission – ironically tasked with telling government agencies to simply use the Government crest – found an excuse to become what's called a 'dual branded' agency (someone has to keep the graphic design industry employed!).
So the rules are being ignored, “interpreted”, or quietly dodged, and taxpayers keep paying. We say, enough is enough.
With the Government debt at nearly $140,000 per household (tick tock, tick tock), trimming totally unnecessary costs like Government logo rebrands would be an easy win.
So we're pushing for the government to finally enforce its own rules, andit was great to see our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys, out there in the media giving it with both barrels.
👉 Read Rhy's full piece in The Post here.
Speaking of wasting money on new logos (we’re looking at you, Whanganui District Council) 👀🙈
Tory, as I was drafting this Taxpayer Update, yet another pointless logo change came through, this time for Whanganui District Council!
Whanganui spent at least $61,800 to ditch their coat of arms in favour of a trendy new logo.
It's a real shame too, as the Mayor of Whanganui is usually pretty solid. Andrew Tripe is a leading voice within local government, supporting our call for the Government to Cap Rates Now and walks the talk: delivering the lowest rates hike in the entire country, according to our 2025 Rates Dashboard. We’ve even interviewed Tripe on Taxpayer Talk.
Just between you and I, your humble Taxpayers' Union hear from a well informed source in the River City that this ridiculous, arrogant decision to waste ratepayer money on a logo came from none other than the Council's new interim CEO, Barbara McKerrow. 🤦♂️
We warned Whanganui residents in August that McKerrow would be a disaster. The definition of the local government sector is looking after insiders, no matter the incompetence. McKerrow has a history of rates rises and dysfunction at Wellington City Council.
We certainly hope that this isn’t a sign of things to come...
Have you signed our petition to avoid double-charging on road tolls? 📋🚘
Talking of being forced to pay additional charges, last week we launched our petition to stop double-charging road users and keep tolling fair. We’ve had a great response with more than 6500 signatures since the petition launched.
To be clear, we’re not campaigning against road tolling or user-pays models.
Our call is for the basic principles of tolling to remain:
- Tolls should not be applied to existing roads - only new ones.
- Road income should be used to fund new toll roads – not just fund maintenance of existing roads (which is what RUC and petrol taxes are for)
- Free alternatives should remain – and people shouldn't be forced to use a toll road.
On Monday, our Policy Analyst, Austin, led our submission to Parliament's Transport and Infrastructure Committee, laying out our concerns in more detail.
The main issue with the Government's proposed law changes is that it allows for ‘corridor tolling’, which means that road users could be charged for roads they didn’t even use, effectively just creating a new tax.
You can watch the submission here.
As it stands, the Bill allows toll revenue to be spent on maintaining existing roads, roads you have already paid for through Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges, effectively double-charging motorists.
Add your name to our petition calling for keeping tolling fair, voluntary, and genuinely user-pays.
Goodbye to our Aussie intern, Declan 🦘🇦🇺
The best thing about the Taxpayers' Union is the stream of bright young people who come through as interns.
Last weekend, we said a fond farewell to our Aussie intern Declan, who has been working in the Wellington office on scholarship from the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation in Perth.
Declan is a law student with a strong interest in fiscal responsibility and public law, making him a great fit for the Taxpayers’ Union. You can read his blog post about his experience with us here (we may have bribed him with a chocolate fish to say some nice things...)
During his time here, Declan was instrumental in developing our Councillor Pay Rise Dashboard and revealed that while ratepayers faced further unaffordable rates hikes, on average, councillors had their pay packets increased by 9.81 percent between 2025 and 2026, while mayors saw an 8.53 percent boost to their pay.
He’s also been developing a new briefing paper comparing fiscal management strategies at town halls across the country – more on that soon...
We’ve loved having Declan in the office and can’t wait to see what he goes on to do when he completes his studies.
Thanks for making it possible ❤️
None of our work, waste investigations, campaigns, or internships would be possible without the generous financial support of tens of thousands of New Zealanders who back our mission of Lower Taxes, Less Waste, More Accountability.
To each and everyone of you, thank you for all that you do.
Have a great long weekend!
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PS. It's February already, and that means next week we'll be releasing the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll. Keep an eye on your inbox for some interesting numbers... 😬