Former Green MP sucks the kumara 🍠 | Poll 📈 | Ministry $1m Treaty workshops 🎓 | Labour want return to Orr-inflation 🎈
Hi Friend,
Former Green Party MP defends $156k kūmara patch - says 'more money' needed for 'Māori science'
We've been bombarded with emails on yesterday's exposé on the $156,132 "science challenge" 3 by 3 metre kūmara patch, funded through Massey University.
Even the media are digging in.
Taxpayer Update has occasionally criticised our friends in the media for being too chicken reluctant to call out wasteful spending when it touches on cultural matters, but not today.
Last night's Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive dug into the story, and snuffed out a case-in-point example of the problem of Wellington insiders pretending cultural and mystical studies should be put on equal standing (and funding!) as genuine science.
Former Green MP Gareth Hughes told listeners that far from criticising this spending, taxpayers should be "celebrating this Māori science".
He complained that not enough money was going to these sorts of projects and cited OECD data suggesting New Zealand is underinvesting in research and development.
That last bit is true, but growing kūmara to give to the "sky gods" probably wasn't the R&D the OECD has in mind...
Unfortunately for Gareth, Jordan was on the same panel – and he took the bait.
Did Gareth Hughes 'suck the kūmara', or did Jordan come off second best?
Poor old Gareth got ripped into. Have a listen - who came off second best? 😬
🚨 The poll 🚨
This month's Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll is attracting media attention before it's even hit the inbox!
Yesterday, as is our usual courtesy, your humble Taxpayers' Union spoke to the various political party leaders/offices and gave them the embargoed results in advance of today's public release.
But colour me shocked – it turns out politicians can't keep a secret! 😲
Since yesterday evening, we've been fielding calls from journalists who all seemed to know more about the poll numbers of a particular party than even our own team.
For the avoidance of doubt, we don't play favourites with the monthly poll, leak, or confirm numbers to journalists.
This, though, is the first monthly poll we can recall where someone in one of the political parties has clearly decided to get stories out there in advance.
This morning, Mike Hosking suggested there was a whiff of skulduggery going on. Thankfully, he confirmed on air later that it's not from us!
Centre-left with narrowest of lead in new Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll 📈
Today's Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll sees Labour up 0.3 points to 34.4 percent, National down 2.9 points to 28.4 percent with no major changes for the small parties.
Unfortunately for National, it's their lowest party vote result since November 2021. Ouch.
The Greens are up 0.2 points to 10.5 percent, NZ First are down 0.8 points to 9.7 percent, ACT up 0.8 points to 7.5 percent, and Te Pāti Māori up 0.3 points to 3.2 percent.
Converting these results to seats in Parliament, compared to last month Labour gains 1 seat to 44, while National lose 3 to 36.
NZ First and the Greens would both remain on 13 seats each, ACT gains 2 seats to 10, and Te Pāti Māori remains on 4 seats.
This means that the centre-Left bloc could form the next government if an election was held today – but with the finest possible margin of 61 to the centre-Right bloc's 59.
Each month, our pollsters ask participants which party best matches each of these descriptions:
- Can manage the economy, spending and debt
- Can provide a reliable and accessible health system
- Will reduce poverty in New Zealand
- Can manage inflation and the cost of living
- Will provide a high quality education system
- Will not increase taxes on you
- Will make people feel safer in their communities
- Will reduce wasteful government spending
- Will make housing more affordable
- Will protect the environment
On those issues, National leads Labour as the party best on the Economy and Spending, Labour has a lead as the preferred party on Health, Poverty, Inflation, Education, Safety, Housing, Environment, and not increasing taxes.
We tend to leave the interpretation of the poll numbers to others (a poll is a poll - our job is to just present the numbers), but we can't help but note that a majority of voters appear to believe Labour, not National are best at not increasing taxes.
That's been a consistent result for a few months now, and runs counter to all the new taxes introduced by the Hipkins/Ardern Government, National's own messaging, and Labour's proposed unfair capital gains tax on inflation.
Incredible how short voters' memories are - and demonstrates why the Government needs to stick with its 'no new taxes' promise (as we've said all along!)
How to get the "insider info"... 🤫
In addition to what's on our website, we also send a comprehensive polling report covering the detailed insights (demographic breakdowns, party leader favourable/unfavourable information, etc) to our Taxpayer Caucus.
More information (and how to sign up) is detailed here.
Ministry of Education’s million-dollar Treaty workshops ✏️
Over the weekend, our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys, was in the NZ Herald exposing yet another example of bureaucratic excess - and this one comes with a near seven-figure price tag.
Rhys revealed the Ministry of Education spent $987,772.60 putting 1,076 staff through a 10 hour online Te Tiriti o Waitangi course.
That’s nearly $1 million not spent on frontline education or kids - the people who should actually be in the classroom.
When you add salary costs ($479,392.60) to course fees ($508,380), the total comes to more than $900 per staff member.
That’s $900 per staff member for a course run by the Groundworks group, who have campaigned against removing Māori wards and the Treaty Principles Bill.
I'm sure these bureaucrats were getting a fair, unbiased lesson from these lobbyists...
Rhys unearthed the staff satisfaction survey on the course. It asked participants to rank "excellent", "fair", "good", and "very good" — in that order.
When the feedback scale runs from positive to very positive, how exactly is the Ministry measuring whether this delivered value for money? The Minister clearly knew the answer they wanted, with certain views on the Treaty not allowed.
Fact checking the "growing inequality" claims 🧐
This week, British left-wing activist and economist Gary Stevenson has been touring New Zealand media, preaching about how terrible people have it and how New Zealand needs to hammer the rich with things like asset taxes.
And we often hear that "the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer" with inequality is getting worse and worse. Elsewhere that might be true - but does it apply in God's own?
So this week, our Policy Analyst, Austin, was tasked with the question of whether income inequality is actually getting worse. His briefing paper, The Myth of Rising Income Inequality, factchecks those on the left (we're looking at you Chlöe) hitching their cart to Stevenson's talking points.
Based on work by Treasury officials on income distribution from 2007 to 2023, he found inequality peaked around 2012–13 and has since fallen, leaving it lower in 2023 than at the start of the period.
The findings undermine the narrative that inequality is spiralling out of control.
But Friend, don't mistake the findings as suggesting Kiwis aren’t feeling the squeeze. They certainly are!
New Zealand is getting relatively poorer against countries we usually compare ourselves to.
And our national income is weakening. Even under the current Government, GDP-per capita (what the economy produces, per person) is lower – despite being out of recession.
That means wages are low, the world is expensive, and the 'costs of living' are real.
But no one taxed a country into prosperity. And it's why measures to get Government out of the way and incentivise entrepreneurship, innovation, and capital investment are soimportant.
Straw man arguments from those who write for the UK Guardian newspaper, but apply the theories to New Zealand, don't help.
Have Labour learned nothing? Edmonds announces re-heat of cost-of-living RBNZ inflation bonanza 🤯💸
Labour’s Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds has suggested a future Labour Government would shift the Reserve Bank *back* to the model that saw the cost of living blow under former Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr.
Rather than having the Reserve Bank solely target inflation (i.e. keep prices low) Labour want to reintroduce Grant Robertson's “dual mandate” – adding a second objective of “maximum sustainable employment” alongside controlling inflation.
We’ve tried it before. It didn’t end well. As our Head of Policy James put it:
“This would be a disastrous mistake. Kiwis can clearly see the damage that the dual mandate inflicted, and households and businesses are still suffering from the cost-of-living crisis.”
Labour likes to boast that Edmonds is the smartest MP in their caucus. Eeek.
Taxpayer Talk: NZ Initiative’s Roger Partridge on why asset recycling is the answer to NZ's infrastructure ♻️🚧
This week on Taxpayer Talk, Chair of the NZ Initiative Roger Partridge joins Peter Williams to discuss their report Renovating the Nation, arguing New Zealand could unlock more than $24 billion for essential infrastructure by recycling mature Crown-owned commercial assets.
Roger explains how redirecting capital tied up in government-owned companies such as Air New Zealand, Kiwibank and the mixed ownership electricity generators could help fund hospitals, schools, roads and water systems — without raising taxes or increasing public debt.
It's an interesting listen and available wherever you normally get your podcasts.
That's all for now Friend. Have a great weekend.
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PS. The kūmara story is just the tip of the iceberg. These sorts of stories - waste hidden behind fancy names like the National Science Challenges - are layered in departments across Government. But we can’t expose these stories if we can't keep the lights on. Thank you to all of those who make it possible.
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