The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is backing Federated Farmers’ alarm over draft resource management legislation that could open the door to effectively enabling a tax on water by stealth.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf says:

“This is exactly the kind of slippery, backdoor taxing power taxpayers have every right to be worried about. If the Government wants to fix planning laws, it should do so transparently, not sneak in the ability to tax water through future Ministerial decree.”

“Freshwater is already heavily regulated. Giving Ministers sweeping powers to auction rights or impose levies is not reform, it’s a blank cheque for future Governments to treat water as a cash cow.”

“Make no mistake: a water tax doesn’t just hit farmers. It flows straight through to higher food prices, higher costs for exporters, and higher bills for every New Zealander.”

“The whole point of replacing the Resource Management Act was to cut bureaucracy and restore property rights. Provisions like those allowing freshwater being auctioned, tendered, or levied undermine that promise and will only create more uncertainty, more compliance costs, and more distrust.”

“The Government must urgently clarify its intentions and scrap any clauses that allow freshwater rights to be effectively taxed. Kiwis were promised reform, not a new stealth tax.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to clarify media reports that he has struck a backroom deal with Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to exempt the Super City from the rates cap.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“Any backroom deals between the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Auckland would totally undermine what is already a watered-down policy.”

“As it stands, the Government’s so-called rates cap is more accurately described as a ban on rates freezes. And with implementation delayed until 2029, councils have another three years to jack up rates and set a high baseline for future rate hikes. All the cards are already being laid in councils’ favour.”

“As the Rates Cap Savings Dashboard shows, a two percent rates cap would have saved the average Auckland family $442 over the last three years, and that’s what the PM is signing away.”

“Exempting stormwater in Auckland would render a cap in the Super City meaningless. The Prime Minister needs to explain if he’s sabotaging his own Government’s policy, and if he intends to do the same for other councils across the country.”

Responding to today’s reporting that Minister Willis expects the current rise in inflation to be "a blip", Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“Minister Willis is sounding a lot like former US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who dismissed rising inflation under the Biden administration and got it completely wrong. Minister Willis’ claim that the increase is mainly due to international factors downplays the domestic pressures her Government can actually influence.”

“As Kiwibank recently noted, it is the heat in domestic inflation that is most disappointing. High electricity prices driven by a cosy power sector oligopoly, and grossly excessive local government rate rises are major contributors. The Government knows this, but its responses have been ineffective or delayed.”

“The Government’s excessive spending is also adding fuel to the fire. Continuous borrowing is building a mounting debt pile, with Total Crown borrowing now nearly $2 billion a month. Financial markets are already signalling expectations that the Reserve Bank may need to bring forward interest rate hikes later this year. Mortgage rates have already started rising on that basis, and economist Brad Olsen has speculated the Reserve Bank could even lift rates as soon as May.”

“Budget 2026 is Minister Willis’ last real chance to show spending restraint. Continued failure to rein in government spending will cement a record of fiscal ill-discipline. Claims of a surplus at the end of every forecast period will keep losing credibility, and international credit ratings agencies will take notice.”

The Taxpayers’ Union says the Government’s $10 million Ringatū marae announcement is election-year pork-barrel politics, funded through loosely-governed slush funds with little accountability to taxpayers.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“We heard the same excuses with the Murihiku Marae during COVID, when spending was dressed up as ‘job creation’. Now, in an election year, the Regional Infrastructure Fund is being treated as a political piggy bank.”

“This money is borrowed and signed off with minimal scrutiny, and future taxpayers will be left paying the bill, plus interest.”

“If the project genuinely stacks up, it should go through the normal Budget process, not be waved through under the cover of an election-year slush fund.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming news of another taxpayer-funded payout, this time to Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby, calling it the second golden handshake revealed in as many months.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“This is déjà vu for taxpayers. Just weeks after Adrian Orr’s golden goodbye was revealed, we’re now seeing another six-figure payout dressed up as a ‘restraint of trade’. It’s the same old story: public-sector insiders look after their own while taxpayers pick up the tab.”

“Most Kiwis don’t get a cushy payout when they leave their jobs, so why should bureaucrats who already get paid eye-watering salaries be treated any differently?”

“The power to stop this sits squarely with Minister Judith Collins. Anyone in the public service earning more than the Prime Minister should have no entitlement to a taxpayer-funded golden handshake, period.”

“Two golden handshakes in two months is two too many. The Minister needs to act now to protect taxpayers from footing the bill for more of these outrageous payouts.”

Taxpayers who agree that golden handshakes must end can sign the petition at taxpayers.org.nz/petition_end_golden_handshakes.

While frontline health workers are crying out for resources, public sector bosses are walking away with six-figure payouts— even when they fail.

These golden handshakes are bureaucratic back-handers at their worst. Taxpayer-funded farewell packages, legal settlements, and even private courses for disgraced officials are being dished out with zero accountability.

It’s time to change the law. Public servants paid more than Cabinet Ministers (c. $296,000pa) they should not be able to take unjustified dismissal claims against the Crown nor receive taxpayer-funded pay-outs to resign when they’ve done a bad job.

If senior public servants are to be paid the big bucks, they should accept the responsibility that comes with the role. 

⬇️ Add your name below. ⬇️

On the news Health NZ paid for outgoing Chief Executive Margie Apa to attend a governance course — after she’d already resigned.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Co-ordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

“Margie Apa was already one of the highest-paid public servants in the country — pocketing $895,000 this year, nearly $400,000 more than the Prime Minister. Now taxpayers are being forced to top that up with a golden handshake on the way out the door.”

“This wasn’t some internal training session. This was a career-boosting governance course — funded by you and me — for a Chief Executive who had one foot out the door."

"Health NZ calls it ‘outplacement support’. We call it a waste of money.”

“While hospitals are under pressure and frontline workers are crying out for resources, the top brass are looking after their own. It’s bureaucratic back-handers at its worst.”

"Its time to end the days of public service Golden Handshakes."

The Taxpayers’ Union is throwing its weight behind calls for the powers of Tauranga’s unelected Commissioners to be curtailed in the run-up to the return of democracy to the city, and urges Local Government Minister Simeon Brown to step in.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:

“Unelected Commissioners in Tauranga have spent years tossing around ratepayers’ money with reckless abandon, all safe in the knowledge that they will never be accountable to the rate-paying public.

“Although it is three-and-a-half years too late, democracy will be returning to Tauranga this year; the Commissioners cannot be allowed to put that in jeopardy. The long-term plan will set the city’s course for the next decade, and this must only be decided by the elected representatives of Tauranga residents.

“We’re already seeing the damage at a national level that an outgoing government can inflict by signing long-term contracts that they know will be overturned. This is damaging to both business confidence and to the public’s back pockets, and this cannot be allowed to be inflicted on the city by Commissioners without an electoral mandate.”

Hot on the heels of Argentinian President Javier Milei insisting on honesty from Argentinian officials, the Taxpayers’ Union has today launched a petition calling on the Government to ban public servants from using the word free when referring to taxpayer-funded public services.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Describing public services as ‘free’ when New Zealanders all across the country are paying for them through their taxes is misleading and deceptive.

“There are strong arguments for the taxpayer to cover the costs of some services upfront, but to dishonestly label those services as free is disrespectful to the hardworking Kiwis footing the bill. It is political disinformation, and it’s time it stopped.

“Words have power. Government agencies misleading Kiwis erodes public trust in our institutions.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is demanding accountability from the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Te Urewera board following a ruling by the High Court that the burning and removal of the huts in Te Urewera was unlawful.

According to information obtained under the Official Information Act, The Department of Conservation continues to resource the operation of Te Urewera to the tune of around $2.1m a year given to Te Ura Taumata, and also pays over $100,000 annually to the Te Urewera Baord to manage the operation.

Commenting on Te Urewera’s management and operational issues, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Since Te Urewera was handed over to Ngai Tūhoe nearly a decade ago, taxpayers have coughed up tens of millions of dollars to resource the upkeep and development of the area, yet the governing body has now been found to have failed to adhere to its obligations under the Te Urewera Act, destroyed the majority of critical huts in the area, and has conducted all of its work without an operational plan for the last two years.

“There have already been growing concerns from conservationists over the demise in monitoring of endangered bird species as well as insufficient pest control, but with the governing body now actively disregarding their legal obligations, it’s clear that the current leadership arrangement and operational structure is simply untenable.

“In the first instance, DOC’s director general must be held accountable for what has evidently been an appalling failure to oversee the management of Te Urewera. Additionally, an independent review into Te Urewera’s finances and operations must be conducted to determine whether the current monetary allocation has been spent responsibly and in accordance with legal obligations.

“As it stands taxpayers are essentially being forced to fund an operation with no plan, no checks and balances, and no evidence of success. It is vital that if Te Urewera continues to be resourced by taxpayers, it’s board and operational entity must deliver tangible results and effectively carry out its legal obligations. Currently, to the detriment of taxpayers, it appears to be doing neither.”