The Taxpayers’ Union is releasing figures obtained from Creative NZ showing that author-turned-policy-critic, Eleanor Catton, has received tens of thousands of dollars worth of grants courtesy of New Zealand taxpayers.

Some might question why Ms Catton would have a go at New Zealand when it's Kiwi taxpayers who have largely funded her education and career.

In addition to the usual government support of students, Ms Catton has received special Creative NZ funding amounting to tens of thousands for her artistic endeavours. Ms Catton's most notable work, The Luminaries, was completed while being on a six-month residency funded by Creative New Zealand. Far from not supporting the arts, it appears that taxpayers have been rather generous.

Despite The Luminaries being a commercial success, taxpayers still paid for the book to be translated into three languages. If that's not generous support, what is?

We said in our media release on Wednesday that if Ms Catton isn’t thankful for the support by the New Zealand Government while she wrote The Luminaries, maybe she should use some of the substantial royalties to pay the money back.

Click 'read more' for the raw data.