Responding to reports that the Government is considering establishing something similar to Australia’s Business Growth Fund, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“The Government needs to stop speculating with taxpayers’ funds."

“This looks eerily similar to Callaghan Innovation, which was disestablished last year because it had become an unfocused and underperforming agency. It invested too broadly and in too many companies that ultimately failed or moved offshore."

“What would be different about this proposal? The problem this fund appears to address is that the companies under consideration cannot access growth capital. The question that must be asked, and answered first, is: why?"

“The suggestion is that they are too small, but size alone should not deter rational investors."

“The real reason is much more likely to be that their returns are viewed as too low, given the risk of any capital investment. If banks and venture capitalists are unwilling to invest in these firms, why should taxpayers be exposed to these risks?"

“Minister Willis has previously been sceptical about governments attempting to ‘pick winners’ — and the Taxpayers’ Union is in complete agreement. Governments have a very poor track record at picking winners, so why is she now considering trying doing just that?”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act requestthat $161,985.55 of taxpayer funding has been used to subsidise insulation upgrades in Summerset's privately-run Wanganui and Havelock North retirement villages.

The funding was provided through the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, with payments made to contractors installing insulation in licence-to-occupy units within retirement villages.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

“On paper this funding is designed to help vulnerable households, but in practice it sees taxpayer money flowing into private retirement village developers.”

“This is corporate welfare by another name. Residents may receive the benefit, but the long-term gains sit with a large private operator.”

“The end result is public money being used to improve assets owned by a company that reported $259.7 million in profit after tax last year, while retirees who genuinely need the support miss out on $160,000 of funding.”

“Our elderly deserve support in retirement, but a $9.2 billion company should be able to fund upgrades to its own units, especially when residents themselves don’t share in the upside.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming today’s announcement from Judith Collins that the Government is doling out more corporate welfare via Callaghan Innovation instead of cutting waste and delivering tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders.Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Any hope that this Government would be one for the taxpayer rather than caving in to crony capitalism and its special interests is fast going out the window.

“Grants like these simply pick winners by gambling with taxpayer money rather than allowing the market to determine what businesses should succeed based on their ability to provide a product people want at a price people are willing to pay.

“Arguments that we need more taxes, such as the app tax, ring hollow when millions of dollars are frittered away giving millions in handouts to those who need it least. Wasteful spending like this simply fuels the cost-of-government crisis, driving up inflation for the struggling taxpayer.

“Judith Collins and Christopher Luxon have some serious explaining to do – are they going to be a government that supports free markets and private enterprise or one that puts a select few special interests ahead of the taxpayer? We urge the ACT Party to stick with their historically principled stance of opposing corporate welfare and push from inside Cabinet for this kind of buffoonery to come to an end.”

The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the Government’s 100 day plan as a good start but is calling them to add issuing stop work notices for all corporate welfare programmes to the list.

For a start, this should include the EECA and Callaghan Innovation which currently have a large number of applications for funding open and closing soon. Once this money is committed, it will be wasted.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, says:

“Funds such as many of those from EECA have the stated goal of decarbonisation and reducing emissions yet don’t make a shred of difference due to the fact that the industries these grants are provided to are already covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme. This means that any reduction in emissions from recipient companies will simply free up credits to be used elsewhere.

“Schemes such as these pile all of the costs onto taxpayers with bureaucrats picking winners for no environmental benefit.

“Corporate welfare schemes such as this are a complete waste of taxpayer money and should be a prime target for a government that claims to care about cutting waste. At the very least, an order should be given that no further funding should be committed to until a review of the effectiveness of these corporate welfare schemes has been conducted.

“We are pleased to see the new Government taking positive steps towards cutting waste and repealing bad law, we hope that the exclusion of cuts to corporate welfare is simply an oversight, not a foreshadowing of another three years of continued cronyism.”

The Taxpayers' Union can reveal that a $6 million taxpayer-funded hydrogen truck initiative has failed to deliver a single truck, despite promises that they would be on the road by 2022.

Oliver Bryan, Investigations Coordinator at the Taxpayers’ Union, expressed dismay, stating, "It's an affront to taxpayers that a project heavily funded by the outdated COVID Response and Recovery Fund has yielded nothing but empty promises. The corporate welfare for a project that wouldn’t even reduce emissions, due to transport emissions already being governed by the Emissions Trading Scheme, is bad enough. However, the fact that the government has nothing to show for it at all is even worse."

"This is not merely a case of unfortunate delays – it's a glaring example of misused public funds on a project that appears ill-prepared and poorly executed. This initiative should never have been funded in the first place, but after its clear failings, this money should be returned to taxpayers."

"The new government needs to intervene immediately. Every day that this project continues without results is another day taxpayers are left footing the bill for a scheme that was never going to be effective."

The Taxpayers’ Union is questioning the Government’s decision to provide corporate welfare to the wood processing sector, both in the form of direct hand-outs and the Government playing bank manager by providing loans when this could easily be left to private sector banks.

Taxpayers’ Union Deputy Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Too often we see the Government branching out into areas that are not core government functions and where Ministers and bureaucrats have little to no expertise. What does the Government know that banks don’t when it comes to making sensible investment decisions? This is simply more corporate welfare providing handouts to business at a time when Kiwis are struggling with the cost of living.

“Not only are these spending decisions distortionary by arbitrarily encouraging more investment in some sectors to the detriment of others but they also unnecessarily place private risk on taxpayers who are left out of pocket if things go wrong.

“If the Government is concerned about the lack of investment in growing industries, perhaps they should look at the root causes of the problem – high interest rates made necessary by out-of-control government spending and overly-restrictive overseas investment rules that make it so difficult to get foreign capital into the country.

“The only tree that the Government should be focused on is the self-proclaimed ‘Tāne Mahuta’, Adrian Orr, who has consistently failed to keep inflation in the target range and whose Large Scale Asset Purchase programme has seen taxpayers foot the bill for billions of dollars in losses." 

The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Cabinet's decision to provide yet another taxpayer-funded handout to Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL), this time to the tune of $7 million.

Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves, said:

“We warned earlier in the year that taxpayer-funded bailouts for failing businesses would be a slippery slope and unfortunately we have been vindicated.

“Every dollar that the Government wastes on corporate handouts is a dollar that first had to be taxed from someone else. While the Government may claim that they are protecting jobs in the ski industry, the taxes to pay for this corporate welfare costs jobs in other industries.

“The Government would be better to let RAL go under and allow a new buyer to come in as a replacement – including leaving the door open for an international investor. This would allow a financially viable operator to take over the ski field while also saving taxpayers from funding unnecessary corporate welfare in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“Once businesses realise that they can get money by coming cap in hand to the Government, the potential for pork-barrel politics and back-room deals is increased as businesses begin to respond to Ministers instead of markets.”

The Taxpayers’ Union has condemned the Government’s decision to allocate $160 million in rebates to the gaming sector over the next four years – calling it ‘corporate welfare’.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“It was quite incredible to watch the gaming sector lobbyists in the budget lock up celebrate the ‘win’ for their wealthy clients. Gaming, now joins the film industry as an exalted industry that somehow justifies special treatment with politicians taxing ordinary Kiwis more to fund corporate welfare schemes.

“Corporate welfare to help ‘grow’ an industry is a false economy. Just like film, these companies get addicted to the rebates and subsides. Even if the industry grows, so too does the subsidy. 

“Rather than pick winners, a far better economic strategy would be to slash the subsides for gaming and film and deliver every business and entrepreneur tax relief. Maybe then our company tax rate wouldn’t be among the highest in the world.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling out Government Greenwashing in its justification of spending at least $182.5 million of taxpayer dollars over the next four years on environmental subsidies that will fail to reduce net emissions. 

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said:

“The Government loves to crow about the action it is taking to tackle climate change, but today’s announcement that the Government plans to throw at least another $182.5 million of taxpayer dollars on environmental subsidies will not reduce net carbon emissions by a single gram. 

“Under New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), any reduction in carbon emissions in these areas will simply free up carbon credits for other less efficient industries to emit more. The Government should allow the ETS to do its job and ensure that reduce net carbon emissions in the most efficient way possible and at the minimum cost to Kiwis.”

“Every electric car that reduces transport emissions, simply frees up ETS credits for emissions in other areas of the economy. It’s literally undermining the whole purpose of the ETS – to find the most cost efficient ways to meet client targets – for the sake of political expediency.”

“Justifying spending with claims that it ‘reduces emissions’ is dishonest greenwashing. If it was done by a private company, the Commerce Commission would be investigating for deceptive conduct.”

Hopping mad: COVID-19 funding to ‘destroy’ wallabies for $153,000 a pop 🦘🔫 

After almost six months’ worth of excuses, transfers and extensions on an Official Information Act request sent back in November, your humble Taxpayers' Union has revealed that taxpayers and Otago ratepayers have forked out more than $2.76 million and employed over 26,000 hours of work to 'destroy' (that’s the term the bureaucrats use) just… 18 wallabies! That's a kill cost of $153,000 per wallaby. 

This was just one of the ‘Jobs for Nature’ projects funded by the COVID slush fund. Jobs for Nature was allocated $1.2 billion – that's $614 for every kiwi household –  as a ‘make work’ scheme when the Government feared we would see mass job losses as a result of the pandemic.

Despite record-low unemployment and an economy overcooked by Government spending, the fund has continued to dish out taxpayer money to ineffective ‘conservation’ projects at an average cost of around $200,000 per 'nature job'. 

There is still $167 million yet to be spent: We say this should stop. 

Jordan spoke about this wasteful spending with Newstalk ZB’s Heather Du Plessis-Allan.

The story was also covered in the Otago Daily Times and Stuff’s Dominion Post. 

Hopping to it: officials defend spending with misleading spin 😵‍💫

John Walsh of Biosecurity New Zealand (the government agency responsible for this project) defended the spending arguing “it’s not wasted money”. Walsh was quoted in Stuff newspapers as saying the kill count no way represented “all the wallabies killed by the programme” and due to wallabies’ nocturnal nature and the remote landscapes, aerial drops were often the best method of killing. 

We called out these misleading comments pointing to the official information response provided by his agency that showed that no aerial drops were actually used in Otago...

It is clear that this project, alongside many others supported through the Jobs for Nature fund, have no ambition in delivering meaningful outcomes for New Zealand's environment on a restrained budget.

A lot more to come... 🤫

This is just our second investigation into this enormous fund. This is just the tip of the iceberg for a much greater raft of unnecessary waste...

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, I looked at the system of "co-government" in Northern Ireland and considered the parallels with some of the recent proposals here in New Zealand. Three Waters, the proposed Resource Management Act replacement, and the Government's so-called 'Review into the Future for Local Government' all reserve places on governance bodies for unelected mana whenua representatives.

There are two major problems with co-government models. First, is the creation of veto power. Where one community can block a proposal – even if it has majority support – simply because it disagrees with it. This veto power means that Northern Ireland is currently without a government and it is almost impossible to get anything done. 

Secondly, there is the problem of disconnecting decision making from democratic accountability. By reserving spaces on governing bodies for certain groups, it means that, however they might vote in elections, people are not always able to effect meaningful change as the people making the decisions remain the same no matter how much voters disagree with their policies.

The lesson from Northern Ireland is, however well-intentioned, co-government rarely works in practice. It can bring government to a standstill, undermines democratic accountability, and often exacerbates the divisions it is designed to heal. If New Zealand wants to avoid similar paralysis, it should think twice before embarking on this path.

You can read my full piece over on the NZ Herald's website here.

Councils funnelling millions into failing regional flight services 🛫💰

A Taxpayers’ Union investigation revealed that several councils are forking out millions of ratepayer dollars to subsidise a private airline and the wealthy individuals using it.

Across Kapiti Coast, Whakatane and Whanganui, ratepayers have been forced to foot the bill for more than $2 million in corporate welfare – benefiting only a tiny number of ratepayers who use the services. Since 2018, Air Chathams has been given almost $1 million dollars by Kāpiti Coast District Council along with a $500,000 interest-free loan. Whanganui and Whakatane district councils also coughed up hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans bringing the total value of welfare to more than $2 million.

Kāpiti Coast airport would need to see a 1,500 per cent increase in passengers in order for it to be financially viable, something even its own Chief Executive recognised.

In a blog post this week, one of our young interns, Alex Murphy, criticised the Council's decision to fund these unsustainable routes. You can read the full post here.

One more thing 🙏

We’re proud to be a truly people-powered organisation, and it will only be through the generosity of thousands of supporters like you chipping in what you can that we’ll be able to keep up our work promoting our mission of Lower Taxes, Less Waste, and More Accountability.

If you can, please click the button below to make a donation today so we can keep growing our movement, and fighting for a better deal from Wellington (and town halls!).

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,

Callum Purves Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

Newstalk ZB Midday Edition: 04 April 2023 – Lobbying Review (02:05)

NZ Herald Bryce Ewards: Victory for transparency in lobbying reforms

The Northern Advocate Future of Kerikeri’s Turner Centre up in air as council mulls ownership

Stuff Air Chathams received more than $1 million from Kāpiti Coast council

NZ Herald Māori holds balance of power in new poll

The Time Online NEW POLL: Māori Party holds the balance of power

NZ City Another poll points to Te Pati Maori holding the keys to Parliament at this year's election

Te Ao Māori News Te Pāti Māori 'kingmakers' in latest political poll

Newstalk ZB Morning Edition: 09 April 2023 – New Poll (00:38)

Newstalk ZB "We're very clear on our priorities": Deputy PM on Labour's plan for re-election

Newstalk ZB "We've got a fantastic future ahead of us": National's Chris Luxon shares six-month plan for election

Newstalk ZB Politics Central: Will staff misconduct derail Chris Hipkins' chances for re-election? (15:40)

Waatea News Te Pāti Māori Kingmakers must have immediate bottom lines for every New Zealander

Newstalk ZB Auckland Transport's new CEO plans to increase public transport use by 20 percent

The Spinoff The edge of a knife, six months to voting day

The Working Group with Shane Te Pou, Matthew Hooton & Damien Grant

NZ Herald A lesson in co-governance from Northern Ireland – Callum Purves

Kapiti Observer Revamped Three Waters to create 10 water management entities in an effort to give local governments more influence over massive infrastructure upgrades

NZ Herald Frontline police told to ‘consider necessity’ of bail arrests as NZ’s largest prison nears capacity

Q+A “Nobody died because of lack of empathy”: Auckland mayor Wayne Brown (18:44)

Newstalk ZB Taxpayers' Union Executive Director 'astounded' by $2.7 million cost to eradicate 18 wallabies

Stuff Govt officials stand by $2.76m wallaby spend in Otago for 18 kills - 'It's not wasted money'

Otago Daily Times MPI defends $2.76m cost of Otago wallaby control

Stuff Ruth Richardson: The taxation problem I should have fixed 33 years ago

Wairarapa Times-Age Carterton’s rates are on the rise

Newsroom Gore council war could outlast inquiry

Newsroom Kawerau leads small councils’ fight against new amalgamations