Responding to National’s Primary Sector Growth Plan, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“National’s plan to get the Beehive out of farming should be welcomed. The agricultural sector is the backbone of New Zealand’s export economy, and any way that the ease of doing business can be increased will only make us more competitive on the world stage.

“Removing the consenting process from low-risk activities such as orcharding and water storage is a common-sense way of immediately reducing the bureaucracy faced by hardworking farmers. However, the fact that National recognize how burdensome this red tape is highlights that the RMA is clearly no longer fit for purpose.

“Removing consenting requirements from these sectors is a great start, but it is just a sticking plaster solution and doesn’t go nearly far enough. The RMA must be significantly reformed to unleash New Zealand’s growth potential.”

A new Taxpayers' Union – Curia poll in the Northland Electorate has National’s Grant McCallum reclaiming the seat with 43% of the electorate vote. Labour's incumbent Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime is currently on 18%, while New Zealand First's Shane Jones makes up 13%.

Among the other parties’ candidates, Matt King of Democracy NZ and Reina Penney for the Green party sit at 4%, ACT's Mark Cameron is sitting at 2% of the electorate vote as is Te Pāti Māori despite the party not standing a Northland candidate. 12% of voters are still undecided or refused to answer. 

As a proportion of the decided votes the breakdown is as follows:

• National’s Grant McCallum: 49% 
• Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime: 20%
• New Zealand First’s Shane Jones: 15%
• Green’s Reina Penney: 5%
• Democracy NZ’s Matt King: 5%
• ACT’s Mark Cameron: 3%
• Te Pāti Māori (no candidate): 2%
• Others: 2%

The poll of 400 respondents was conducted on Sunday, 10 September, 2023. The full results, including the most important local issues for voters, are available here. 

Taxpayers' Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, says: 

"This poll again shows another sharp swing away from Labour, after they unexpectedly won this seat at the last election from the then National Party MP, Matt King. This doesn't necessarily spell bad news for electorate MP Willow-Jean Prime who will likely make it back into Parliament with a high list position but a swing this significant will definitely be a wakeup call for incumbent Labour MPs around the country. 

“Compared to previous electorate polling, each of the three top-name recognized candidates has just points between them in one of the most geographically spread electorates in New Zealand, with all three top-polling candidates having over 40% visibility within the electorate. 

“With just under three weeks until early voting opens, this seat looks to be safely making its return to National. Even if all of the 11% undecided vote goes to Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime, that won’t be enough to keep Northland red after Election Day.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is in disbelief over National’s announcement that they will continue with Labour’s failed and expensive fees-free tertiary education policy if elected in October.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager Callum Purves, said:

“We are starting to wonder if Christopher Luxon has been reading Labour’s policies instead of his own. First it was the winter energy payment, now it’s fees free. National took the principled and morally and fiscally responsible stance by opposing fees free when it was introduced, now they have done a u-turn that is beyond belief.

“Our 2017 report ‘Robin Hood Reversed: How Free Tertiary Education Robs Today’s Poor for Tomorrow’s Rich’ outlined the moral arguments around the inherent unfairness of forcing those on lower incomes to pay for the higher-education of people who will eventually earn more then them, explained why this would create free riders and would lead to lower quality education.

“Unfortunately we have been vindicated and, on top of that, the policy hasn’t even been successful in attracting more students to university. The policy is a moral and fiscal failure. Affordability of university fees is already addressed by the generous student loan scheme, if National want more people attending universities they need to focus their efforts on repealing and replacing the new RMA with a law that makes it cheaper for affordable housing to be built in our largest centres.”

Now that Air NZ is well and truly back in the black, it’s time the Government quit owning a majority stake in our national airline says the Taxpayers’ Union.

Responding to today’s market announcement that Air NZ's revenue has shot back to pre-covid levels, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Jordan Williams said:

“Back in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, Grant Robertson claimed that his support package ‘protected Air New Zealand’, and essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. In fact, the beneficiaries were foreign bond holders who didn’t lose a cent despite having lent to the airline for above average interest rates – to compensate for the inherent risks of airline businesses. Thanks to Grant Robertson, foreign giants got to have their cake and eat it too, on the back of taxpayers.”

“Across the Tasman, lenders to Virgin, took a bath thanks to the pandemic. But the planes were back in the air just as fast as Air NZ, and it didn’t cost Australian taxpayers a cent.”

“Any frequent flier will attest to the quality of Air NZ’s services having declined since it became a Government-owned company. With the obvious conflict of interest Christopher Luxon has with having worked for the airline and possibly becoming the Prime Minister, National needs to confirm that it is their intention to sell down the shareholding before the next inevitable shock hits the airline.”

Responding to the National Party’s plan to cut red tape for KiwiSavers, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“New Zealanders should be free to save and invest their money however they see fit, and we welcome this decision by the National Party to go back to treating savers like responsible adults.

“Allowing savers to choose how to invest their savings will not only allow New Zealanders to see greater potential returns on their investments, but diversified investments will allow Kiwis to reward innovation and entrepreneurship. This extra financial freedom will be a tremendous boon to New Zealand’s economy.

“Ineffective red tape which does nothing but invade savers’ privacy and drive up the cost of borrowing should also be resigned to the scrap heap. Hopefully National’s pledge to reform the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance and Conduct of Financial Institutions Acts is only the first step of many towards getting bureaucracy out of the way of New Zealand’s prosperity.”

After successful Hamilton West and Auckland mayoral election debates last year, the Taxpayers’ Union is hosting a series of debates in the run up to this year’s election. 

The series will include debates in key electorates, a finance debate, and a debate on parties’ wider policies. They will give candidates and parties a great opportunity to set out their stall to voters in advance of the election. 

These debates will be moderated by the hosts of The Working Group podcast, Martyn Bradbury and Damien Grant. Like The Working Group, the debates will be streamed live on The Daily Blog (www.thedailyblog.co.nz), Facebook, and Freeview Channel 200. The debates will also be available on the Taxpayers’ Union website (www.taxpayers.org.nz) or to watch or listen back on demand after the event. 

Each debate will begin at 7 pm and last approximately 90 minutes. The schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, 22 August: Napier 
• Tuesday, 29 August: Ilam
• Tuesday, 5 September: Party Policies (Auckland)
• Tuesday, 12 September: Northland 
• Tuesday, 19 September: Finance (Wellington)
• Tuesday, 26 September: Auckland Central 
• Tuesday, 3 October: Tāmaki

Exclusive Taxpayers’ Union – Curia polling will also be released prior to the electorate and finance debates. 

Register to attend one of the debates at: www.taxpayers.org.nz/debates

Responding to today’s tax policy announcement from Te Pāti Māori, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“The proposals laid out by Te Pāti Māori come from a place of fundamental misunderstanding of economics and incentives.

“Removing GST off food will make our world-leading consumption tax system more complex, open to abuse and is poorly targeted. Instead of making it cheaper for just those who struggle to put on the table, this tax reduction applies to all individuals whether they are buying caviar and eye fillet steak or fruit and bread. The wealthy spend a higher dollar amount on food and would therefore be the greatest beneficiaries of the policy.

“Shifting the tax brackets to have even higher marginal tax rates for those earning above $60,000 will ruin incentives for people to earn more money as the payoff for doing so is diminished. Anyone looking at taking on extra hours, up-skilling, gunning for a promotion or creating a side-hustle will have to consider the fact they will lose a significant amount of that money in tax. Many people will decide this isn’t worth it and either not try to increase their incomes or will simply go overseas where they can keep more of their own money.

“The tax free threshold, when paid for by higher tax rates elsewhere will also have significant impacts on incentives to work and encourage people to manipulate their income to get in under the threshold. Secondary earners in a household will likely cut back their hours to below the tax free mark, family owned businesses will pay non-working family members up to $30,000 to ensure that as much money as possible is not taxed.

“Our recent report on the Green’s wealth tax by Taxpayers’ Union research fellow, Jim Rose, highlighted how a wealth tax would be unlikely to generate much revenue, would discourage innovation, saving and investment and would see more highly-skilled New Zealanders heading offshore. The report also highlighted how the impact wealth taxes have on successful Māori who decide to go out on their own rather than operating within treaty governance entities.

“Taxes on foreign companies will raise costs for many everyday goods and services that are not produced in New Zealand. These costs will make products more expensive for New Zealanders while also discouraging overseas companies from investing in New Zealand, creating jobs and paying tax.

“The land-banking tax and vacant-house tax are solutions for the wrong problem. The policy proposal correctly identifies regulatory issues preventing the development of Māori land but similar issues apply to all land. Cutting red tape that prevents building, developing and renting properties would be a more effective and enduring solution for the housing crisis. By making it easier to build, the increased supply in the market will flatten the growth in property prices and will make it no longer worthwhile to speculate. Instead, these proposals will make it even risker to invest in creating more housing with the threat of a 33% tax on the market-value of a property for anyone unable to fill a property within 6 months.

“If money-hungry politicians were able to end tax evasion and get more money by simply spending more they would have done it already. These proposals in their totality will simply flood New Zealand with a tsunami of tax loopholes. If reducing tax avoidance is the goal, our tax system needs to be made simpler and flatter so that it becomes impossible to avoid."

Commenting on the tax announcements in New Zealand First’s campaign launch, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:
 
“Record levels of inflation have not only eroded Kiwis’ incomes, but have forced many to hand over a higher share of their wages to the Government each year. We already adjust superannuation and welfare payments for inflation so it is about time that we did the same for working families through income tax bracket indexation.

“New Zealand First’s proposals for tax incentives are, however, concerning. When Government’s pick winners, they invariably get it wrong, costing the taxpayer for poor returns. Yes, we need to reduce our corporate tax levels to make New Zealand a more attractive place to do business and bring in more foreign direct investment, but it is not the Government’s place to play favourites.

“Removing GST on certain food products is a populist policy that does not stand up to scrutiny. It would almost certainly not be fully passed onto consumers, create more complexity for businesses when pricing, likely lead to expensive court battles over what is and is not exempt, and fail to target support to those who need it most. New Zealand’s clean and efficient GST system is something worth retaining.” 

NEW POLL: Hung Parliament as Māori Party and ACT make gains 📊😳

The Prime Minister today announced that he is ruling out a wealth or capital gains tax despite having asked officials to give the Government advice for consideration of introducing a wealth tax as part of the budget process earlier this year.

The Taxpayers' Union has been calling on the PM to commit to this for some time, but it seems another poll earlier this week that had Labour at its lowest level of support for many years may have bounced him into making this announcement. He understands that such proposals are politically toxic. But these aren't just politically bad, they are economically ruinous too. 

No country has ever taxed itself into prosperity. Mr Hipkins shouldn't just be ruling out these two taxes, but ruling out any new taxes while he is Prime Minister – including extending or raising existing taxes. Only by doing this can we look to make New Zealand a high-growth, high productivity country where people want to live, work and invest. 

Can we trust Chippie at his word? 😉

A word of caution. We cheered when Jacinda Ardern made a commitment to rule out "any new taxes", but she broke her word – repeatedly – despite the Labour majority. Since the 2020 campaign, we have seen:

> Continued tax hikes by stealth through bracket creep

> Introduction of the ute tax 

> Annual tax increases to alcohol and tobacco 

> The extension of the bright line test

> Stopping interest deductibility for rental properties

> Increasing the trust tax rate 

Plus, today's poll confirms that any Government Chris Hipkins leads post-election would have to involve the Greens and the Māori Party who both want nothing less than exorbitant tax hikes and new asset taxes.

Just who's to blame for high supermarket prices? 🛒 👀

The Government has established as new 'Grocery Commissioner', which it says will tackle New Zealand’s excessive grocery prices. But while it likes bashing the supermarket companies, the real issues behind paying too make for groceries lies in over-regulation. 

The grocery duopoly is propped up by restrictions on both foreign competition and land use. High corporate taxes and the ban on foreign companies owning land make New Zealand an unattractive market for international discount chains to invest in.

And the Government has doubled down with the Grocery Industry Competition Bill’s ridiculous requirement for potential future competitors to supply their competition (i.e. the two big established players) with produce at wholesale prices.

Restrictions under the Resource Management Act (RMA) prevent would-be competitors from setting up shop, resulting in localized monopolies and price gouging. David Parker’s RMA reforms are only going to make this worse.

And all of this is before the Government continues to drive inflation through its reckless overspending. It is little wonder food price inflation of 12.5% is causing families to feel the pain.

Instead of fixing the drivers of high food costs, the Government appears to be trying to shift the blame. Adding more bureaucracy isn’t going to reduce barriers to entry and cut grocery costs.

Writing in today's edition of The Post, Taxpayers’ Union Researcher James Ross explains in more detail how the Government is fuelling excessive grocery prices. Read his piece over here.

Taxpayers were made to foot the bill for up to $2 million in census giveaways 🎁

As if the census earlier this year was not disastrous enough with its poor return rate, your humble Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that up to $2 million was budgeted for handing out support vouchers to get non-responding individuals and households to complete the census.  

From that $2 million budget, $1 million went to communities nationwide and the other half went to households in Auckland. Across both streams of work, vouchers were given out at up to $100 dollars in value. As of 18 May, the total spend on food and fuel vouchers was $176,090. 

Taxpayers' Union Researcher Alex Murphy looks into this issue in more detail in a blogpost and asks whether it is really the right approach to offer those who refuse to fill out their census forms a free meal. The scheme leaves a rather bad taste in the mouth.

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,

Callum Purves Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

NZ Herald Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown sets record for the Super City’s highest rates increase ever

Business Desk Queenstown adds $30m to ratepayer bill to pay debt

The Post How the Government is propping up our excessive grocery prices

Responding to the Green Party’s proposal to cap rent increases to a maximum 3% per year, Taxpayers’ Union Deputy Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“There have been countless attempts to introduce rent control in countries all over the globe, and the evidence is clear as day; rent control does not work.

“Wishful thinking that this policy will guarantee safe and affordable accommodation for low-income households isn’t enough, when time and again it has been shown to have exactly the opposite effect.

“By destroying any incentives for law-abiding landlords to invest, rent control reduces the number of properties which are available to rent and removes any incentive for landlords to maintain properties to a liveable standard. Black market rental properties inevitably fill the gaps, leaving renters with even less legal protection.

“There is a housing crisis in New Zealand that desperately needs tackling, and the key to that is removing overly restrictive planning constraints which stifle supply and drive up prices. Restricting supply through rent control will make the crisis worse.

“All this cheap populism from the Greens will achieve is driving New Zealanders’ living standards down even further, and if their plan to end poverty is condemning generations of Kiwis to living in squalor then they have missed the mark by a mile.

“Economist Assar Lindbeck put it best: “Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing.”