Dear Supporter,

The silly season is well underway. It's the time for Christmas shopping, summer planning, last minute errands, and when Governments tend to 'take out the trash' – hoping bad news stories are buried in the Christmas rush. So while Christmas is right around the corner Santa's naughty list is growing.

This week, we learned of some sneaky (unannounced) tax changes from Wellington, that rates capping has been delayed until 2029, the bureaucrat golden goodbye bonanza continues, and a record high rates hike in the pipeline for Aucklanders.

Oh, and you might have noticed a bit of media attention the last few days on a new campaign we've not even launched yet! Some comments about that below...

So grab a cuppa. This end of week wrap up is stacked.

Rates Cap Now ✅ or Rates Cap Later ❌

On Monday we learned the good news is that the capping of crippling council rates is coming. The bad news is that the Government has pushed back implementation until 2029.

That means that councils now have three full years to make massive rate hikes before the cap kicks in. And does anyone have faith that they won't?

Most councils are currently working on their Long Term Plans – which are required to be done every three years to set out rates and spending parameters for the following 10 years (yes, I know how that reads).

That means the window of opportunity to force councils to live within their means (and what ratepayers can afford) is narrow. The Government’s delay is an invitation for local councils to hike everything now, bake it into the baseline, and shrug later.

Obviously, we had a lot to say on this issue, with Tory on Three News making the case for ratepayers and why we need to Cap Rates *Now*.

James was also busy. His excellent op-ed for The Post also points out that councils will rush to push rates up while they still can, because once the cap arrives, they’re locked in. I just love the last line of this:

Continue reading over on The Post's website.

Yours truly had a longer discussion with current Otago Regional Councillor (and host on The Platform) Michael Laws. 

I also spoke with Duncan Garner for his Editor in Chief podcast.

TVNZ bias: even AI is noticing 📺

Strangely, we didn't hear a whisper from TVNZ's One News, despite your humble Taxpayers' Union both proposing the rates capping policy, and driving the campaign to get the Government to adopt it!

Just like One News strived to ignore ratepayers during the whole two years of coverage of the last Government's Three Waters effort, they'd rather stick to "insiders" like Local Government NZ and others who are using ratepayer money to oppose our Cap Rates Now campaign.

And we are not alone.

New AI analysis of the framing of political stories by One News suggests that something is going seriously awry at the taxpayer-owned broadcaster...

NEW Rates Cap Dashboard: How much have you already been fleeced? 💳🐑

As you know, we track council rates across the country closely. Earlier in the year we exposed that cumulatively, over the last three years, the average rates hike by councils was an incredible 35 percent. 

So on Friday we launched the Rates Cap Dashboard – a new tool revealing what the average household in every council district would have saved if the Government's rates cap had been in place over the past three years.

James and his team found:

• Across the country, the average household would be between $670 and $864 better off right now had the proposed 2-4 percent cap been in place over the last three years.
• The average household in 21 council areas would have saved more than $1,000 each
• Queenstown-Lakes District ratepayers would have saved the most: an incredible $1,706 lost per household.
• Even in councils with the smallest numbers, a rates cap would still have left hundreds of dollars in the pockets of every local ratepayer.

👉 See what your council cost your household in lost savings here

The campaign isn't over: we've got Cabinet over the line on the Cap Rates bit, now we just need them to do it NOW.

To back the Cap Rates Now campaign and chip-in to the fighting fund, click here.

Mayor Brown’s Rates Cap Backflip 💥🛑

Wayne Brown campaigned as the guy who’d rein in Auckland Council waste. But fast forward to today, and Auckland Council’s operating spending continues to balloon right under Mr Brown's nose. 

Despite the rhetoric, Wayne Brown has hiked Council spending by more than 20.5% in just three years. Cumulative inflation over the same timeframe has been seven percent.

During the election campaign just been, Brown committed to keep rates no more than 1.5 percent above inflation – which is bang on the midpoint for where the Government has set its cap! But now, just three months later, Wayne Brown has changed his tune. 

Now the Mayor says a rates cap “won’t work” –  announcing a 7.9 percent rates hike within an hour of the Government announcing its policy.

If Wayne Brown gets his way, next year's rates hike will be the highest ever for the Super City!

Brown is blaming the City Rail Link which he claimed will add $1 million a day to ratepayers’ costs. But our friends at the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance checked the numbers: the actual cost is $26 million a year, or roughly equivalent to 1 percent on rates.

Not nothing, but nowhere near the eight percent figure Wayne Brown is pushing.

Brown isn’t levelling with Aucklanders — and that’s exactly why we need a legally enforceable cap.

With my Ratepayers' Alliance hat on I joined Newstalk ZB to call out Mayor Brown's 'absolute nonsense' 👇

IRD's sneaky pre-Christmas surprise 🎄⚠️

While no one was paying attention, the IRD quietly dropped one of the most destructive tax changes we’ve seen in decades.

Here’s the gist:

• Many small businesses pay owners through a running loan account during the year.
• At year-end, they clear it with dividends or salary — standard practice.
• Under the new rule, if the loan isn’t cleared within 12 months, IRD will now treat the whole loan as taxable income…
• …and the owner still has to repay the loan later using more taxable income.

Yes, taxed twice. Yes, retrospective, covering the current tax year (in fact, IRD say the law will be backdated to come into effect as of Thursday). And no, there was no press conference, no speech, no debate. Just a quiet upload to the IRD website.

Our tax experts say that these changes will have a far greater impact on New Zealand's SMEs and farmers than Labour's proposed Capital Gains Tax. No wonder the Government is mum!

And nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a backdated tax bill.

Sneaking a policy of this magnitude through without fanfare over summer is bad form. You can read our full comments here.

Submissions close on 5 February (more info here) – rest assured that the Taxpayers' Union will be back to work well before then! 

Golden Handshakes: More than $837,000 in a single week (and that's just those we know about!) 🤦‍♀️💰

If you thought we’d hit peak golden handshake insanity with Adrian Orr's $416,120 "golden goodbye", think again. This week alone, we already know taxpayers are on the hook for:

• Andrew Coster (disgraced former head of the Social Investment Agency who was allowed to resign and therefore collect a garden leave/three-month's pay windfall) – $130,000
• Diana Sarfati (former head of the Ministry of Health)– $350,000
• Sarah Fitt (former Pharmac boss) – $357,000

Tory spoke to Newstalk ZB on Andrew Coster's golden handshake and the scale of his payout, which you can listen to here.

We’ve also seen another resignation as the Coster fallout continues to reverberate through Wellington.

This time a former Deputy Police Commissioner now at the Civil Aviation Authority, was rewarded with a payout – and one that the CAA chief refused to even declare when asked by MPs during Parliament's scrutiny week.

That’s a) a middle finger to transparency and b) likely to push the total north of $1 million this week alone.

This is why we’re pushing for a hard cap on exit payouts, zero payouts for anyone paid more than an MP, and full transparency in public servants receiving such payouts.

Until then, the golden handshake conveyor belt rolls on.

Labour using taxpayer funded staff to make Party propaganda 📹🚫

At Labour’s conference, their social media adviser — funded by Parliamentary Service — was producing political content on the taxpayer dollar.

The rules are clear: Parliamentary staff support MPs’ official duties, not partisan content creation for the party machine.

I don’t think it’s complicated. If parties want political videos, they should use party funds, not raid the taxpayer wallet.

And yes, this all happened during Scrutiny Week. You couldn’t write it better.

Health NZ spending $3.5 million this year on “non-jobs” 🧘‍♂️🌀

The year might be nearly over, but everyone’s favourite Investigations Coordinator Rhys is still hard at work digging into waste across local and national government.

On Friday, Rhys revealed Health NZ employs 13.7 FTE staff dedicated exclusively to DEI, sustainability, climate, and non-clinical “culture” work.

The total salary bill is a jaw-dropping $3,475,054.

Back of the envelope, that's an average salary of $253,654! 

As is usual, Rhys has linked to all the source material on the website, so you can judge for yourself whether these Health NZ salaries are justified...

As you can see, while Health NZ only give us the salary information in bands, we can work out from the total that most of the roles are paid at the very upper end!

Meanwhile:

• Emergency departments are overflowing
• Waitlists are blowing out
• Surgical backlogs are growing

This is the problem in a nutshell: We’re funding everything except actual healthcare.

One more thing... 

Finally, we’ve had a lot of good publicity for our campaign launching very soon, and now it is our turn to say what it is all about.

The campaign is about Nicola Willis becoming our best ever finance minister. No one wants her to succeed more than than Taxpayers’ Union to cut wasteful spending, balance the books, and keep out a Labour-TPM-Green high tax, high deficit, 'addicted to spending' disaster.

Our pressure campaign is about pointing out the fiscal elephants in the room and her having the incentives from voters to become our best ever finance minister and get New Zealand off the disastrous fiscal track it has been on for so long.

Watch this space...

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Ps. As well as the last Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll of 2025, it's looking likely the Government's replacement to the Resource Management Act is going to be released early next week. This is likely to be the biggest (regulatory) tax relief any government has delivered under MMP. As soon as we have worked through the details, we'll get them to you. A big week ahead!

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The Taxpayers' Union is calling for greater transparency and a hard cap on exit payouts in the public sector after taxpayers have funded an eye-watering $837,000 bill for golden handshakes this week alone.

The $837,000 bill stems from three high-profile public sector exits this week:

• Andrew Coster - ex-chief executive of the Social Investment Agency - $130,000
• Diana Sarfati - Former Ministry of Health director - $350,000
• Sarah Fitt - Former Chief Executive for Pharmac - $357,000

Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

"It’s a slap in the face for New Zealanders who are struggling with the cost of living. These handshakes are outrageous, especially in cases of voluntary departures like Diana Sarfati and in exits that should have been dismissals like Coster."

“You can’t sustain a culture where poor performance is met with a reward. Until the Government clamps down on these payouts, taxpayers will keep getting burned. The government needs to start showing some fiscal responsibility.”

“The scale of this $837,000 taxpayer bill is obscene. The Taxpayers' Union is calling on Minister Brooke van Velden ensures her reforms include a hard cap and ban all exit payouts for public service employees paid more than an MP.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for a law change to prevent the payout of golden handshakes to public servants paid more than MPs, after yet another health boss has walked away with a $350,000 payout despite leaving voluntarily.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“We’re barely a day on from the Pharmac payout and here we are again. Yet another giant cheque has been handed to someone already paid more than an MP, and this time simply for walking away.”

“Most New Zealanders don’t get paid for quitting and public servants on top-tier salaries certainly shouldn’t. It’s outrageous and it chips away at any remaining trust in the system.”

“Enough is enough. The Government must ban exit payouts for public servants paid more than an MP. If you’re on a premium salary, there’s no reason for taxpayers to fund a golden goodbye.”

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. 

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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."

It's been a recess week at Parliament this week, but even with some of the top political leaders out of the country, the scourge of government waste persists ...

At the same time, good news for the Government (and Mr Luxon) in this month's exclusiveTaxpayers' Union – Curia Poll (see below).

NZQ-Ay?! Yet another expensive rebrand we've uncovered 💸🤬 

Given the dire state of New Zealand's education system, you'd think department heads would be steadfastly focused on ensuring that kids are actually at school and learning.

But why improve education when you can just do a rebrand?

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (the agency tasked with ensuring young people are getting quality teaching, accurate educational records, and internationally transferable qualifications) has instead decided to blow $2.9 million on a flashy rebrand and a website upgrade.

Exposed by your humble Taxpayers' Union, this rebrand involves a new logo, and a change to the colours of the agency's website. Impressive stuff.

Of course, it is sometimes necessary to make technical upgrades to ensure websites function properly but too often government departments seize the 'opportunity' to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars ‘refreshing brand identity’ (whatever that means). We say this nonsense has to stop and there is an easy solution: having one standardised logo for government agencies as they do in the UK:

$365k golden goodbye for gross incompetence and failed CEO 👋🏻🤑

The $365,000 payout to outgoing Kāinga Ora (the Government's Homes and Communities agency) Chief Executive, Andrew McKenzie, is nothing short of a reward for failure.

Rather than being able to sack McKenzie – as would be justified in just about any other country – the Board of Kāinga Ora had to both pretend that Mr McKenzie 'resigned' and pay him a $365k golden goodbye. The news comes after a damning report earlier this year about mismanagement by the agency.

Calling it a 'resignation' is about as credible as an email from a Nigerian prince. But it shows the real issue here: under New Zealand employment law, it's extremely difficult to sack even those who are clearly failing. While some may argue we need laws to protect vulnerable workers, making it nigh on impossible to get rid of lousy CEOs on $700,000+ means many boards and businesses are stuck with duds unless they get out the chequebook. An ACT MP has a proposed solution applicable for smallbusinesses, but as this example shows, it's also big organisations paying dearly to get rid of people who clearly aren't performing.

We sent our friendly mascot Porky-the-Waste-Hater down the road to Kāinga Ora head offices to present Mr McKenzie with this great 'gift' from taxpayers. 

But wait, there's more... 🤦🏻‍♂️

Sadly – for taxpayers anyway – this wasn't the only big taxpayer payout in the news. In fact, it wasn't even the biggest. Not to be outdone, our friends (I use that term rather loosely) over at the Film Commission paid their Chief Executive out more than half a million!

In her great investigative piece in Wednesday's NZ Herald, Kate MacNamara explains that David Strong was forced to go on a paid leave of absence when a television programme, The Pilgrim, in which he had an ongoing personal interest came up for funding. This clearly presented a conflict of interest as the Commission distributes funds to such projects. An independent review of his conflict-of-interest disclosures found that:

"The board and David Strong both had opportunities to better handle the disclosure and management of his conflicts of interest. Inadequately documented decisions and discussions, gaps in the implementation of these decisions, breakdowns in communication and information flows, and blurred accountabilities were significant contributing factors to the events that unfolded."

Despite this 'strong' criticism, Strong not only received $100,000 in pay while he was on leave but also a $438,700 payout in compensation when he left the job permanently. Our policy guru, James, has slated this decision, saying that "bureaucrats already earning more than ministers shouldn't be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more not to do their jobs."

You can read Kate's full piece with James's comments over on the NZ Herald website.

Policy Victory: Local democracy defended! 🗳️💪🏻

Back in 2022, we raised the alarm about about Nanaia Mahuta's 'Review into the Future for Local Government' – a follow-on from Three Waters and another Labour pet-project that looked to radically change the way our local councils operated and de-couple them from local democratic accountability.

You might remember that we set up a submission tool to make it easy for New Zealanders to have their say on the draft recommendations and more than 14,000 of you made your views known, accounting for the vast majority of responses. Sadly, the hand-picked panel ignored these and ploughed ahead anyway. 

The final recommendations included things like lowering the voting age to 16, enabling unelected 'Te Tiriti-based appointments' to councils, changing the voting system without a referendum, introducing so-called citizens' assemblies (erm, what does that make councils then?), and much more. 

Well, there's some good news. The Local Government Minister, Simeon Brown, has put the review on the policy bonfire, labelling the proposals "ideologically-driven". He has even instructed officials to down tools so we won't waste money preparing a formal response to the report. Result!

Christchurch spends $800,000 on... graffiti 🎨🖌️

Speaking of councils, our Local Government Campaigns Manager, Sam, was quick to call out Christchurch City Council’s last-minute allocation of $800,000 for so-called street art initiatives from a capital endowment fund meant for things like water pipes and improving roads. This comes after Christchurch agreed to an almost 10 percent rates hike, which is about $320 extra a year for the average Christchurch household.

Families up and down the country are tightening their belts, and we think councils should not be exempt from practising restraint. Now more than ever is the time to shelve nice-to-have art projects and prioritise responsible spending decisions to fund core council services and keep rates as low as possible.

No more taxpayer cash for KiwiSaaS 💵🛑

Grant Robertson loved chucking money at whatever corporate special interest group had the shiniest lobbyists, and so far it’s a habit the new Government has found difficult to kick.

But Judith Collins has bucked the trend. After a media campaign led by your humble Taxpayers’ Union, the Minister has decided not to renew $11.2 million in handouts to KiwiSaaS, a tech sector lobbying group.

Now, compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars of your cash that are given out in corporate welfare, this is small fry, but it’s a step in the right direction.

So we just wanted to take this opportunity to say bravo, Judith Collins. It’s a great start, now it’s time to tell the rest of the crony capitalist industry (I'm looking at you, video game subsidies!) to take a hike.

Media Mentions:

NewstalkZB Morning Edition: 02 July 2024 – Kāinga Ora Golden Goodbye (01:58)

The Platform James Ross on Waka Kotahi's $5.2M App Failure & Selling the Interislander

NewstalkZB Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Government advancing an amended version of the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (03:49)

RNZ The Panel with Peter Field and Niki Bezzant (Part 2) – Sam on $800k for Christchurch Graffiti (09:07)

Indian Weekender NZ Business Confidence Hits The Skids

The Post Crossings and traffic lights may stall commuter bus benefits

The Post Is rebooted fast-track a law written by the Government’s cronies?

Bassett, Brash & Hide JORDAN WILLIAMS: Luxon wants to curry favour with mainstream media

The Press Council turns to private sector for EV charging infrastructure

Greymouth Star Whatever! – Darleen Tana [print only]

Chris Lynch Media Green Party faces pressure to release investigation report on Darleen Tana

NZ Herald Former NZ Film Commission boss David Strong paid over half a million dollars’ leave and severance for nine months’ work

The Huddle The Huddle: Do we believe NZ First's theory about the Aratere grounding?

NZ Herald New poll shows Kiwis divided over whether to sell Cook Strait Interislander service

NewstalkZB Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister talks new Ministerial Advisory Group for victims of retail crime – Interislander Poll (03:19)

 

Responding to news that two Three Waters Chief Executives have received a combined $710,000 in redundancy payments, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Golden handshakes worth almost 11 times the annual median wage combined after just 10 months of work are just one example of a culture of waste in Wellington. Bureaucrats continued to sign away vast sums of taxpayers’ money well after it became clear unpopular, divisive mega-projects like Three Waters and Let’s Get Wellington Moving would be scrapped.

“Public sector fat cats already earning almost 4.5 times as much as an MP should not be entitled to enormous redundancy payments straight from the back pockets of hardworking Kiwi taxpayers.”

Napier City Council is reportedly negotiating a nearly $1 million payout for departing CEO Wayne Jack.

Departing CEOs do not need or deserve massive payouts – especially when they've lost the confidence of councillors. If Napier City Council is unhappy with Wayne Jack's performance – and they have every reason to be – then they should avoid the cost of a managed exit, and simply fire him.

Mr Jack has spent seven years being paid around $300,000 – he's milked Napier ratepayers enough already.

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