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Health CEO Paid More Than the PM — Then Got a Golden Handshake
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."
Taxpayer Update: Let them eat marmite 🥪 | High Court anti-road bombshell ⚠️ | Health NZ's $28b spreadsheet 🚨
Holiday update: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer's postcard from Hawaii
You'll recall a few weeks back, we raised concerns about Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer taking time off Parliament for a holiday to the Cook Islands to celebrate a wedding anniversary.
But, unlike Ministers, MPs aren't covered by the Official Information Act – therefore no ability to clarify whether this, errr, holiday was put on the work (i.e. taxpayer) expense card.
We asked our supporters to email Parliament's Speaker Gerry Brownlee, and I'm glad to report that more than 3,800 did so, asking for the Speaker to front up.
We're delighted to report that a few days ago Mr Speaker messaged us to confirm no taxpayer funds were used for the Cook Islands trip. Fantastic!
No to the Cooks, but seems taxpayers did stump-up for Hawaii... 🏄
But it now raises a new question: if the Speaker can confirm no taxpayer money was used for the Cook Islands trip, why couldn't he do this when we (and the media) asked the same questions back in November when Debbie Ngarewa-Packer's took the Hawaii trip (and the completely coincidental $39,000 flight expenses)?
Now it's quite possible our email campaign saw Parliamentary Service (or the Speaker) reject the Cook Islands trip as work related. Again, because of the carve out MPs have from the Official Information Act, we just have no way of knowing.
And Te Pāti Māori aren't exactly known for fronting up to answer questions: they literally just ignore us when we email their press team.
So if you've not already, please take 30 seconds to sign the petition to make sure MPs can't dodge accountability and are forced to be as transparent as Ministers on how taxpayers' money is spent.
School lunches feeding pet pigs instead of kids 🐷🥪
School lunches have recently been hitting the trough – quite literally – 1News reported on a rural school in Nuhaka feeding 50 percent of their school lunches not to hungry kids – but to a hungry pig called 'Crackles'.
Not to be outdone on the manufactured outrage scale the Hawke's Bay Today, also climbed into the same trough.
No one wants kids going hungry, but according to our parenting guide books, hungry kids don't tend to throw away food. So maaaaaaybe this programme is missing the mark?
And there was the other very obvious question 1News wouldn't dare ask: if Nuhaka school is throwing away half of the lunches it's receiving every day, why haven't they, well, reduced the order?!
But then, if they asked that the stunt by the teachers' unions, and 1News wouldn't have really worked.
Luxon says: "Go make a Marmite Sandwich" 🥪
It's taken him a year, but it seems Mr Luxon has found some common sense telling the media that if the taxpayer funded lunches aren't tasty enough, maybe it's time for a marmite sandwich... Predictably, the pearl clutchers at Radio NZ were SHOCKED.
But the real shocking thing on this story is that it's exposed, we think, the only person in New Zealand who doesn't appear to know how to make a Marmite Sandwich.
As a number of our supporters on social media have pointed out, poor Alex (our Comms Officer who came to us from our friends at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation) struggled. The comments on the video are painfully honest, but go and review his effort for yourself... 🤢
Te Whatu Ora's finances aren't looking too healthy 🚑🚨
From the 'the media didn't give this report nearly enough attention because it was dumped on a Friday' file, a report by Deloitte has become public revealing the state of Health New Zealand's financial meltdown.
$28 billion of spending being tracked on a single excel spreadsheet 📈💰
To remove any doubt that the Deloitte report was too harsh, get this: Health New Zealand is tracking their entire $28 billion budget with just a single excel spreadsheet!
You really couldn't make this up. No wonder Christopher Luxon called in the Government's 'Mr Fix-it' to sport it out.
High Court puts infrastructure on ice for creepy crawlies ⚠️🐌
Right as Luxon was courting foreign investors for major infrastructure and roading projects the High Court released a decision that effectively bans road building where wildlife might need to be relocated or disturbed.
Who needs roads anyway? 🤷🚗
In blowing a hole in the Government's infrastructure plans the High Court ruled that the permit which allows NZTA to inadvertently kill bats, kiwi and other native fauna while clearing vegetation for the Mt Messenger Bypass was unlawful.
And the precedent applies to other projects where, god forbid, spiders and slugs could be disturbed.
Yes, seriously.
SAVE THE SPIDERS! (And the slugs) 🪧
New Zealand's 'bang-for-buck' on infrastructure projects (i.e. productivity) is already near the bottom of the OECD. An added helping of red green tape means New Zealanders already get less roads at a higher cost.
The Government needs to act fast and overturn this bizarre ruling.
Duncan Garner on the whale music for kauri trees legal fight
It’s not every day that a journalist complements the Taxpayers' Union, but we were humbled by Duncan Garner comments on the legal threats being made against us relating to the Whale Song for Kauri Trees.
As Duncan points out, with the mainstream media afraid to go after waste stories for fear of being cancelled, called racist, or face legal threats, groups like the Taxpayers' Union have never been more important.
Thank you to all of those who responded to Jordan's request for support.
But we're better than this... 😐
Finally this week, Jordan has asked me to pass on that while we really appreciate the support to stand up to the legal threats, it's very disappointing to learn of someone sending threatening messages via social media/messenger apps to to the co-director of the "bio heritage" programme Oranga (Wellbeing) Project.
We understand the frustration over this wasteful spending, but attacking or harassing the individual involved hurts our cause and our approach of playing the issue, not attacking the person. Bullying, threats and ad hominem attacks are not accountability. Nor does it persuade the politicians (and the public) that we ultimately need on board to put an end to this type of wasteful spending.
It's also not what the Taxpayers' Union is all about, and we know 99.9% of our supporters won't condone it. Please don't be the exception.
Enjoy the rest of your week,
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Taxpayer Update
Hi
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer's on tour – but are you paying? 🛫🏝️
Remember Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer's surfing trip to Hawaii (coincidentally at the same time as she recorded $39,000 in taxpayer-funded international flights)?
Last week, Ms Ngarewa-Packer was spotted in the Cook Islands protesting the Cook Island's new deal with China. Apparently, there's not a protest she doesn't want to attend she's there to celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary – despite it being a Parliamentary sitting week.
Naturally, we've had a few questions from supporters asking whether taxpayers footed the bill for the wedding holiday.
And I'd like to tell you either way, but I can't. You see, unlike spending and travel by Ministers, non-ministerial Members of Parliament have a special carve-out from freedom of information laws. Parliamentary Services refuse to disclose any other than the total amounts being spent - this is all the summary information we can get. No itemisation, no receipts, no reporting. Zilch.
Signing their own permission slip? 🤑
In fact, the only control on MPs since the rules were loosened even further 18 months ago, is that MPs have to ask their Party Leader to take trips overseas on the taxpayer. Prior to that, permission could only be granted by the Speaker.
Without public transparency, the only control of this spending is the Speaker, Gerry Brownlee. Jordan has written to the Speaker asking him to confirm that taxpayers' money was not used to fund a Cook Islands wedding-anniversary holiday.
But, the law is not on our side. The Speaker doesn't even have to reply! And whenever we've asked Te Pāti Māori to answer questions, we've hit a brick wall. It's almost as if they don't think they're accountable to taxpayers...
MPs spending in a secretive black hole. Only political pressure will see questions being asked, and ultimately transparency and accountability.
Please will you take 30 seconds to help this effort and demand transparency?
>> Send an email to the Speaker <<
KiwiBuild’s $77m black hole 🏚️🌪️
KiwiBuild is back in the spotlight – and once again - it’s taxpayers left with the tab. 109 unsold homes have hit the market after Kāinga Ora was forced to buy them off private developers who couldn't shift them themselves.
This was always the risk with the last Government's dumb housing policies. Under Kiwibuild, developers got the upside reward, while taxpayers carried the risk. As a result, houses were commissioned in places they were never going to sell. Nuts.
What planet is the Public Service Association living on? 🥴
We were very happy last week to see our Atlas Network operative taxpayer hero, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche calling out bureaucrats for getting pay rises automatically. Rewarding time-served rather than merit has seen costs bloat 72% since 2018, with the average bureaucrat’s paycheque now more than $101,000.
But performance pay has always been a hill to die on for the public sector unions like the Public Service Association ("PSA") who depend on gliding-on public service 'lifers' to fill the Labour Party's union coffers.
It's bad enough that public sector unions argue that "high performance" means a "bad culture" but this new argument they've come up with takes the cake.
Is performance pay racist? 😳
According to the Public Service Association's Fleur Fitzsimons – a former (you can probably guess) Labour Party candidate – performance pay is [checks notes] RACIST!
Apparently, Māori and women can't can't do well with performance pay. In Wellington's worldview, they're just not high performers. 🤷
Yes, incredibly, that's really their argument:
As well as believing in the radical idea that public servants should be paid on, well, their performance, here at the Taxpayers' Union we also believe in calling out racism where we see it...
We are disgusted that such stereotypes are being used to suggest performance-based pay rises will see women, Māori, and Pasifika people miss out and have called it out.
We are baffled that in 2025 anyone would suggest that sex or race would make people less capable. Either Fleur Fitzsimons is a bad egg, or there is something deeply wrong with the culture at the PSA.
$4m woke workshops on the hospital wards 🏥👨⚕️
The irony about the PSA, and so many other important wokesters in Wellington, is that they're fast to scream racist if, say, you want your doctors’ professional development to be focussed on things that save lives, not things like "indigenous knowledge and healing practices".
Health NZ (Te Whatu Ora) has wasted $4m on Te Kurahuna workshops to turn health workers into 'change-agents' promoting indigenous knowledge and healing practices.Our investigation reveals 11,000 staff (at anyone’s guess how much in lost productivity) are being sent to woke workshops rather than working.
Te Kurahuna might be a familiar name, as only a few weeks ago we flagged that DIA have wasted close to a million dollars sending staff to the same programmes.
Minister Brooke van Velden’s canned that spending, and we say it’s time for new Health Minister Simeon Brown to do the same in Health.
How deep do these workshops go? It’s the grift that keeps of giving.
$5 million in YOUR pocket or on a gold-plated park? Swings and roundabouts 🛝🚸
Tauranga ratepayers have just been slapped with a $5 million bill for a new kid's playground.
Our investigation shows exactly what we all already know – you can't trust the council to build anything without costing an arm and a leg, even a few swings (and maybe a flying fox if you're lucky).
The breakdown shows $640,000 was spent on consulting and management. Consulting. For a playground. 👀
$150,000 on Council staff costs. $361,000 on safety surfacing.
And more than $1.1 million was spent on landscaping and concrete (before the safety surfacing was added)
And what paid for that platinum play zone? Tauranga residents' 13.1% rates hike just this year alone.
If only Mayor Mahé Drysdale was nearby... 👀
Enjoy the rest of your week.
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