The Taxpayers’ Union will tomorrow launch billboards on Whitmore Street, in view of the Beehive, and Bunny Street as pressure grows on Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche over his refusal to front up on Nic Blakeley’s rejected resignation.

The billboards will put the accountability question directly in front of the public.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said:

“Sir Brian has had every opportunity to front up and answer four very simple questions. Instead, he has gone silent."

“So tomorrow we’re taking the campaign public. If Sir Brian won’t answer us, he can explain himself to the thousands of New Zealanders now watching.”

More than 8,000 people have signed the Taxpayers’ Union petition calling on Sir Brian to accept Nic Blakeley’s resignation, available at BlakeleyMustGo.nz

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Ministry of Social Development approved 155,103 rental bond grants worth $236,121,897 since 2023, but cannot report the total debt repaid.

MSD refused to provide repayment and write-off data, saying it would require substantial manual collation from individual client files.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigative Lead, Rhys Hurley, said:

“WINZ has handed out nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in recoverable bond assistance, paid for by taxpayers, yet doesn't have a system of tracking whether taxpayers got it back."

"Just like the $38,512,555.69 in business start up funding, the Ministry for Social Development only holds this information in individual client files.

"These grants are not meant to be free money. Agencies handing out taxpayer funds should be tracking whether it actually comes back. That's Accounting 101."

“Minister Louise Upston needs to ask how many millions in benefit schemes are handed out without proper central tracking and require this information to be proactively published from now on.”

A new Taxpayers’ Union briefing paper released today finds claims that income inequality in New Zealand is worsening simply do not match the evidence.

Based on work by Treasury officials on income distribution from 2007 to 2023, The Myth of Rising Income Inequalityfinds inequality peaked around 2012–13 and has since fallen, leaving it lower in 2023 than at the start of the period.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Austin Ellingham-Banks says the findings undermine calls for higher income taxes justified on the basis of rising inequality.

“The narrative that inequality is spiralling out of control simply isn’t supported by the data. Analysts at Treasury show inequality peaked more than a decade ago and has since fallen.”

“Raising income taxes would impose economic costs without solving the real issues facing New Zealanders. Kiwis are struggling because of weak economic growth and the cost-of-living crisis. Hiking income tax won’t fix that; pro-growth policies will.”

The full report, The Myth of Rising Income Inequality, is available here.

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.”