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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Dear Supporter,

This week we've got a new briefing paper for you, an update on that Ngāi Tahu story, Porirua as our Ratepayer Heroes, and more.

This is How to Cap Rates Now 🧢📘

Back in June, we launched the Cap Rates Now campaign and more than 31,000 ratepayers answered the call and signed up to support the campaign. Since then, the campaign has snowballed. So if you're someone who has shared social media posts, put up a "Cap Rates Now" roadside banner, or joined us in protest outside the Local Government New Zealand conference, (where Local Government Minister Simon Watts promised a rates cap by Christmas) thank you for your support.

And, fast forward to this week: Minister Watts and Minister Chris Bishop announced a major change to local government (more on that below) but it wasn’t the rates cap we were promised. The clock’s ticking, and with 34% average rates rises over the last three years, we need action now.

Our team has been working behind the scenes, meeting with Minister Watts and many others to push for the changes we need. And this week we released How to Cap Rates Now – our policy briefing paper that outlines exactly how the Minister can keep his promise and cap rates before next year’s budget.

In short, ratepayers need:

✅ Capping rates before councils set their 2026/27 budgets

✅ Making sure the rates cap covers all local government revenue (no sneaky fees and workarounds!)

✅ Linking the cap to day-to-day inflation but accounting for population growth

✅ Ensuring ratepayers have the final say, not bureaucrats

✅ Refunding any oversized rates bills (over and above the caps) directly to ratepayers

Minister Watts’ time is running out. Our briefing paper lays out the steps to make sure rates are capped fairly and effectively. You can read the paper here.

Christchurch’s $1.36m “Consultation” Loop 🚨

As the team exposed this week, Christchurch City Council has spent $1.36 million paying a Ngāi Tahu-owned consultancy to advise the Council on how to engage with… Ngāi Tahu.

I don’t need to be an accountant to see the problem there...

Ratepayers are effectively being charged so the Council can be told how to talk to the very same groups that own the consultancy. No tendering, no transparency, and so far, no acceptance from the Council that they need to release the invoices.

It’s a cosy arrangement that needs transparency.

Yesterday I joined The Platform to push the Council for answers.

And, if this is happening in Christchurch, could it also be happening elsewhere? Our confidential tip-line is always open...

Sunlight really is the disinfectant here, and your tips are often how we get onto these rorts waste stories.

A fine line between fair road charges and unfair new taxes 🚘

Austin, my favourite (our only!) Policy Analyst, wrote this great piece in The Post about the Government's new road charging reforms.

New Zealand is about to enter a new era of road charging with congestion pricing and expanded tolling powers, but as Austin points out, these reforms will only be fair if two key principles are followed: (1) congestion charges must be revenue-neutral, and (2) tolls must remain user-pays.

👉 Read Austin’s op-ed over on The Post. 👈

Congestion pricing has proven successful overseas in managing demand (i.e. reducing traffic at peak times) and therefore boosting productivity. But it’s important that any money raised is used to offset other road user charges, not to create an additional financial burden on drivers.

On the other hand, tolling works when it's clear drivers pay for what they use. However, the Government's new Parliamentary Bill threatens to stretch this principle by charging drivers for roads they don't use or have already paid for through fuel taxes. It lets the Government clip the ticket twice and use a toll on roadway X to fund maintenance of roadway Y. 

We say that asking drivers to pay twice, and funnelling toll road money away from the roads being tolled is just a sneaky way to raise taxes, not improve infrastructure.

Labour’s promise of *free* taxpayer funded GP policy isn’t even backed by Labour voters 🤦‍♀️

Our latest Taxpayers’ Union–Curia poll landed in The Post this week, and the results are awkward for Chris  Hipkins.

A clear majority of Labour voters (57 percent) say GP subsidies should be targeted to low- and middle-income New Zealanders, not handed out universally to every adult regardless of income. Only 35 percent backed Labour’s universal free-GP plan.

Younger voters and Auckland lean more universal, but everywhere else — especially Wellington — the public want health funding aimed where it actually makes a difference.

Hardly surprising when long waits and GP shortages are the reality for so many.

The kicker? Labour’s own supporters also reject the idea of taxing capital gains that is simply inflation. Nearly seven in ten say any capital gains tax must apply only to real gains, not phantom (nominal) increases.

As an MP commented to me this week, "One more poll til Christmas!"🎄

No more hidden spending – let’s Open the Books! 💥

This week Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s expenses back under the microscope, and once again, we’re reminded that MPs are able to hide their spending from the public – unlike Ministers or most Government agencies. 

I was amazed when I got to New Zealand and realised MPs' expenses aren’t subject to the Official Information Act, so they’re free to mark their own homework.

If MPs want to prove they’re truly accountable to taxpayers, they need to close this loophole and bring their spending out of the shadows.

MPs should face the same transparency standards as Ministers. We already know how this works in other countries like the UK, where – after a series of massive scandals over what, exactly, MPs were spending money on – full disclosure of expenses is now the norm. Why should New Zealand be different?

Want MPs to stop hiding behind closed doors? Head over to OpenTheBooks.nz and add your name to our petition to make full transparency the rule, not the exception.

✍️ Sign the petition to force MPs to Open the Books.

This week's Ratepayer Hero is whoever organised Porirua City Council’s swearing-in 🎂🦸‍♀️

Checking up on how councils spend ratepayer money is always insightful, and with the swearing-in of all new councillors now complete, the comparison between Porirua and Wellington City Council’s swearing-in ceremonies is a perfect example of how to (and how not to) use ratepayer funds.

Porirua City Council held its swearing-in ceremony and spent less than one-fifth of what Wellington City Council forked out for theirs. In fact, Porirua’s entire event cost less than Wellington's catering budget alone – making them this week’s Ratepayer Heroes.

While Wellington decided to roll out the red carpet (and a hefty price tag), Porirua kept it simple, showing that you don’t need to blow the budget to hold a dignified event.

{{recipient.first_name_or_friend}}, this is a classic case of what we’re always advocating against. Why should one council spend frivolously when another is getting the same result for a fraction of the cost?

It shouldn’t be too much to ask to hold every council to the same standards.

Have a great weekend ☺️

Tory Relf Head of Comms New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

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Dear Supporter,

It's Halloween today, but rather than 'trick or treat', we explain how Chris Hipkins has doubled down two tricks and no treats. 😤

Also in this week's Taxpayer Update, we uncover an $82,000 knees up, sorry, 'awards ceremony' to celebrate a string of beads on a wall, and (checks notes) a broom. We also highlight yet more eye-wateringly expensive Resource Management Act taxes. Oh, and we need to talk about Air New Zealand – the company that taxpayers bailed out in 2001 and then again 20 years later – and their new lobbying effort for permanent subsidies.

Let's get into it.

This Halloween, inflation isn’t the monster – Labour’s plan to tax it is 🎃

The main political news has been Labour's so-called "targeted" capital gains tax.

After promising in 2023 not to bring in any new taxes, Mr Hipkins has dug up from the grave many of the bad features of Sir Michael Cullen's Tax Working Group that even Dame Jacinda Ardern ensured was dead and buried.

Hipkins says this version is "fair" and "targeted". But peel off the mask and it’s a monster of a policy that punishes ordinary New Zealanders for inflation, not profit.

Thanks to the support of hundreds of online donations, newspapers across the country today are setting out the impact of Labour's new tax:

Click here to see a high res version.

Recidivist spooker... 👻 Can Hipkins be trusted not to expand his new tax? 💀

Last time Labour were in Opposition, they promised “no new taxes”. Then came the Auckland fuel tax, the ute tax, the visitor levy, the Amazon tax, three petrol excise hikes, and a bright-line extension that dragged in thousands of ordinary homeowners.

If a Party that swore off new taxes created six of them anyway once in Government, can we trust Labour not to expand this one? 🤔

A "fair" capital gains tax? Yeah right! 🤣

As we exposed this week, more than half of all house price growth over the past decade has been pure inflation. That’s imaginary gains, not real wealth. Yet Labour plans to tax those phantom "gains" at 28 percent! That means Kiwis could sell a property for the same real value they bought it for and still get hit with a massive tax bill.

And small business owners won’t escape either. Mechanics, cafés, and butchers who sell one premises to buy another will be caught too, thanks to Labour’s refusal to allow full rollover relief. It’s a tax on investment and growth, not fairness.

Earlier today we released our latest briefing paper which tackles Labour's false claims: Why Labour's capital gains tax fails the fairness test

What about the “treat”? Three free taxpayer-funded GP visits – if you can get an appointment while you're still sick... 🤡

Labour say they'll use the money to pay for three GP visits for every New Zealander.

So on Wednesday I had one of our Researchers, Ella, call a random list of GP clinics across the country to see whether the issue is one of affordability, or accessibility and workforce.

Our spot audit found that one in seven GP clinics can’t offer an appointment for four weeks!

Ella found the average wait time for the next appointment is more than a week (6.4 working days).

Free, sorry, taxpayer-funded visits don’t mean much if you can’t get through the door while you're sick!

Labour's policy feels more like a cheap political gimmick to justify a new tax than a serious health solution.

Free GP visits are meaningless if the doctor can’t see you until Christmas. People aren’t asking for a new tax-funded bureaucracy, just to see a doctor before their condition gets worse. You can read my comments to the media here or have a listen to Heather du Plessis-Allan on our findings here.

Travel news – Air New Zealand announces new destination: your pocket! ✈️💰

While most Kiwis are tightening their belts, Air New Zealand’s new boss has been doing the media rounds arguing for taxpayer subsidies for domestic flights.

Speaking to Radio NZ, Air NZ’s new CEO Nikhil Ravishankar said some regional routes need what he calls a “situational subsidy” to stay afloat during quieter times. In plain English, that means he wants taxpayers to foot the bill with a new 'subsidy class'.

It’s not the first time Air New Zealand has come calling. It's been bailed out by taxpayers twice in recent memory. After its disastrous purchase of Ansett collapsed in 2001, the Government pumped in nearly $900 million and effectively re-nationalised the airline to stop it going under. Then during COVID, when other airlines turned to debt and equity markets, Air NZ instead went cap-in-hand to the Government for a $1.5 billion sweetheart loan facility and further equity injections. Right now, despite all the taxpayer support, Air NZ isn't even covering its own cost of capital. There is plenty of financial commentary about Air NZ's struggles compared to Qantas' strength, and the recovery of airlines offshore.

If the Government really wanted to help Air NZ, it should force it to live up to the reality of market disciplines by selling it and promoting competition. History has taught us that government-owned airlines usually struggle and offer a poor deal to consumers.

We say cheques from taxpayers are a false economy, not a long term solution to regional air travel. Propping up loss-making routes would only further discourage innovation and stops smaller competitors from entering the market. 

Consents chaos is costing farmers a fortune 🚜💸

Our friends at Federated Farmers have released a new report that lays bare just how broken New Zealand’s consenting system has become, and the numbers are staggering.

Their nationwide survey found that the average farmer now spends nearly $45,000 (!!!) to gain a new resource consent - for things as simple as operating a well. Even consent renewals still clock in at around $28,000. In Canterbury, the average bill blows past $60,000. No wonder food is getting expensive...

The process has become a bureaucratic maze where success depends more on how many consultants you can afford than on the quality of your environmental practices. Councils are drowning farmers in paperwork, delays, and red tape while charging eye-watering fees for the privilege. The system has become so complex that even experts can’t guarantee consistent outcomes from one planner to the next.

Farmers are being punished for trying to follow the rules, with costs and uncertainty now acting as a handbrake on investment and productivity across the sector. It’s not about better environmental outcomes anymore, it’s about ticking boxes and keeping consultants employed.

Federated Farmers are calling for a common-sense fix by letting all existing consents roll over until the new RMA replacement system is ready. It’s simple, fair, and would save farmers time, money, and stress while the Government gets its reforms in order. Something we'll get in behind!

A big party for a broom, some beads – and $82,800 of your money 🎉🎨💸

Our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys, has revealed that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage handed over $82,800 to fund the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Awards, a biennial competition exclusively for Māori artists aged 35 and under.

The Awards are designed to encourage young artists to create portraits around the theme of their tūpuna (ancestors). Fair enough, but the sheer size of the party is a hangover. 

Art (and the value of a party) will always be subjective – and that’s part of its beauty – but spending tens of thousands of dollars from the Ministry’s budget went to prizes for entries that, errr, might not reflect the priorities of hardworking New Zealanders...

The winning works the party was to celebrate were of a string of beads on a wall, while a runner-up features… a broom.

We’re not calling for an end to arts funding (as much as some interns would like us to!) – I’m a proud and loyal arts supporter myself. But we are calling for some common sense!

If the Government wants to spend public money on art prizes, it should be ready to explain why that’s a better use of funds than supporting local museums, heritage groups, or community arts projects that reach the full breadth of the public – and actually are art, perhaps.

Maybe next year’s theme could be “value for money.”

Thanks to everyone who wished me well last week. Northland was a delight! Have a great weekend.

Tory Relf Head of Comms New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

ps. Did you see our ads in the papers today? We’re fronting the campaign against Labour’s proposed new capital gains tax – but we can’t do it without your support. Thank you to everyone who has already donated. If you haven’t, every dollar will be used to fight Labour's unfair tax grab.

 

Hi,

Happy Friday! While the weather has been awful this week (thoughts with those whose lives and livelihoods are affected), it's been a wild ride for taxpayers too, with some wins, and some losses. 

We've exposed yet another $230,000 government logo, celebrated two taxpayer victories, and embarrassed the Commerce Commission for focus on their core job of promoting competition, spending $50,000 building their own "How to learn Te Reo" app that at least seven other departments have already developed. 🤦‍♂️

But first...

LGNZ President falls on sword (eventually...)💥

Too often in politics, there is a rather unbecoming tendency to dance on graves, and it's something that the whole team at the Taxpayers' Union are conscious not to pile into. 

But on the other hand, I wouldn't be doing my job not to update you about the disgraced former Selwyn Mayor (and Local Government New Zealand President) Sam Broughton finally doing the honourable thing and agreeing to stand down from leading LGNZ.

Last week, despite having been absolutely trounced at the election and losing his Majority, he was digging in and insisting he could serve as President for another 10 months (i.e. until next year's LGNZ AGM).

But just two days after, I was on 1 News to call him out for not stepping down, and newly elected members had contacted LGNZ to express their concern, Broughton suddenly announced his resignation. 

Better late than never ✅

This is the right decision. Under Broughton's leadership, it's clear LGNZ became overly politicised and mistrusted. Auckland and Christchurch City Councils are among the councils that had quit, meaning LGNZ's membership doesn't represent even half of New Zealand's population. As we pointed out, fixing LGNZ was unlikely to come from the leadership that got it into this mess.

Jordan has wished Sam Broughton the best of luck for the future, but also laid out the challenge for the new leadership. As he told media, it's a chance for LGNZ to hit the reset button and appoint someone on the side of local democracy, not the Labour Party, partisan politics, or anti-ratepayer activism. You can read his full statement here.

Taxpayer Victory: Big banks back down after public pressure 🏦

Hot on the heels of Sam Broughton stepping down, we scored another big win this week — and it’s thanks to people power.

Earlier this year, your humble Taxpayers' Union was in Christchurch to protest outside the National Party Conference against a proposed law change to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA). The proposed law change would have let the banks off the hook by applying changes retrospectively, to kill off a live consumer class-action currently before the High Court involving tens of thousands of Kiwis fighting for fair compensation over unfair fees.

Thousands of Taxpayers' Union supporters backed us by emailing Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson, demanding they scrap the dirty deal.

And it worked. On Monday, the Government confirmed that the retrospective clause has been dropped.

A huge thank you to everyone who came to the protest, emailed the Ministers, signed the petition, or donated to the campaign. The Big Banks might not love you, but we do! ❤️

Commerce Commission's $50,600 Te Reo Repeat 📱

Just when we thought the public sector’s app obsession had peaked, we've found out the Commerce Commission has jumped in with its own Te Pikitanga te reo language app – to teach its staff and stakeholders how to learn te reo – at a total cost of $50,600.

In case you've missed it, we’ve already uncovered $218,000 wasted across seven other agencies on similar apps, each just reinventing the wheel. Now, inexplicably, the Commission has decided it needs its own too.

First, this kind of duplication highlights the problem with Wellington’s bureaucracy: every department wants its own pet project, even when the work has already been done somewhere else.

Second, it exposes that the Government's message about the public service focusing on core services hasn't got through. The ComCom's role is to promote competition and protect consumers. Quite how a Te Pikitanga serves that role is known only to the ComCom.

We checked whether the app includes te reo versions of the laws the ComCom is empowered to enforce – the Commerce Act or the Fair Trading Act. It doesn't even have that!

If agencies want staff to learn te reo, they can use one of the many programmes taxpayers have already paid for. In the meantime, how about spending taxpayer money on what an agency is actually tasked with doing?

Public sector strikes: Are the Labour Party's unions out of touch? 💼💸

While parts of the country remain under states of emergency after severe weather, public sector unions still chose to walk off the job yesterday. 

Public servants, on average, are paid a salary of $2,003 a week. That's compared to $1,592 in the private sector. Of course, we want nurses, teachers, etc paid fairly, but the sad truth is that until New Zealand gets growing again, it's a false economy to tax the productive economy more, to grow Government pay packets.

As explained by Taxpayers' Union Co-founder David Farrar over on Kiwiblog, this is what yesterday's strike was rejecting:

• An offer to primary teachers that would see those paid over $100,000 increasing from 40% to 66%.

• Secondary teachers: $100,000+ earners would rise from 60% to 76%.

• Senior doctors: average total pay of $343,500, plus six weeks’ leave and a three-month sabbatical every six years.

• Senior nurses: average $125,662, with a further 2% pay rise.

• Graduate nurses: up from $75,773 to $84,150 by 2026.

{{recipient.first_name_or_friend}}, taxpayers can at least count on one union that didn't walk off the job this week. The Taxpayers' Union will keep working to hold the Government to account.

$270,000 for logos before science even starts 🎨💸

Our investigations team have uncovered that the Government’s new science agency has blown $270,000 on logos, branding, and “visual identity.”

As picked up by The Post, the agency managed to find room in its start-up budget for a quarter-million-dollar design project before it’s even done any science.

Rebrands and logo designs do not help taxpayers, and they do not help science.

This story came from a confidential tip-off, along with so many of our waste stories. Our investigations team are always on the lookout for new stories. If you have information you'd like to share, use our confidential tip line now to keep the pressure on.

Council waste drives inflation higher 💸📈

New inflation figures released on Monday show the cost of living is still climbing - and local council rates are a big part of the problem.

Local authority rates and payments made up nearly 28% of quarterly inflation, with average rates up 34% in just three years. That means ratepayers are being hit twice: once through their bills, and again through the inflation those hikes are fuelling.

It’s more proof that local government spending is out of control. Kiwis can’t afford endless rate hikes: it’s time for the Government to cap rates now.

That’s why we’re backing councillors who’ve signed our Ratepayer Protection Pledge and calling on others to follow their lead and cap council rates. It’s time to bring some discipline back to local government.

Taxpayer Talk: A warning from Australia on the growing black market in tobacco 🚬💰

This week on Taxpayer Talk, Jordan sits down with Rowan Pike - international consultant, former Australian Federal Police officer, and Customs and Border Force expert - to unpack Australia’s exploding illicit tobacco trade.

With around half of all cigarettes now coming from the black market, Rowan explains how sky-high excise taxes have fuelled organised crime, gang violence, and a thriving underground industry. He also shares what New Zealand can learn before making the same mistakes.

If you care about harm reduction, smarter regulation, and keeping communities safe, this episode’s worth a listen.

👉 Listen to the full episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm off to Northland this weekend to celebrate six months since arriving in New Zealand and starting at the Taxpayers' Union.

Have a great long weekend - and stay safe in this crazy weather!

 

Tory Relf Head of Comms New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

 

 

This week we farewell the CEO of Wellington Water, reveal the latest extravagant taxpayer-funded party(s), expose the Ministry of Education's wayward priorities, and share our exclusive intel collected from the National Party's conference... We will also give you an update on the Government's unwinding of Labour's Three Waters policy.

Film Commission partying away taxpayer money 💸🎈

Government adopts key aspects of Taxpayers' Union Three Waters alternative 💦💦💦

On Thursday, the Government released the latest update in its Three Waters reforms and it's good news, Friend. 

The relentless advocacy, campaigning, policy work and legal drafting is finally paying off.

The Three Waters replacement will include many of they key principles and proposals of our alternative we spent the last two years developing.

Our Economist, Ray Deacon, wrote about the latest updates in an opinion piece for Wellington's The Post published on Friday:

Decades of poor asset management, combined with the tendency of councils to raid money intended for things people can’t see, like pipes, to fund the politically expedient things people can see like convention centres and town halls, have led to the situation we find ourselves in today...

Yesterday’s announcement from the Government is a lifeline for New Zealand’s water infrastructure. It incorporates many of the proposals from the Taxpayers’ Union’s technical advisory group.

I was part of that group. Joined by a team of experienced experts in infrastructure, local government, and economics, we set out to develop comprehensive legislative drafting instructions for a future Government to pick up.

Continue reading over at The Post.

Key points from Thursday's announcement: 

• Councils, jointly or individually, are able to set up council-controlled organisations (CCOs) with ring-fenced revenue for water infrastructure (so it can't be used to hide stealth rates increases to fund pet projects as some councils currently do). 

• CCOs can borrow for long-term investment in core infrastructure with that cost more fairly shared across all users over the infrastructure's lifetime, rather than lumped on the ratepayers of today – or worse, using borrowed money for day-to-day wasteful spending (or not undertaking the capital work at all).

• Drinking water safety and quality will continue to be regulated by the new water regulator, addressing the core issue that caused the Havelock North water crisis back in 2016.

• Small shared domestic water schemes will be exempted from the regulations preventing them from being required to deal with the same level of expensive red tape as our largest cities. This is a huge win. Under the current rules, farmers connecting just two dwellings (such as a farmhouse and shearers quarters) were to be regulated like a town-supply utility!

• The regulator must consider the costs imposed on suppliers before imposing ineffective or impractical regulation where the cost far exceeds the benefits, preventing engineers from being totally risk adverse or gold-plating (no matter the costs).

• Economic regulation, enforced by the Commerce Commission, will require CCOs to publicly produce economic, service performance, and management data, ensuring they are properly managing their assets and future investment. This is standard around the world and is already in place for electricity lines companies.

As Ray summed it up:

Our solutions to the nation’s water woes focused on tackling the core issues rather than using the reforms as a Trojan horse for pushing ideological changes – namely, expanding co-governance and centralising control, as the previous Government did.

Friend, all of this work was made possible thanks to the thousands of our supporters who backed the Taxpayers' Union against all odds to first stop, and then scrap, Three Waters.

We were up against what, at face-value, was an unwinnable battle: A single party majority Labour Government, a media unwilling to report fairly on Three Waters, an opposition unwilling to be vocal and a multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign to scare the public into supporting their proposals. 

But with people power, grassroots activism, roadshows, TV and newspaper ads and hundreds upon hundreds of banners we slowly turned the tide and won convincingly. Take a bow Friend.

Wellington Water boss quits 👋

The same day as the Government's Three Water's announcement, Wellington Water's Chief Executive, Tonia Haskell announced her resignation – effective the very next day.

Credit where it's due for Ms Haskell for falling on her sword following the organisation's incredibly poor (and expensive) performance.

Wellington Water recently admitted overlooking a budget error, forcing ratepayers to fork out an additional $51 million to plug the holes. 

Earlier in the year, a damning report highlighted the skyrocketing costs of fixing the city's leaks, and over the summer ratepayers were forced onto water restrictions as the region was losing almost half of its drinking water to leaks.

A serious shakeup is needed at Wellington Water. The Board must work quickly to find a strong replacement who is able to bang the right heads together and get things done. 

A similar approach would be useful in central government too...

Time to pull the plug on taxpayer-funded EV chargers 🔌

Last week, Rhys, one of our young researchers, uncovered that the Ministry of Education is pumping millions of dollars into taxpayer-funded EV chargers for their staff. Since 2022, they have spent almost $2.2 million on 297 chargers, only four of which are on properties owned by the taxpayer. For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't car chargers at schools, it's mostly chargers at offices and carparks that aren't even owned by the Ministry.

There’s not even any environmental benefit either. As I explain here, these policies don’t make a dent in emissions.

If government departments were wasting taxpayers’ money installing petrol pumps in their basements it would rightly be called ridiculous. Paying millions to install EV charging points is no different, except it comes with a hefty sprinkle of middle-class welfare for Wellington bureaucrats plugging in their Teslas.

This $2.2 million is just one Ministry’s contribution. Other departments are almost certainly at it too, on top of the tens of millions already splurged on public EV chargers by EECA.

The Ministry needs to use every cent to fix our broken education system. It’s time to pull the plug on this nonsense. 

>>> Pull the plug on taxpayer-funded EV chargers <<<

So while it's open-season when it's taxpayer money, when politicians are spending their own money the story is slightly different...

Frosty reception at the National Party conference 🥶

Earlier this month, the National Party had their annual conference in Auckland.

We're always keen to keep our ears close to the ground, and picked up a scoop or two – but when one of our staffers in attendance reported one little thing he overheard, we couldn’t help but laugh.

Conference-goers had a frosty reception when the National Party apparently refused to put the heating on, saying it would cost the party too much money!

This from the same people running a government spending programme which is spending even more than Grant Robertson was!

So now we know, politicians can indeed be frugal – at least when it’s their money they’re having to spend, not that taken from hardworking taxpayers…

Now take that approach to Wellington please.

Media Mentions:

Newstalk ZB The Huddle: Are we being too hard on the C2 500 crew?

The Post A lifeline for New Zealand’s failing infrastructure

The Post Auckland mayor’s plan to ‘dethrone’ errant Auckland Transport

Kiwiblog Why I have resigned from the Research Association of New Zealand

RNZ Mediawatch for 11 August 2024 [16:34]

Media releases:

Fun Police Need To Stay In Their Lane

TVNZ Must Be Sold Before It’s Too Late

TVNZ’s $1.5M Rebrand A Smokescreen For Poor Performance And Declining Trust

Time To Pull The Plug On EV Charging Rort

Taxpayers’ Union Welcomes Progress On Three Waters Replacement

Nicola Willis Promises To Tackle Bureaucrats’ Rocketing Wage Growth

Second Aratere Ferry Incident Highlights Need To Sell Interislander

Government Wasted $2.2 Million On Ministry Of Education’s EV Chargers, Needs Lessons In Climate Policy

EXPOSED: Taxpayers continuing to fund "white privilege workshops" for MBIE mandarins 🚫🤦🏻‍♀️

Do you remember when the new Government insisted they were going through departmental spending line-by-line?

Well someone should have gone to Specsavers if our latest waste exposé is anything to go by.

On Sunday, your humble Taxpayers' Union blew the whistle that Government departments continue to splurge money on [checks notes] "white privilege" workshops for bureaucrats and government contractors.

Earlier this year, we got a tipoff that MBIE had spent $650,000 on these workshops over the past four years, and this story is just what we've uncovered so far.

As splashed in the Sunday Star Times:

MBIE says the workshops help staff address unconscious bias which helps them better serve NZ but the Taxpayers’ Union says it’s “wasteful spending”.

Almost $22,000 has already been spent so far this year on nine different sessions. Five more are booked in.

The Taxpayers’ Union said the workshops needed to be “on the chopping block” and every government department needed to look at its “wasteful spending”.

"Workshopping for government departments with more money than sense has fast become a mega-industry, with organisations, no one has ever heard of being bunged hundreds of thousands of dollars from the taxpayer year after year,“ said James Ross, policy and public affairs manager for the Taxpayers’ Union.

Figures released under the Official Information Act show since 2020, MBIE has contracted The Wall Walk and Courageous Conversations for 58 workshops run across the country for its staff. The Star-Times requested the contracts but were denied their release because it would have taken too much work to compile.

The Wall Walk is run by criminologist Dr Simone Bull (Ngāti Porou) and is described on its website as part theatre, part study, part kōrero and is designed to “raise collective awareness of key events in the history of New Zealand”.

Its sessions cost between $529.87 and $7105.45 - the majority of the sessions were less than $5000.

Bull said she couldn’t speak to procurement processes but her workshop was unique.

“It’s not possible for any agency or business to get multiple providers to tender for a unique service,” she said.

“I like to think that it’s popular because generations of people who call Aotearoa New Zealand home want to know about our country’s history (including the policies that were introduced and why) but were never taught it and the way we teach it is designed to uphold the mana or dignity of the people involved and their descendants.”

Courageous Conversations is run by South Pacific Institutes and its website says its mission is grounded in Te Tiriti and aims to “elevate racial consciousness through interracial dialogue”. Its most frequently contracted workshop to MBIE is called ‘Beyond Diversity’.

And sadly, the Minister is nowhere to be seen...

Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee is responsible for MBIE and said the workshops were an operational decision and the ministry had a responsibility to support its staff who are from a diverse range of backgrounds.

And it's not just MBIE. Our research team has so far uncovered 19 other government agencies that have also been spending taxpayer money on these workshops, pumping thousands of bureaucrats through these courses. The Sunday Star Times continues:

At least 19 other public agencies - including police, ESR, MPI, the Commerce Commission, the Retirement Commission and Cancer Control Agency - have references in recent publications to providing the workshops. Most include it under their cultural or diversity plans.

The Taxpayers’ Union said MBIE was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

“Bureaucrats across government need to front up on the scale of this rort and let the public decide for themselves what they think of their hard-earned money being spent like this,” said Ross.

The Ministry of Education began offering the Beyond Diversity workshops to its staff since 2018 but was criticised for it in 2021 by National and ACT when they were in opposition.

Then National leader Judith Collins said officials were being taught “to feel guilty” about being white and ACT leader David Seymour called the “white privilege” workshops “entirely inappropriate”.

Internal emails from the time show Secretary for Education Iona Holsted had the expectation that all staff undertook the training.

Continue reading over on the Stuff.co.nz.

We say forcing government staff to take off the better part of the day to calculate their 'white privilege score' is not a good use of taxpayer money. 

If you agree, drop a note to Melissa Lee (the Minister responsible for MBIE) and ask her to tell officials to put a stop to this nonsense.

TVNZ's $1.5 million rebrand a smokescreen for poor performance ✨🪩

Last week we revealed that taxpayer-owned broadcaster, TVNZ, wasted $1.5 million rebranding their online streaming platform from 'TVNZ on Demand' to 'TVNZ+'.

No prizes for guessing why they're expecting a $28 million loss this year...

This extravagant expenditure comes at a time when TVNZ is plagued by poor management, declining revenue, and a growing mistrust among viewers.

With people increasingly getting their news from other sources, available instantly thanks to the internet, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify state ownership of TVNZ. We should sell it – if we're lucky, it might still be worth something. 

If you haven't yet signed our petition to sell TVNZ, please add your name so we can ramp up the pressure on the Government to act before it's too late.

Forced to choose between continuing to prop up the John Campbells and Maiki Shermans of this world or paying down debt and delivering meaningful tax relief, I know what I'd choose...

Tax 'relief' giving with one hand, taking with the other 💸🤫

Councils must set, and achieve, savings targets 🎯✅

And it's not just the Government that needs to do a better job of ensuring Kiwis can keep more of what they earn.

With households and businesses across the country tightening their belts and finding ways to do more with less, it's time councils did the same.

With average rates hikes of more than 15%, many ratepayers are at risk of being forced to sell or remortgage their homes just to pay the bills. 

When the Government came into power, they demanded 6.5-7.5% savings from almost every department  – it's great to see them finally urging local councils to do the same.  

We recently also wrote to every Mayor and council asking them what efforts they are making to cut back on costs and whether they have set savings targets to keep rates under control. Unfortunately, the responses we've received have been underwhelming, to say the least. We'll report back once we have all of the council's responses.

Hastings District Council pays $1m for a building. Sells it for $150k two years later 🏗️🤯

Cutting back on wasteful spending in local councils doesn't mean reducing core services. Axing the silly and incompetent spending will go a long way to balancing the books in the first instance. 

At my hometown council in Hastings, one doesn't have to look far. The Council bought a building just two years ago for $1 million, now they've decided to sell it for a mere $150,000.

No private individual or business would make such a wasteful "investment". If you need any more evidence that nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as they spend their own, look no further than Hastings. 

I wrote to the Mayor, and every Councillor, demanding an explanation. What I got back from the Mayor was some carefully crafted PR spin that avoided many of the questions asked. Not a single councillor responded – we have heard from our well-placed sources that councillors were instructed by officials not to respond to the questions posed by the Taxpayers' Union!

This isn't local democracy nor is it accountability. And this certainly won't be the last Hastings District hear from us about it. 

You can read my letter here and judge for yourself whether the Council's response is a good faith attempt to answer my questions here.

Report waste at *your* local council👮🔬

Many of our best government and local government waste stories come directly from supporters like you, or from those with their boots on the ground working in the 'belly of the beast' as elected representatives or council officials. 

If you are aware of waste at your local council that could use some sunlight exposure, please report it via our confidential tipline and our team will investigate and expose it.

🔎 >>> REPORT WASTE HERE <<< 🔎

Media Mentions:

RNZ Mediawatch for 28 July 2024 [25:46]

Interest.co.nz The Coalition has delivered on its promise to cut taxes without extra borrowing but still needs to convince voters it won’t come at the cost of frontline staff

Pacific Mornings 531pi Richard Pamatatau, Political Commentator [9:16]

Greymouth Star Westcoast Rates Compared [Print only]

The Spinoff Get ready, your much-hyped tax cut is almost here

Rural News Out of control

Newstalk ZB Jordan Williams: Taxpayers' Union Executive Director on the Film Commission spending over $16,400 on celebrations

NZ Herald NZ Film Commission spends $16,431 on CEO parties amid budget cuts

Interest.co.nz Nicola Willis says she will use fiscal drag to help pay down public debt, despite calling it a flaw in the tax system

Rural News Full-Court Press

NZ Herald Government wants ‘line-by-line’ review of council spending and floats asset sales

NZ Herald Rethink needed on council funding - Nick Clark

Manawatu Standard Nothing slushy about support for Manawatū events

NZ Herald National Party Conference: party president Sylvia Wood sets goal of mid-40s in the polls

The Post Christopher Luxon returns to the National Party faithful

Sunday Star Times Government still spending thousands on ‘white privilege’ workshops

 

Tax 'relief' this week (if you can call it that)

No doubt the big story the Government will want the media focus on this week is their tax reductions finally coming into force. 

But sadly, it's not really tax relief when New Zealanders are still paying a higher average rate of tax than under the early years of Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson.

Thanks to the failure to adjust tax brackets for inflation since 2010, Kiwis have been forced into higher and higher tax brackets – even when earnings haven't changed in "real" (inflation-adjusted) terms. This is called "bracket creep" or "fiscal drag".

It has meant, for the average Kiwi worker, they're paying $49 per week more in tax, despite being no better off.

$49 is what Nicola Willis needed to deliver for the average worker. Unfortunately she is shortchanging New Zealanders giving them less than half of what is needed to make up for 14 years of stealth tax hikes.

So while this week's changes are welcome, the Government must go a lot further and faster to cut wasteful spending and deliver more meaningful tax relief. 

Yet another failed mega-merger 🏥💸

Remember when the Labour Government decided to centralise the health system into a bureaucratic monolith in the middle of a pandemic?

Well it won't come as a surprise to anyone after seeing the boondoggles with the centralisation of our polytechnics and the attempted Three Waters power grab that the new health mega-bureaucracy is burning money at a rate of knots.

Overspending by $130 million every month, Health NZ was on track for a $1.4 billion deficit – $700 for every household in the country. 

Despite the billions spent, and 3000 extra backroom paper pushers hired, health outcomes continued to decline and report after report slammed the bureaucratic mess the Government had created.

Rather than sitting on his hands, credit must be given to Health Minister Shane Reti for sacking the Board and putting in a commissioner to sort out the agency's finances and turn its performance around. 

And it's not just central government bleeding cash... 

Ratepayers fork out for 'Rebel Business School' rort 🕴️

If you're wondering what your council is spending money on that necessitates a double digit rates hike, you may want to check if they're funding the 'Rebel Business School'. 

What sounds like a formidable educational institution to teach people how to run a business is drenched in controversy. Their 10-day unaccredited course has optional attendance for "graduates" and has consistently failed to meet delivery and attendance targets.

Taking money from productive businesses through higher rates, only to give it to (and this is a generous description in the circumstances) a "pop-up business creche" is not how you create a vibrant local economy. 

Even Christchurch City Council's economic development wing is questioning the group's value, and has withdrawn funding "due to delivery targets not being met." Other councils should follow suit.

Auckland Council spent $280,000 on this grift, Napier City Council spent $29,000 and taxpayers have stumped up more than $1.35 million! Rather than pay for "optional attendance" qualifications certificate printing, councils and government would have been better off slashing red tape that makes just getting a business off the ground such a bureaucratic nightmare in the first place.

Check if your council is funding these grifters here.

With councils seemingly desperate to spend ratepayer money on anything except core business, one MP has decided to do something about it. 

MP wants to stop councils from considering emissions in consenting 💰🔥 

Sick of seeing councils waste millions of dollars on unsuccessfully trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ACT MP and farmer Mark Cameron has told councils to 'get in behind'.

Mr Cameron has lodged a Member's Bill that would force councils to stop considering emissions (which is a central, not local government responsibility) when making consenting decisions.

The Taxpayers' Union support the Bill as it rightly recognises that reducing emissions is the role of central government and, due to how our Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) works, almost anything councils do in the climate change space is completely pointless (see below).

The ETS sets a fixed cap on the amount of emissions that can occur each year. This cap is based on the total amount of emissions (from things like car exhausts) minus any removals (such as from forestry). If one council decides to block the consent on a new factory because it would be powered using a coal boiler, that simply means someone else can emit more instead. I explain this in more detail here. 

Speaking of getting councils back under control...

No, 1News, referendums are not a 'legal loophole' 🤯🔦

In some sad news following the Tauranga election that one of the newly elected councillors was undergoing medical treatment at the hospital, one reporter decided to insert anti-democracy propaganda into the story.

The reporter stated that the ability for local residents to petition against and hold a referendum on the introduction of a Māori Ward was a 'legal loophole'. This implies that a technicality in the law allowed this to happen and that it wasn't intended – that's simply not the case.

In fact, it was explicitly written in the law before Nanaia Mahuta hijacked local decision-making and removed the ability for local communities to decide their own electoral arrangements. 

This biased and misleading reporting is exactly why people are losing trust in the media. To top things off, here's what was written in small text at the very bottom of the story: 

"LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air"

Seriously, taxpayers are the ones paying for this drivel. 

Fortunately, the new Government is in the process of restoring local democracy – watch my tussle with Willie Jackson on the matter here.  

Media Mentions:

Newstalk ZB Capital Letter: NZ Herald's Georgina Campbell on Interislander poll, further bullying allegations

Chris Lynch Media Inflation Drops to 3.3% in July, but what does that mean for cost of living crisis?

The Leighton Smith Podcast Jordan Williams of the NZ Taxpayer's Union argues the benefits of Estonia's tax regime

Newstalk ZB The councils with the highest rates rises, and why

The Platform Michael Laws Questions Māori Influence in Local Government Decisions [1:57]

Sunday Star Times Inside the Beehive: 10 minutes with Casey Costello

Kiwiblog Who is hiking rates the most

Stuff Rates more than double over 10 years

Newstalk ZB The Huddle: Do we need regulations for PayWave fees?

Hansard Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill — Second Reading

RNZ Interislander: More opposition than support for ferry project cancellation, poll finds

The Press The Press letters to the editor: Thursday July 25

Kiwiblog Guest Post: Economics 101 for RadioNZ, Guyon Espiner and Professors Janet Hoek and Chris Bullen

Bassett, Brash & Hide PETER WILLLIAMS: The costs of Te Mana o te Wai are worse than we thought

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)

 

Media Mentions:

RNZ PM Luxon claiming $52,000 accommodation supplement

1 News midday Chris Luxon collects taxpayer-funded accommodation expenses [TV only]

RNZ The Panel with Jo McCarroll and David Farrar (Part 2)

1 News at 6pm Luxon accommodation expenses

Newstalk ZB Morning Edition: 02 March 2024 (Luxon no longer claiming expenses) (1:20)

Newsroom When you hear the people sing

Newstalk ZB Nicola Willis: Finance Minister warns surplus deadline won't be reached

Press Releases

Greens’ Threat Straight Out Of Trump’s Playbook

Coalition Sticking Plasters Over New Zealand’s Infrastructure Crisis

Taxpayers’ Union Urges Masterton District Council To Prioritise Ratepayers Over Legacy Projects

Councils Can Save Money On LGOIMA Responses By Being More Transparent

Taxpayers’ Union Supports Wayne Brown’s Call For Rates On Government Buildings

Nicola Willis Needs To Explain Which Coalition Partner Vetoed Reversing The App Tax

Taxpayers’ Union Welcomes Scrapping Of Ineffective Road To Zero Campaign

Taxpayers’ Union Welcomes Draft Transport GPS, Warns Against Overzealous Tax Hikes

Scrap The App Tax: More Than 3,300 Taxpayers Contacted Nicola Willis Over The Weekend

Bigger Is Not Better Or More Efficient When It Comes To Local Councils

Taxpayers’ Union (Re)Launches National Party’s Campaign To Scrap The App Tax

As you'll see that while many politicians (and just about all the Wellington bureaucrats!) are enjoying long holidays, our team are back at work exposing waste, fighting for more more taxpayer victories, and promoting sensible improvements for how your money is spent.

Thousands of Brand New State Houses Sitting Empty 🏠🔥

Despite the state housing waitlist being more than 30,000 people long, thousands of brand new state houses have been sitting empty, some for months at a time. Taxpayers spent millions on building and purchasing these properties, so they should be filled rather than left to collect dust.

Of course, the wider issue is the state of bureaucratic regulation in the housing sector that effectively makes it illegal to build a cheap house. The chaotic mess of red tape creates unworkable, unnecessary and ineffective restrictions on building and renting homes. This drives up the costs of housing and forces people onto that waitlist.

It is clear that big and centralised government is not good at getting people into affordable housing. It is a scandal that for a country with a small population, and plenty of land, housing is among the most expensive in the world.

The new government has talked a good talk on cutting red tape and simplifying our planning laws such as the Resource Management Act. This year, one of our major focuses will be on ensuring they follow through. New Zealand cannot afford another generation without access to affordable housing, both for renters, and those who want to build or buy.

In terms of social housing, rather than trying, yet again, to fix Kāinga Ora and its centralised model, we say the Government should be focused at enabling (including funding) local community groups to provide both high quality housing and social services as they are likely to deliver far better value for the taxpayer long term. 

Because empty houses is not the only failure happening at Kāinga Ora...

Kāinga Ora's $2 Million Cost Blowout on Ridiculous Housing Project 🚧🧱

You would think that, to the extent to which central government should be responsible for building houses, they would actually build them in areas where they are most needed and have appropriate social services nearby. Think again...

On Thursday, we called out a cost blowout on a state housing development that shows everything wrong with Kāinga Ora. The development which would create 44 residential houses in Ohakune was originally intended to cost $5.2 million but has since blown out by 44% to $7.5 million. This supposedly post-COVID lockdown 'shovel-ready' project has been in the pipeline since 2020 yet four years later we are yet to see a single shovel hit dirt!

The cost blowout comes as no surprise given the Auditor-General slammed the 'shovel ready' slush fund for its poor decision making and continuous wastage of taxpayer money.

There are countless reasons why this project should never have been approved in the first place. For a start, approving a 44-house development in a small town where there are only 11 families in Ohakune on the housing waitlist, is questionable when thousands of people remain in taxpayer funded hotels temporary housing across the country. Surely a development of this scale should go where it is most needed?

To make things worse, Ohakune has virtually no social services and no local GP so the wrap-around services that will be needed for some of these families will simply not be available. 

The funding for this project was originally tuned down twice due to its unviability with one of the early due diligence reports deeming it a "no go". But when COVID came along, the bureaucrats hit 'go' anyway.

It is clear that things are seriously bad at Kāinga Ora. We understand that the new Minister, Chris Bishop, has written to them outlining his expectations but if things don't turn around soon, the Board will be sacked. Good.

The Taxpayer-friendly "Disinformation Project": Stop Bureaucrats from Describing Taxpayer-Funded Services as 'Free' 🇦🇷🤥

Join the call for honesty by signing the petition here.

Auckland Dominion Road Trams Scrapped – Saving $15,000 per Household 🚆✖️

This week we also celebrated the Government finally pulling the plug on Auckland Tramway, sorry, "Light Rail", which saw hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Since its inception, the tramway has racked up a near quarter of a billion-dollar bill in consultant fees and building purchases, yet in all that time we still didn't see a single metre of track being laid!

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, there was simply no justification for the Government to continue reaching deeper into Kiwis pockets, especially when the budget was only continuing to skyrocket. Advice to the Minister showed costs could reach as high as $29.2 billion, or $15,000 for every household in the country!

This is a necessary first step from the Government in what we hope will be further moves to tighten its belt and cut back on wasteful pipe-dream projects. But if the new coalition is really serious about slashing waste, it needs to address another glaring problem, which is how these non-roading initiatives continue to raid the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).

We’ve long called for the NLTF, which is funded by fuel taxes and road user charges, to go back to funding exclusively  what it is actually meant for: roading infrastructure. We're calling on the Government to properly ring-fence the fund, and ensures it does not continue to be pillaged for projects irrelevant to the purposes of our roading network, such as rail and cycleways. More to come on this in the coming months...

Farewell to our Australian Intern, Rhys Budge 👋🇦🇺

Last year, Rhys Budge jumped across the ditch from Australia to join us for a couple of months on an internship thanks to a bursary from our friends at the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation, a freemarket organisation in Perth. 

Rhys has been a fantastic addition to the team who has been involved in a wide range of research and investigations tasks during his time here. Rhys was responsible for research and producing our Nanny State Approved Christmas Feast report and has written another soon to be released reports on MP pay and the eye-watering costs of government branding and website 'refreshes'.

Rhys heads back to Australia to finish his studies in economics and finance and we know he will go on to do great things. We wish him the best of luck!

Rhys has written a blog post about his time at the Taxpayers' Union which you can read here.

Support the Next Generation of Fiscally Prudent Political Leaders 🧒🧠

As someone who started at the Taxpayers' Union as an intern, I know the value of being able to learn about and apply 'radical' ideas such as democratic accountability, transparency, and limited government. 

Being a student in a city like Wellington, the Taxpayers' Union internship allowed me to escape the echo-chamber of thought that plagues universities and is an opportunity for free discussion, lively debate, and being part of a great team.

Unlike the political parties (we're looking at you Labour!), we pay our interns. And, as you will see in the coming weeks from some of Rhys' work, they produce great research that holds the government to account and exposes government waste. 

If you would like to support the Taxpayers' Union internship programme, you can chip in to help fund an intern here.

Other News in Brief ⏰

• We welcomed the news that road user charges will finally be added to electric vehicles, making the system fairer and ensuring that those who use the roads pay for the damage they cause. Those driving fuel-powered vehicles should not be forced to subsidise (often more affluent) EV road users – especially when (contrary to what you'd see in the media!) electric cars don't actually reduce New Zealand's overall emissions (see my explainer video here).
• The Independent Electoral Review released their report on how to improve the electoral system which included recommending that the voting age be lowered to 16, it be made legal to bribe voters with refreshments and entertainment and that political parties be given even more taxpayer funding. We slammed the review and pointed out that taxpayer funding for political parties erodes democracy, favours incumbents and is morally unjustifiable.

Callum is back from seeing his family Scotland this weekend, so it'll be my turn to take some summer leave. I've enjoyed leading the campaign team over the holidays and can't wait for more policy wins this year.

Thanks for your support,

Connor Molloy Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

Media mentions:

NZ Herald Govt announces review of Kāinga Ora, Christopher Luxon responds to criticism over publicly-funded te reo lessons

NZ Herald Former transport minister Michael Wood lashes out at National for scrapping Auckland light rail

Rural News Clocking-up debt

Stuff Why the South Island’s slow shrinking could require Parliament to grow

NZ City The Taxpayers' Union wants more changes to how our road user charges work