Responding to the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and Spatial Planning Act, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:

“David Parker’s resource management reforms tried to strip consenting, planning and resource management powers away from local communities and place them in the hands of unelected, co-governed regional planning committees.

“We saw with the creation of the failed Te Pukenga, centralisation of the health system and the ballooning costs of Three Waters just how costly and ineffective the ‘Wellington knows best’ approach is. The last Government had an obsession with centralisation at any cost, and it is promising to see the new Government on track to reverse that trend.

“Scrapping the NBEA and SPA will keep planning in the hands of local communities, and this will be welcomed with open arms by anyone who values democratic accountability. Forcing the incoming Government to scrap these power-grabbing pieces of legislation is a huge victory for grassroots Kiwi activism, but it won’t fix the underlying problems in the RMA itself.

“The RMA has fuelled a crippling housing and infrastructure crisis. We can’t unlock New Zealand’s potential for development and growth without taking an axe to all this red tape, and there’s a long road ahead of us before New Zealand gets the meaningful RMA reform we need to get New Zealand building again.”

Commenting on the news that Climate Minister James Shaw has proposed an inquiry into climate-related community relocation before the passage of the Government’s Climate Adaptation Bill, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:
 
“Delaying climate adaptation legislation until the next parliament so that proper scrutiny can take place and cross-party agreement can be built is the right move. In this instance we welcome the Government’s acceptance that major reform should not be rushed through the House if it is to be effective.
 
“However, the Climate Adaptation Bill forms just one part of the Government’s misguided attempts to reform the RMA. The Natural Built Environment Bill and Spatial Planning Bill have been forced through Parliament, and they both will do untold damage to New Zealand’s economy and democracy.
 
“How then can the Government justify the public only being given enough time to properly scrutinize one third of its RMA reforms? Ramming these bills through in the final few days of this Parliament goes to show how little respect Labour have for voting New Zealanders.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Minister for the Environment, David Parker, to pause the proposed Resource Management Act replacement bills until after the election to ensure that MPs have sufficient time to properly consider the changes they are voting on.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“Rushed lawmaking more often than not leads to bad lawmaking, especially with bills as large and complex as those presented by Minister Parker. The 931 pages of legislation, the 1377 pages of select committee reports and the 977 page Supplementary Order Paper mean it is near impossible for any MP to truthfully say they have fully read and considered all aspects of the proposals. It is a chaotic mess.

“Those people who will actually have to deal with this legislation such as councils, developers, farmers and renewable energy companies have had to participate in a rushed process of submissions and consultations so have been unable to provide comprehensive feedback and recommendations.

“Pausing these reforms until after the election will allow for more time to ensure the reforms are done well and are an improvement on the status quo. Otherwise New Zealanders will be stuck with less certainty and more complexity leading to higher development costs and worse outcomes for the environment."

This week on Taxpayer Talk, Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, sits down with National Party MP, Chris Bishop, to discuss the Government's proposed replacement to the Resource Management Act (RMA) and what National would do with resource management if elected. 

Chris Bishop is National's spokesperson for RMA reform, Infrastructure and Housing and has been leading National's opposition to the contentious RMA reforms. The National Party have committed to repealing the Government's RMA replacement bills prior to Christmas if National is able to form a Government after the election. Chris makes the point that although the current RMA is bad, the proposed replacement is even worse and will make it even more difficult to build and develop.

In the podcast, Chris discusses what is wrong with the proposed reforms and the principles National's alternative would be based on. Later in the podcast, we also discuss a number of other policy areas such as indexation of tax brackets, the policies National would scrap and whether, as campaign chair, Chris believes National can win the election. 

To support Taxpayer Talk, click here

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] 

You can also listen to Taxpayer Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and all good podcast apps. 

Three Waters 2.0: Our ad in the Herald exposing David Parker's central planning "reforms"

With the support of hundreds of supporters like you, we managed to secure a four-page lift-out in the NZ Herald this week to coincide with the final day on our 'Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees' roadshow.

View a high-res image of the ad here

David Parker's reforms would strip democratic control over resource allocation and planning decisions from local councils and place them in the hands of unelected, co-governed central planning committees.

The Government has learnt its lesson from Three Waters and isn't spending millions of taxpayer dollars on TV adverts (or otherwise talking about what they are doing) this time. Our main objective with the nationwide roadshow tour was to raise awareness about these reforms and explain to New Zealanders what these radical changes will mean for them.

Over the coming weeks we will continue to expose Minister Parker's Soviet-style central planning committees for what they are and make it a major political thorn in the Government's side as we head towards October's election.

We can only force this matter onto the political agenda with people power. If you haven't already, please take a moment to add your name to the petition opposing these undemocratic reforms.

🔍 Future of Local Government 👩🏻‍💼👨🏻‍💼🔺

Not content with ripping away democratic control of water infrastructure and planning powers from local councils, a Government-appointed panel this week released their final report into the future of local government. 

As we predicted, the report advocates for even more centralisation and removal of local voice and democratic accountability from decision making. The report recommends reorganizing local government with "the resource management reform boundaries as a starting point for discussions". 😳

This would amount to a mass amalgamation of New Zealand's councils further reducing the ratepayers' ability to engage in the democratic process. 

New Zealand is one of the most highly centralized countries in the world. Just a tenth of government expenditure is delivered through our councils. And those councils are extremely large by international comparisons. Auckland's Super City is a prime example of bigger not being better – rather than save money it's led to more managers, more layers of bureaucracy, and much higher rates.

This Review presented a great opportunity to fix the issues in local councils and put power closer to the people, Instead it has focussed on identity politics and public sector gimmicks like citizens’ assemblies and "participatory budgeting". And the only structural reforms it proposes would likely see more centralizations and a further undermining of democratic accountability.

New Zealanders aren’t interested in nebulous concepts like embedding a wellbeing focus in local government – they want to see high quality services delivered at a local level for the lowest rates possible. That means small, democratically accountable, powerful local councils where local people have the opportunity every three years to kick out politicians who aren’t performing.

At the end of this month, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, taxpayers up and down New Zealand will be slapped with four new tax increases, so get ready as Grant Robertson is coming for your wallet.

On 1 July, the following taxes are increasing:

🛑 Petrol excise by 29 cents/litre (including GST)

🛑 Road user charges by 56%

🛑 Ute tax by up to $1,725

🛑 Alcohol tax by 6.6%

Worse still, all four tax increases will have a disproportionately large impact on rural and poorer households. 

Cost of living crisis? What cost of living crisis?

The fuel excise and diesel road user charge increases will punish those who often don't have any other choice but to drive either due to where they live or the nature of their work.

Similarly, the ute tax will slam hard-working farmers and tradies who simply don't have any other option but to drive a ute – for them, they are tools of the trade. This increase is particularly cruel for those who lost vehicles in the recent flooding and will now have to pay up to $6,900 in tax just to replace a damaged work vehicle. 

And where does this money go? To subsidize those in the cities (where public transport is an option) so they can buy themselves a new Tesla. 

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have already signed our petition calling for the ute tax to be scrapped. You can sign the petition here.

After all those tax hikes, you may need a beer or two to relax but, after a 6.9% alcohol excise hike last year, it's going up a further 6.6% this year too! Cheers.

Tax Preferences Principles Bill – David Parker trying to screw the scrum

David Parker’s Tax Principles Bill faced scrutiny at Select Committee last week, and of course your humble Taxpayers’ Union was there to give them a piece of taxpayers’ minds.

Scores of interested parties turned up to rip holes in this bill, which if nothing else shows one thing: Despite David Parker’s protestations that his 7 ‘principles’ were universally agreed upon fact, clearly they are little more than the preferences of one man and his lackeys.

For instance, take the Government’s attempt to enshrine in law the idea that tax systems must be progressive. Our economist, Ray Deacon, made the point that “there is no reason why a flat tax applied across all income levels, with an appropriately structured system of transfer payments, cannot achieve the goals that a progressive tax system is aiming for.” As it happens, even the Inland Revenue Department agrees with us!

Many of these "principles" would screw the scrum by shutting down democratic debate on our tax system by claiming Labour's opinions are objective fact and handing the power to dictate tax policy to an unelected Commissioner. If these principles are universal, Minister Parker must live in a different universe to us. 

In our written submission, we suggested that the bill be withdrawn or, at the very least, should be reworked to be based on the Tax Foundation's Principles of Sound Tax Policy. 

Ray also suggested that it would be more appropriate to rename the proposal as the Tax Preferences Bill. At least then the Government would be honest in their intentions. You can watch our submission here.

Taxpayer Victory: Michael Wood Resigns

In our last update, we called for Michael Wood's resignation over his failure to appropriately manage his conflict of interest as Minister of Transport while owning shares in Auckland Airport. Our petition has since gathered thousands of signatures.

It subsequently emerged that Wood had undeclared financial interest in a number of other areas that conflicted with his Ministerial responsibilities. It was also revealed that Minister Wood was contacted 16 times by the Cabinet Office to sell his shares, not just the 12 times that had previously been stated. For multiple breaches of disclosure requirements as bad as this, Prime Minister Hipkins shouldn't have given Wood the opportunity to resign and should have sacked him instead!

This is a significant victory for taxpayers and one we care deeply about – accountability is one of the three key pillars of our mission. All taxpayers are entitled to expect that Ministers appropriately manage conflicts of interest and are, well, honest. Democracies can only function properly when the public has confidence that Ministers' personal financial interests aren't influencing decisions. 

When Ministers fail to uphold high standards of transparency and accountability, public trust in Government is eroded and it lowers the bar for what is considered acceptable conduct by future Ministers. Hipkins has yet to rule out Wood's return to the Cabinet table in a future Government. We say this should be the end of Mr Wood's political career. 

We welcome the announcement that work is underway to improve Cabinet's systems for managing conflicts of interest, we can only hope that this yields more accountability rather than just another box-ticking exercise. 

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,

Callum Purves Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

The Spinoff New poll points to National-Act government despite bump for Greens

NZ Herald Political poll: National, Act could form Government

Stuff National and ACT could form government, according to latest poll

RNZ New poll shows National, ACT keeping edge ahead of Labour

Politik Collins paves the way

The Working Group with David Farrar, Raf Manji and Damien Grant

Newstalk ZB Afternoon Edition: 14 June 2023 (02:08)

NZ Herald Te Pāti Māori coalition a drag on Labour - poll

Otago Daily Times Council won't pay for statue: mayor

Newstalk ZB THE RE-WRAP: Gang Gaslighting Continues (07:09)

NZ Herald Will a recession lose Labour the election? PM Chris Hipkins, Grant Robertson respond

Otago Daily Times Poll: mayor should stay, not chief exec

The Press Govt told capital gains tax is not a ‘universally accepted’ taxation principle

NZ Local Government Magazine Reactions to Local Government Review report

The Platform David Farrar on the DIA making unauthorised changes to the Three Waters bill

interest.co.nz A super-majority of voters want to fix tax bracket creep but only two political parties agree

NEW POLL: Centre Right could form government while Greens see bump in support 📊🟢

Exclusively for our supporters like you, here are the results of June's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Here is how these results would translate to seats in the 120-seat Parliament, assuming all electorate seats are held:

National is unchanged on last month on 46 seats while Labour is down 2 seats to 42. ACT remains constant on 16 seats while the Greens pick up 3 seats to a total of 12. The Māori Party is down 1 seat on last month to 4.

David Parker U-Turns Under Pressure From Taxpayers’ Union ↩️⚖️

Our Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees roadshow is well under way. We’re traversing the length and breadth of the country from Invercargill to Whangārei to raise awareness about the Government's latest power grab. By increasing the profile of this issue, we are putting pressure on the Government to scrap these undemocratic reforms.

And we have already made some progress. 

We invited all Members of Parliament, mayors and councillors to come along and listen to voters' concerns about these reforms and give their own view about the proposals. On the very first day of our roadshow, I received an email from Minister Parker where he refused to attend one of our events as they were, apparently, "political grandstanding".

While he clearly wasn't interested in hearing what New Zealanders think, he did confirm a Government back down. 

Under his original plans, these reforms would have given the new National Māori Entity the ability to monitor and issue directions to the Minister and all bodies acting under these new laws, including the Environment Court. This prompted an unprecedented intervention from the Chief Justice, Dame Helen Winkelmann, who said such an approach was "inconsistent with New Zealand's constitutional arrangements".

In his email, Minister Parker announced that the Government would remove National Māori Entity oversight of the Environment Court. This simply goes to show that our efforts are already making a difference. Everyone who signs and shares our petition, or comes along to one of our roadshow events, or buys a banner or yard sign, is applying pressure on the Government.

It is a small step in the right direction, but we will continue to ramp up our campaign. These planning reforms are so bad that they must be withdrawn and the Government must go back to the drawing board. 

ACT announces plans to slash red tape ✂️🟡

Here at the Taxpayers' Union, we believe that excessive regulation is holding New Zealand back. Red tape hampers productivity and growth by putting costly and unnecessary barriers in the way of working, operating a business, or making improvements to your property.

But unlike tax and spend policies, the introduction of new regulations often receives little scrutiny. The current lack of careful analysis often leads to the implementation of unworkable rules, which in turn produce unintended consequences. In many cases, the costs associated with such regulations far outweigh any potential benefits they may bring.

Last weekend, ACT announced a policy to create a new Ministry for Regulation run by a minister responsible for subjecting proposals for new regulations to the same level of scrutiny we give to public spending. The Minister would also have the responsibility of reviewing existing regulations to see whether those that are unnecessarily burdensome can be scrapped.

We are generally cautious of proposals to create a new Ministry – there are far too many already – but we believe that this may be one of the few exceptions. Too often cost/benefit analyses can be a tick-box exercise, but having a Minister specifically charged with casting a critical eye over new and existing regulations will ensure that preventing and reducing unnecessary red tape will be given the priority it requires. 

Michael Wood must resign over shares scandal 🔍❌

At the time of writing, Michael Wood remains a Minister and has only been temporarily relieved of his transport portfolio. In the unlikely event that you missed it, Michael Woodhouse failed to declare his financial conflict of interest in Auckland Airport despite being the minister responsible for rules around aviation and the wasteful Auckland Light Rail to the airport. 

While the story is news to the public, it apparently isn't to Michael Wood. Two-and-a-half years ago, he was instructed by the Cabinet Office to sell his shares to ensure that his financial interest would not influence his decision making. Despite assurances that he would do so, Minister Wood only just sold his shares this week after the story appeared on the front page of the NZ Herald.

And this wasn't just a case of the Minister being careless and forgetting to sell the shares after a single reminder. The Cabinet Office told him to sell the shares not once, not twice, but a staggering twelve times. On at least one occasion, the Minister actually told the Jacinda Ardern's office that the shares had been sold despite this being demonstrably false. In addition, we now know that Minister Wood mislead the media, in response to a question from Newsroom about the accuracy of his interests register decorations.

Call us old fashioned, but we remember when Labour Ministers were sacked (or forced to quit) for lying to the media, let alone, the Prime Minister. Just ask Lianne Dalziel...

We say it is simply untenable for Michael Wood to remain a Minister. Chris Hipkins should have taken swift action to remove Wood from office immediately to send a clear signal that this type of conduct is unacceptable. This demonstrates a lack of respect to New Zealanders who expect our MPs – and Ministers especially – to be transparent (and honest).

As the Prime Minister isn't taking decisive action, we have set up a petition calling on Michael Wood to do the honourable thing and resign. You can add your name here.

>> Sign the petition <<<

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,

Callum Purves Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

NZ Herald On the Tiles: Episode 54 – The challenges facing National pre-election (01:51)

Stuff Where is the Green Party at for the upcoming election campaign?

TVNZ Donations, voting age: Panel recommends sweeping election changes

Wairarapa Times-Age Groups link up to oppose RMA plan

whatsoninvers.nz Huge Response In Southland To Hands Off Homes Roadshow

Otago Daily Times Mayor's comments on media funding labelled ignorant 

The News Addressing the people

Southland Times Gore District Council chief executive breaks his silence on bullying claims

Taxpayers' Union on Tour: Stop Central Planning Committees 🛑🏘️

On Monday, we kicked off our nationwide tour to Stop Central Planning Committees in Christchurch and the team are currently working their way down the South Island – tonight we are jointly hosting an event with Federated Farmers at 6pm at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club (details of all the events are on our website here). 

Make no mistake, David Parker's replacement to the Resource Management Act will make resource consenting even harder. While Three Waters was about taking control of community assets — to put into centralized, co-governed entities — these bills are about taking control of planning laws and what you can do with your home, your property, or your farm — taking the control away from democratically elected councils to put them in 15 centralized, co-governed, so-called 'Regional Planning Committees'.

The effects will be dramatic. As a voter, you will no longer be able to hold to account the decision makers who will determine what you can produce on your farm, build on your property, or how your community is planned.  The Federated Farmers and the Taxpayers' Union are no fans of the current Resource Management Act, but David Parker's new regime will make getting a resource consent much, much harder.

Unlike Three Waters, the Government isn't talking about these bills or making the public aware of what it is doing. That's why we've taken to the road.

David Parker's replacement to the RMA is Three Waters 2.0. It will mean:

🔴 Higher building costs

🔴 More red tape

🔴 No local control

🔴 More co-governance

Sound familiar?

Thanks to everyone who has come along to our events so far. Check out this video from Star News to see what we have been up to.

You can learn more about the proposed reforms at www.HandsOffOurHomes.nz

We'll be in your town soon 🚗🚩

You can find our full itinerary at www.taxpayers.org.nz/roadshow

We look forward to meeting you on the road.

The tyranny of unelected council bureaucrats ⚖️🗳️

Here at the Taxpayers' Union, we believe that decisions are best made as close to the people they affect as possible. More often than not that means getting the Government to stop interfering with our lives full stop, but sometimes it means taking decisions in our communities rather than letting them be taken by politicians in Wellington. 

The problem is that too often the real power in our councils doesn't rest with mayors and councillors but instead is in the hands of unelected officials. We have seen these problems come into sharp focus in Gore where a longstanding council chief executive seems to be unwilling to work with their new democratically elected mayor.

I faced similar challenge serving as a councillor in Scotland where unelected officials would use all manner of ways to obstruct the wishes of democratically elected representatives and, ultimately, of the voters. Writing in the Otago Daily Times, I explain why this issue is such a problem for our local democracy. 

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,

Callum Purves Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

Rural News Expensive pet food!

NZ City Latest polling has National's support once again overtaking Labour's

NZ Herald Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll: National and Act could govern alone; Labour down but Hipkins more popular than Luxon

Stuff National and Act could form government, new Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll suggests

The Spinoff National moves ahead of Labour in new poll

RNZ Taxpayers Union-Curia poll points towards National-ACT government

RNZ The Panel with Ali Jones and Jeremy Elwood (Part One) (11:44)

Te Ao Māori News Poll: National + Act coalition could fly

The Daily Blog BREAKING: New Taxpayers Union Poll – ACT soar to victory while Greens stall!

Newstalk ZB Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on Chris Luxon ruling out working with Te Pāti Māori after the general election

The Working Group with David Seymour, Matthew Hooton & Damien Grant

Newstalk ZB David Seymour: Act leader says a vote for Act prevents a National govt that campaigns from the right and governs from the left

Newstalk ZB Aaron Dahmen: Te Pāti Māori's glee has been palpable over the last few days

NZ Herald Herald’s poll of polls shows Christopher Luxon’s big gamble

NBR Political jockeying, budget pressures, election race

Kiwiblog Bet you none of them have paid additional tax?

Gisborne Herald Sentiment might be shifting again

Gone by Lunchtime Coalitions, coronations and chaos

Newstalk ZB Friday Faceoff: Josie Pagani and Peter Dunne (24:16)

RNZ Week in Politics: Te Pāti Māori in spotlight as Luxon paints a picture of 'chaos'

Indian Newslink Labour and National stay in close fight, not their leaders

The Press It's time to drop the 5% MMP threshold and let more smaller parties into Parliament

Rotorua Now New political poll: Main parties in a tight race

Newstalk ZB Kerre Woodham: I don't think it's unreasonable to have a co-analysis of any government programme

InfraNews Campaign launched against ‘undemocratic’ RMA reform

The Post Callum Purves: If the Government really wants to tackle cost of living, it needs to kick its spending habit

The Spinoff Free prescriptions an ‘important step forward’ – Greens

Indian Newslink Labour’s populist budget of relief brings a few surprises

Stuff Trustee tax increase 'is response to spike in trust use to avoid tax'

RNZ Political opponents take aim at Budget 2023: 'Blowout', 'broke', 'Budget for the rich'

Stuff The no frills, higher bills Budget

Feds News Federated Farmers launches nine-stop RMA rural roadshow

The Spinoff Five very similar polls, three very different results

NZ Herald On the Tiles: Episode 54 – Post-Budget, post-polls, and post-housing u-turns (02:51)

Stuff Janet Wilson: National should be doing better in the polls, but it's not happening

Otago Daily Times Callum Purves: Spotlight on power imbalance

Star News Taxpayers Union trying to halt RMA reforms

whatsoninvers.nz Taxpayers' Union Launches Nationwide Hands Off Our Homes! Roadshow

The Working Group with Ruth Richardson, Bernard Hickey and Damien Grant

The Common Room NZ "Co-governance for your deck!"

On the same day the Taxpayers’ Union kicked off the Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees roadshow, David Parker has shown his first backdown in relation to one of the most controversial aspects of his RMA reforms.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, says:

“After contacting Minister Parker, informing him of our nationwide roadshow and inviting him to come and justify his proposals before any one of our 30 public meetings, he has committed to fixing the constitutional issues in the bill that would have seen the Environment Court subject to review by the National Māori entity.

“The Chief Justice, Dame Helen Winkelmann shared our concerns in a rare submission to the select committee, stating that such an arrangement would be “inconsistent with New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements” and “would be constitutionally unprecedented and problematic”.

“This significant flaw in the law should have never made it past the drafting stage. It demonstrates that this government is set on ramming these proposals through before the election despite widespread agreement that the proposal is worse than the dog of a bill they are seeking to replace.

“This government has a history of playing fast and loose with our constitutional framework - whether it be with the latest RMA proposals or the attempted entrenchment of Three Waters, there is either a lack of competence or a lack of care from the Ministers involved. We call on Minister Parker to front up and justify himself at one of our public meetings.

After the success of the Stop Three Waters roadshow last year, the Taxpayers’ Union is hitting the road once again for a four-week, nationwide roadshow to hear and highlight the concerns of ratepayers and councils threatened by the Government’s proposed replacement to the Resource Management Act.

The itinerary will see Taxpayers’ Union team members visiting 30 local centres in a ‘Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees’-branded van, from Invercargill to Whāngarei. The team will meet mayors, councillors, and MPs and ask them to sign a pledge to do everything within their power to resist the Government’s reforms.

Ratepayers at every stop are invited to meet the Taxpayers’ Union team and hear the commitments of local politicians to oppose these proposals. Local mayors, councillors, MPs will also be invited to address the public meetings.

Nine of the events will be jointly hosted with our friends at Federated Farmers who have been at the forefront of the opposition to the proposed planning reforms.

The full itinerary can be viewed here.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“New Zealanders are rightly frustrated with the cumbersome Resource Management Act, which restricts how we use our land and has fuelled a serious infrastructure and housing shortage, but this proposed replacement will make the situation much worse.

“Not content with seizing water assets from local communities, the Government is now proposing to grab planning powers from local councils and transfer them to fifteen unaccountable, undemocratic, so-called Regional Planning Committees. At this rate there won’t be much left for your council to do.

“These changes will significantly reduce local control over decisions affecting communities while introducing many new and undefined concepts that will likely lead to legal challenges through the courts. And this increased red tape and bureaucracy will simply lead to higher building costs for everyone.”

North Island

Wellington @ 7 June, 6PM
Academy Galleries
1 Queens Wharf, Wellington CBD, Wellington, 6011

Lower Hutt @ 8 June, 10AM
26 Laings Rd, outside the Council offices

Masterton @ 8 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Lansdowne House
15 Keir Crescent, Lansdowne, Masterton, 5810

Palmerston North @ 9 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Palmerston North Community Leisure Centre - The Neville Butler Exhibition Hall
569 Ferguson Street, Terrace End, Palmerston North, 4410

Whanganui @ 10 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
War Memorial Centre - The Concert Chamber
Watt Street, Whanganui, 4500

Hastings @ 11 June, 11:30AM
207 Lyndon Road East, outside the Council offices

Napier @ 11 June, 3PM
159 Dalton Street, outside the Council offices

Taupō @ 12 June, 12:30PM
Corner of Ferry Road & Redoubt Street

New Plymouth @ 13 June, 10:30AM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Pukekura Function Centre - La Mer Lounge
New Plymouth Raceway, Rogan Street, Pukekura, New Plymouth, 4310

Te Awamutu @ 13 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Te Awamutu Golf Clubs
2293 Kihikihi Road, Te Awamutu 3800

Hamilton/Mystery Creek Fieldays @ 14-17 June, 8:30AM - 5:00PM Wednesday-Friday 8AM - 4PM on Saturday
Rural Living Marquee, 125 Mystery Creek Road

Rotorua @ 18 June, 1PM
Outside Rotorua Museum/Bathhouse
Government Gardens, Oruawhata Drive, Rotorua 3046

Tauranga @ 19 June, 6PM
Classic Flyers Museum Hangar
9 Jean Batten Drive, Mount Maunganui 3116

Auckland @ 20 June, 6:30PM
Ellerslie Event Centre - The Guineas Room 1
100 Ascot Avenue, Ellerslie, Auckland 1050

Pukekohe @ 21 June, 12:15PM
Pukekohe Indian Community Centre, 
59 Ward Street, Pukekohe, 2120

Mangawhai @ 22 June, 10AM
The Hub shops, 6 Molesworth Dr, outside the Council offices

Whangārei @ 22 June, 1.30PM
Town Basin, outside Claphams Clock Museum
32 Dent Street, Quayside, Town Basin, Whangārei 0111

South Island (Completed)

Christchurch @ 29 May, 6PM
Waimairi Road Community Centre
166 Waimairi Road, Ilam, Christchurch, 8041

Rolleston @ 30 May, 10:30AM
56 Tennyson Street, outside the Te Ara Ātea Library

Ashburton @ 30 May, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Ashburton Club & MSA
266 Havelock Street, Ashburton 7700

Wānaka @ 31 May, 12PM
47 Ardmore Street, outside the Council offices

Alexandra @ 31 May, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Alexandra Community Centre, Memorial Theatre
15 Skird Street, Alexandra, 9320

Balclutha @ 1 June, 11AM
South Otago Town & Country Club
1 Yarmouth Avenue, Balclutha, 9200

Gore @ 1 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Croydon Lodge - The Trust Room and Lager Bar
100 Waimea Street, Croydon, Gore, 9776

Invercargill @ 2 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Invercargill Workingmen's Club - Corinthian Conventions Centre
154 Esk Street, Invercargill, 9810

Dunedin @ 3 June, 11:30AM
The Octagon

Oamaru @ 3 June, 3:30PM
20 Thames Street, outside the Council offices

Timaru @ 4 June, 10:30AM
2 King George Place, outside the Council offices

Nelson @ 6 June, 10AM
At the bottom of the Cathedral steps
1 Upper Trafalgar Street, Nelson, 7010

Blenheim @ 6 June, 3:30PM
Seymour Square, 16 High Street, outside the Council offices