Responding to news that Wellington City Council is planning to buy the land under the currently earthquake-prone Reading cinema complex and re-strengthen the building, Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns Callum Purves said:

“The Reading Cinema may be a dead spot in the heart of the City Centre, but that doesn’t mean the Council needs to step in.“Just earlier this week we saw with Wellington’s Town Hall just how costly these earthquake-strengthening projects turn out to be. It’s just as likely that another massive budget blowout is on the cards with this proposal.

“If Reading International won’t take on the restrengthening itself, then the Council needs to accept that. Should a private buyer choose to purchase and redevelop the land in the future, the Council should ensure that the consenting process – including the demolition option – is as smooth as possible, but that’s all it needs to do.

“This is just another example corporate favouritism at the expense of the ratepayer. Wellington residents are already facing a double-digit rate increase this year. A project of this magnitude will only guarantee further rate hikes and continue to burden Wellingtonians."

The Taxpayers’ Union is questioning the Government’s decision to provide corporate welfare to the wood processing sector, both in the form of direct hand-outs and the Government playing bank manager by providing loans when this could easily be left to private sector banks.

Taxpayers’ Union Deputy Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Too often we see the Government branching out into areas that are not core government functions and where Ministers and bureaucrats have little to no expertise. What does the Government know that banks don’t when it comes to making sensible investment decisions? This is simply more corporate welfare providing handouts to business at a time when Kiwis are struggling with the cost of living.

“Not only are these spending decisions distortionary by arbitrarily encouraging more investment in some sectors to the detriment of others but they also unnecessarily place private risk on taxpayers who are left out of pocket if things go wrong.

“If the Government is concerned about the lack of investment in growing industries, perhaps they should look at the root causes of the problem – high interest rates made necessary by out-of-control government spending and overly-restrictive overseas investment rules that make it so difficult to get foreign capital into the country.

“The only tree that the Government should be focused on is the self-proclaimed ‘Tāne Mahuta’, Adrian Orr, who has consistently failed to keep inflation in the target range and whose Large Scale Asset Purchase programme has seen taxpayers foot the bill for billions of dollars in losses." 

Despite facing consistent financial challenges and relying on taxpayer bailouts - most recently to the tune of $220 million in May's budget - The Waikato Times has revealed a staggering $15.6 million spent on ads, PR, and publications, which includes a $3.5 million campaign launch.

Oliver Bryan, Invesitgations Coordinator at the Taxpayers' Union, commented, "Feedback on Te Pūkenga's performance from experts in the tertiary sector echoes the country's sentiment that this is clearly an organisation costing us a fortune and delivering little in return."

“The consistent mismanagement and questionable spending decisions by Te Pūkenga are alarming and unacceptable. It is deeply concerning to see millions being channeled into advertising campaigns while the very core of Te Pūkenga is riddled with operational deficiencies. The latest feedback from experts and surveys clearly indicates that their hefty advertising investment is not yielding the desired results in terms of student numbers or improved public perception."

"Until the organisation rectifies its operational issues, the Government is just pouring money into a failing system. It needs to stop."

The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Cabinet's decision to provide yet another taxpayer-funded handout to Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL), this time to the tune of $7 million.

Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves, said:

“We warned earlier in the year that taxpayer-funded bailouts for failing businesses would be a slippery slope and unfortunately we have been vindicated.

“Every dollar that the Government wastes on corporate handouts is a dollar that first had to be taxed from someone else. While the Government may claim that they are protecting jobs in the ski industry, the taxes to pay for this corporate welfare costs jobs in other industries.

“The Government would be better to let RAL go under and allow a new buyer to come in as a replacement – including leaving the door open for an international investor. This would allow a financially viable operator to take over the ski field while also saving taxpayers from funding unnecessary corporate welfare in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“Once businesses realise that they can get money by coming cap in hand to the Government, the potential for pork-barrel politics and back-room deals is increased as businesses begin to respond to Ministers instead of markets.”

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on New Zealand First to release costings for each of their policies citing fears that they could cost more than Labour’s election spending spree.

When questioned by Jack Tame on TVNZ’s Q + A yesterday about the lack of fiscal detail in NZ First’s policies, Winston Peters said “Well our manifesto comes out later today. Why don’t you wait. We've made sure that were gonna have it out given the huge PREFU gaps and holes there are. We made sure ours stacks up.”

Despite early voting now being open, New Zealand voters are none the wiser as to how much NZ First’s policies will cost taxpayers and what new taxes will be levied to pay for them.

Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves, said:

“New Zealand First has to date been the least transparent out of all the parties likely to get into Parliament in relation to how much their policies would cost taxpayers.

“In 2017, New Zealand First was campaigning on more spending than any other party and it appears this could be the case again this time around. Unfortunately, the lack of detail in the announced policies make it near impossible for us to independently cost the proposals.

“Included in the policy list is a number of eye-wateringly expensive proposals including $100 million on 'transmission upgrades', moving the Port of Auckland and establishing a naval base, establishing a new Ministry for Energy and a vague promise of corporate welfare in the form of tax incentives.

“This is on top of the policy to remove GST off ‘basic foods’ – a policy that will not only cost significantly more than the $2.6 billion needed for Labour’s GST proposal but will also require an even bigger army of bureaucrats to determine what is and isn’t basic foods.

“Winston Peters is trying to frame his party as one fit for Government yet to date we have had more clarity from Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Voters deserve answers now.”

Responding to the release of the OECD’s latest Education at a Glance report, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:
 
“Since 2018, investment received by the Ministry of Education has increased by nearly 75%. Despite this, outcomes for our children are getting worse and worse by the year. Like with so many other departments across the public service, serious questions need to be asked about where this extra money has gone.
 
“Chucking billions upon billions more into the bureaucratic black hole clearly hasn’t been working, when this increasingly seems to be wasted on a growing culture of inefficiency across the public sector. With the Ministry of Education unable to tackle core problems like 40% of schoolkids still failing to regularly attend school, it’s no wonder Kiwi kids are being left behind.”
 
“Any incoming government needs to take a long, hard look at how taxpayers’ money is being spent, zero-base funding and do much more than just pay lip service to getting essential services like education working again.”

Commenting on the Grocery Supply Code of Conduct coming into force, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:

“The grocery supply code of conduct has completely missed the root causes of New Zealand’s sky-high grocery prices. Lack of competition in the sector is absolutely the main driving factor behind this, but rather than bringing prices down this code will only make things worse.

“The Government props up food prices by refusing to allow competition to spring up, through both its overly restrictive planning regulation and making it nigh-on impossible to attract competition from overseas. A law which requires any competitors which spring up to supply their competition with produce at wholesale prices is of course going to send foreign investors running.

“Rather than answering every problem with soundbite policies promising more bureaucracy, if the Government really wants to help Kiwis struggling under the cost-of-living crisis then it needs to cut the red tape and allow proper competition to the grocery duopoly.”

The Taxpayers' Union has once again highlighted the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) for its overseas excursions. The New Zealand Space Agency embarked on another trip to the USA, racking up a bill of $36,075.62. An Official Information Request has unveiled that the NZ Space Agency covered the flight costs for three of its staff members to participate in an annual space symposium in Colorado.
 
Oliver Bryan, Investigations Coordinator for the Taxpayers' Union, remarked, “The New Zealand Space Agency's constant overseas jaunts on taxpayer dollars are beyond tedious. Spending $11,427.39 on just one flight, representing over 30% of the total trip cost, underscores the lavish tendencies of one of New Zealand's most pointless agencies.”
 
“Given today's technology that facilitates seamless and accessible online meetings from anywhere globally, frequent international travel should be reconsidered across all government departments, especially as we confront the imperative to rein in our escalating national debt.”

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that as part of the Tax Working Group appointed by Grant Robertson, and chaired by the late Michael Cullen, Treasury and IRD conducted analysis on what percentage of exempting GST from certain goods would actually be passed on to consumers.

The expert advice paper, concluded that while cuts to GST/VAT rates are passed on, exemption or multi-rate policies see just 30% of the tax relief passed on to shoppers.

The paper looked at the best available evidence and concluded: 

This research estimated that changes in the general VAT rate were on average fully passed through to consumers. However, changes in rates for specific goods and services were on average not fully passed through and had an estimated average pass through rate of approximately 30 percent.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said:

“A pass through rate of 30% to consumers means that 70% of Labour’s GST carve-out would be captured by the supermarkets. Labour costed the policy at $2.2 billion over the four-year forecast period, so supermarkets in effect get a tax cut of $1.54 billion while consumers enjoy just a fraction.

“This isn’t just a hole, it’s a weevil in Labour’s fruit and vege policy. Supermarkets already enjoy super profits thanks to regulatory taxes like the RMA that prop up their duopoly and put off newcomer competition. They are the last group that Labour should be supporting.

“Here at the Taxpayers’ Union we want tax cuts more than any other group. But we shouldn’t sacrifice what is the best GST or VAT system world over in terms of compliance costs and complexity. We favour income tax relief and other measures that cut out the middle man, and let kiwi workers keep more money in their pockets.

“This will be one of the many reasons Grant Robertson does not like this policy. Deep down Chris Hipkins will also know the policy is shoddy. He should put good policy over good focus group feedback and abandon the folly in favour of policies that will really help those struggling to afford the groceries.”

The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is once again facing criticism for its seemingly lavish spending habits. Recent figures posted by National's public service spokesperson, Simeon Brown, reveal that over $50,000 of taxpayer money was spent on post-Budget breakfast events this year.

Oliver Bryan, Investigations Coordinator for the Taxpayers' Union, reacted by saying, "Once again, we're seeing evidence of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples operating in a bubble, detached from the realities many New Zealanders face daily. Such expenses are hard to swallow, especially when this Ministry is meant to advocate for some of our most economically vulnerable citizens. The fact that they operate in a manner suggesting indifference to fiscal responsibility is deeply concerning."

“The significant growth in the number of staff at the Ministry, from 34 in 2017 to a current 145, combined with the parties and now this latest revelation, raises further questions. Not just about its operational and fiscal strategies, but about the broader culture of waste that appears to have taken root at the heart of our government. It's imperative for government entities to be judicious in their spending, ensuring they deliver value for money, especially at a time when our debt is soaring.”