Taxpayer Update: NEW POLL 📊⚫️ | Hipkins: Our no. 1 fan ❤️🏆 | 'ESC' WellingtonNZ's NYC IT/PR bungle ⌨️🛫🍎

October 06, 2023 Callum Purves

There are eight days left until polls close, and we have a chockablock update for you this week.

Your humble Taxpayers' Union has been travelling the length of the country towing the Debt Clock to highlight the high levels of Government debt. Right now Grant Robertson's borrowing amounts to more than $82,131 for every kiwi household. That debt our kids (and grandkids) will be paying back! Watch the online version of the debt clock at www.debtclock.nz

The National Party's Auckland Central candidate Mahesh Muralidhar's reaction to Grant Robertson's borrowing...

And with the debt and big spending, Grant Robertson is waving goodbye to our best and brightest leaving for better economic climbs. Robbo and Chippy's new business, Robbo's Removals, is doing a roaring trade – already having helped 218,000 since 2017 flee! So call Grant Roberston right now on 0800 Tax Flee (0800 829 3533)

So how are things looking with just over a week to go until election day...

NEW POLL – Big movers: ACT down, NZ First up 🚀

Available exclusively to supporters like you, the results of our October Taxpayers' Union – Curia poll are out.

Decided Party Vote over time

National is up 0.9 points on last month's poll to 35.9% while Labour is also up by 1.4 points to 27.9%. While the Greens are down 2.1 points at 10.6%, they are now in third place ahead of the ACT Party, which has dropped sharply by 5.2 points to 9.1%.

NZ First holds balance of power – both blocs would require him to govern ⚫👑

New Zealand First sees a big boost of 3 points to 6.9% putting Winston Peters once again in the kingmaker position and giving him the power to determine the composition of the next Government. The Māori Party is also up 0.8 points on last month to 3.7%.

Here is how these results would translate to seats in Parliament, assuming the Māori Party retains an electorate seat:

Seats

National is up 1 seat to 46 while Labour is constant on 35 seats. The Greens have dropped 4 seats to 13 while ACT has dropped 7 seats to 12 . New Zealand First is back in Parliament on these numbers with 9 seats while the Māori Party is up 1 seat on last month to 5.

This means that neither the Centre-Right bloc who are projected to have 58 seats (down 6 on last month) or the Centre-Left bloc who would have 53 seats (down 3) could form a Government on their own and would require the support of New Zealand First.

Preferred Prime Minister

After tying with Chris Hipkins in the Preferred Prime Minister stakes last month, Christopher Luxon pulls ahead on 29% (up 4 points on last month) compared to Hipkins' 27% (up 2 points). David Seymour has dropped 4 points to 4%.

Visit our website for more information – including favourability scores for the party leaders – and details of how to get access to the full polling report.

Chris Hipkins: Taxpayers' Union's number one fan ❤️🏆

While we value all of our supporters equally, it has been particularly gratifying to discover we have fans right at the top of the Beehive! We must be doing something right, as our good friend Chippy hasn't been able to stop talking about your humble Taxpayers' Union and our campaigns.

We have put together a 30-second compilation of some of the shout outs he has given us in the last few weeks.

👉Watch the video here.

EXPOSED: How much is the Inflation Tax costing you? 🪓💸

After years of campaigning on the issue of inflation tax (or 'bracket creep'), we are delighted to see the issue getting attention from politicians and the media.

Every year, inflation sees more and more New Zealanders tip into higher tax brackets, even thought their 'real' (inflation-adjusted) income stays the same. It means that we all pay higher and higher average tax rates over time without a single law being passed, or vote in parliament to hike taxes.

They say it takes a crisis to get the support required for necessary reform and, as painful as the current levels of inflation are, it is a perfect opportunity to lock in annual inflation adjustments of income tax brackets.

While a number of political parties are campaigning on adjusting tax brackets for inflation, none of them is committing to a robust proposal that would actually stop politicians’ from stealthily sticking their fingers into your wallets for more and more tax every year.

No Taxation Without Indexation! 🪧📣 🥁

ACT and the National were both once committed to automatically adjusting tax brackets for inflation. Now only National has the policy – but the party has watered it down to every three years (just before elections...) and only at Cabinet's discretion 'if fiscal conditions allow'... 😒

We say that's not good enough and have just launched a new website at www.AxeTheInflationTax.nz to make it easy for taxpayers to add their name to the fight against inflation tax and call for income tax bracket indexation.

Use the online calculator to find out how much the inflation tax since 2010 is costing you.

Please also take a moment to sign the petition and let the politicians know where you stand.

WellingtonNZ hits the wrong key ⌨️💥

This week, our Investigation Co-ordinator, Oliver Bryan, exposed WellingtonNZ's pricey hot button issue. WellingtonNZ is Wellington City Council's so-called economic development agency – but they certainly weren't developing Wellington much in forking out a whopping $470,000 on a frivolous marketing charade in New York.

After flying staff to New York they created a huge 'ESC' key, meant to symbolise an 'escape' from the Big Apple to Wellington. But the $130,000 stunt was binned just seven hours after its launch! A ‘delete’ key would have been more appropriate.

With just 100 real-life attendees (passers by) the New York show was a flop at $1,300 per attendee.

We were then told it was about the "online traction". But we got the figures for that too: a costly $14 per view (for comparison, your humble Taxpayers' Union pays just cents for our online and social media paid campaigns).

Adding insult to injury, a delegate from WellingtonNZ took a six-night keyboard journey to New York for this fleeting seven-hour debacle.

We say that rather than an 'ESC' key, WellingtonNZ needs a factory reset...

The Battle for Tāmaki: Did you catch the fiery debate? 💙🩷

It was great to see a packed house on Tuesday for our final electorate debate ahead of the election in Tāmaki. Our exclusive Taxpayers' Union – Curia electorate poll showed what was once a National stronghold can no longer be considered a safe blue seat. Incumbent National MP, Simon O'Connor, and his main challenger ACT Party Deputy Leader, Brooke van Velden, are locked in a statistical tie.

The debate was fiery and funny with two strong candidates showcasing their alternative visions for the Tāmaki electorate. Simon and Brooke battled it out over law and order, the cost of living, the economy and climate change.

You can watch the replay here.

New Report: The ineffectiveness of a tax-free threshold 🤑🗑️

Both the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have proposed tax-free thresholds as part of their tax plans for this election. Like Labour's GST pledge, it is another policy that might look good at first glance, but as soon as you dig a little deeper, you'll hit fishhooks.

The key problem with tax free thresholds is that they're expensive but result in very little 'bang for buck' in terms of increasing economic output or incentives to work. The economic literature is pretty clear: it's the marginal tax rate that matters. Tax-free thresholds mean than more tax must be collected at the higher ends - meaning less incentives for workers to up skill, increase working hours, or otherwise get ahead.

Our Research Fellow, Jim Rose has written a new report looking at the impacts of implementing a tax-free threshold and concludes that the policy would be an expensive and poorly targeted way of reducing the tax burden and increasing after-tax incomes of New Zealand families.The report demonstrates that – like the GST policy – a tax-free threshold fails to effectively target those people its advocates intends to support with this initiative.

Have a read Jim's full report here.

😬 One more thing – apology to Winston incoming! 🚨

Yesterday we sent an email to many of our supporters asking the question that most people are: Will Winston Peters go with National, or Labour if NZ First are kingmaker?

After the email was sent, Jordan received a very terse (not to be repeated here!) email from Winston himself. Among his complaints was that he did not say in 2017 that he would go with the largest party, rather that he would speak to first the largest party. We apologize for the error.

Winston wants you to know: He won't be calling Hipkins 📵

Mr Peters insists that 'this time it's different', and we note that his Party has released a video stating New Zealand First will not return Labour to power.

Thank you for your support.

Yours aye,