📌 View Online | 🚀 Share on Facebook
Hi,
First and foremost, in the last few hours we learnt the sad news of Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp's death. The Taxpayers' Union has expressed our condolences to those close to Ms Kemp – you can read our media statement here.
A lot of taxpayer news since our last update. The ACT Party want to put an end to council climate-change virtue signalling (about time!), and the Greens take a trip to fantasy DEBT land.
Plus, we've had our long-awaited in-person meeting with the Minister for Local Government – Simon Watts – at the Beehive. In short: we asked him "Watts the hold up with rates capping?" and he told us...
Taxpayer Victory: Ute Tax 2.0 👻🛻
As the rest of the country was heading off for the long weekend last week, your humble Taxpayers' Union were celebrating the speedy success of our "Scrap the Ute Tax 2.0" campaign. Just hours after we blew the whistle, the Prime Minister's office got in touch with Heather du Plessis-Allan directly and shot down Mr Watts attempt to bring back a Ute Tax by stealth (through changes to Fringe Tax Benefits), placing the plan on IRD "considering a lot of things regularly"...
The line from the Beehive is that this was all just a big misunderstanding and IRD were out on a limb. Weird. Because there's a paper trail showing Mr Watts' approval of IRD bods continuing to develop the proposal and undertake what the IRD termed a "limited consultation".
The paper includes the damning line that simplifying FBT would lead "...the potential for double cab utes who do not currently attract an FBT liability... [which] is most likely to affect smaller businesses".
So, while it's not an outright attack solely on utes, the impact of the changes were made clear to Minister Watts - and he still chose to proceed. Naughty Watts...
25,000+ back campaign to Cap Rates Now! ✍️
At Fieldays, we launched our campaign to Cap Rates Now. And the response has been incredible. Thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign - in person at Fieldays, and online.
And if you haven't signed the petition yet, now is your chance!
Watts comes good? What happened at the Beehive when we visited the Minister for Local Government 🤝
Yesterday, Jordan, James, and the Board headed down to the Beehive for our long-awaited meeting with Minister for Local Government, Simon Watts.
We know we have him saying the right things about 'rates capping'. But we need him talking about doing it now, not years down the track.
Here's our concern: if you tell a monopoly industry (i.e. local councils) that a price freeze / cap is coming, but not until after they are allowed to put their prices up, what do you think is going to happen?
Unless we Cap Rates Now, councils across the country are going to use next year to dramatically hike rates before Mr Watts swings into action...
I'm reliably informed that our new Chair, Ruth Richardson, gave it to the Minister with both barrels - emphasising the Now of our Cap Rates Now! argument. 👀
Jack Tame got the brunt of the same...
Watts says he needs more support to cap rates! 💥
Ruth told Mr Watts, that rates capping isn't just good policy, it's good politics. Hear, hear!
Simon Watts assured us that he wants to find the right form of rates capping, and deliver it before councils can sneak in one last rates-hike splurge.
But Simon Watts emphasised that it's hard to take-on local government when even some of the so-called 'centre-right' mayors are against rates capping...
(The Minister didn't name names, but we are looking at you, Wayne Brown!).
So the campaign continues. What Mr Watts needs, is for rates capping to be front and centre at this year's local body elections, so that it becomes a fait accompli for the Government and Mr Watts' Cabinet colleagues.
We made sure Three Waters was the main issue of the last local body elections – with your support, we'll make sure Cap Rates Now is the main issue for 2025. 🙏
ACT take on council climate theatrics 🎭🌏
ACT are entering the council Ratepayer Hero race early this year. We're giving a big thumbs up to their new commitment for their local council candidates to oppose council-level emissions policies.
Costly council climate change strategies do nothing to cut emissions, which are dealt with at the national level. In fact, burning ratepayers’ money to cut emissions in one local area simply frees up emissions under the New Zealand-wide cap-and-trade ETS for emissions to be used else where.
It's ratepayer pain for absolutely no environmental gain!
It shouldn't be controversial that Councils should stick to what actually matters: roads, pipes, and rubbish. It's nice to see "ACT Local" saying it.
Taxpayers Fork Out $400k for Snail Sanctuary 🐌💸
In what can only be described as a snail-paced waste of taxpayer money, the Taxpayers' Union can reveal that the Department of Conservation has shelled out more than $400,000 to protect (i.e. literally store in refrigerators!) a bunch of endangered snails. That's right – snails.
You can read more over on our website, or the Radio NZ coverage.
The Greens' 'Fiscal Strategy' is a fantasy land of red ink, tax, and state-controlled economy 🦄
Here at the Taxpayers' Union, we expected to welcome the Green Party's attempt to get serious about the Government's fiscal and economic challenges.
But gone are the days of James Shaw's attempt to make the Greens semi-respectable when it comes to economics.
Our team worked through the Green's new "Fiscal Strategy 2025" and felt sick. Forget 'free enterprise', the Greens want to lean into state control like the Cold War never happened.
Instead of promoting responsible fiscal management, the Greens are proposing a system where there’s no limit to how much taxpayers would be expected to cough up for every government whim:
- Wealth taxes ✅
- Death taxes ✅
- Capital gains taxes ✅
- Doubling the national debt ✅
Doesn't look very green or sustainable; in fact it looks a very deep red.
The work doesn't stop at rates capping 👷👔
Last week, our Head of Policy (James) and Investigations Coordinator (Rhys) were invited to consult with the Local Government Commission on reforming council codes of conduct.
We jumped at the chance to prevent another Cr Grace Ayling fiasco, when she was literally banned from voting on her own council’s long-term plan because (shock-horror) she’d already advocated *against* hefty rate hikes. The council insisted that Grace had to have an 'open-mind' even though she was elected on a mandate to trim council excess.
(Disclosure: Grace is a former Taxpayers’ Union staffer)
James and Rhys seized the chance to finally break through council bureaucrats’ ability to exclude elected councillors (like Grace) as well as a laundry list of transparency reforms, and our long-held view that recall elections should be introduced at local council level to enhance democratic accountability.
Rates capping is just the first step to fixing local government, so we make no apology for putting time and effort into other policy work to fix local government.
If you made it this far... 🙂
As I sign off my first newsletter as the new Taxpayers' Union Comms Manager, I wanted to say a thank you for making the work possible.
This is my eighth week at the Taxpayers' Union (and in New Zealand, for that matter!), and I'm already in awe of the disproportional impact this small but very agile team has on influencing conversations (and policy) at the Beehive and town halls across the country.
Thank you for your support.
 |
|
