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Good morning,
Another week, another bad set of polls for the Government â this time, on economic management â our 2025 Council CEO Rich List was hit in the media over the weekend, and in between, weâve had waste exposed from Auckland to Waimakariri. Let's get into it.
NEW POLL: Nicola Willis gets voters' thumbs down on five of five economic management tests đ
A majority of voters say the Government is performing poorly on economic management across all five key issues measured as part of last week's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll.
In addition to the usual poll questions, our pollsters ask voters to say whether they thought the Government was doing a âgood job" or âbad job" in each area, resulting in a net score (i.e. the "good" number minus the "bad").
In no area did the Government receive a net positive result. Ouch.
You can read the full results over on our website.
Your humble Taxpayers' Union suggest the message loud and clear: the Government's failure to be bold on economic reform or cutting excessive government spending is hurting them.
Nicola Willis's 'softly-softly' approach is not cutting the mustard. There are more bureaucrats now than when Labour left office, she is spending more than Grant Robertson was at the time of the 2023 election, and the Government is even borrowing at a faster rate! Thatâs caused inflation to track back up, and the âgoing for growthâ has been too much talk, not enough action.
Nicolaâs in London - talking about Taxpayers' Union policies! đ
Nicola Willis has been in London meeting with the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves. Reeves is battling grim approval ratings and a bond market that is fast losing confidence in her fiscal management. Sound familiar?
Willis visited our friends at the Adam Smith Institute, where she was briefed on (and Iâm quoting directly here) âhow innovative free market policies (such as Full ExpensingâŚ) could help the Kiwi economy to grow.â
I wonder why she flew 13,000 miles to hear about full capital expensing when she couldâve just walked 100 yards down Lambton Quay to come and see us? đ
EXPOSED: Council CEO Rich List đ¸
On Friday, we dropped the 2025 Council CEO Rich List, and honestly, itâs a jaw-dropper. These bosses have been raking it in over 2023â24, while councils cry poor.
Most Kiwis are pinching pennies as rates have exploded, but Council bosses are pocketing five and a half times the average salary. On top of that, the average pay rise was $16,000 last year â while rates are up 35% in just three years.
At the top: Christchurch City Council ratepayers forked out $1,027,696 in 12 months to cover their former CEO Dawn Baxendale, and her replacement, Mary Richardson. Gore Districtâs leadership shuffle cost ratepayers $771,558, while the Super City CEO is on a super pay-packet of $735,935. Rotorua Lakes District Councilâs trio were paid $695,961, and Tauranga City Councilâs Marty Grenfell was on $623,658.
Now, in fairness to Mary Richardson in Christchurch, her base salary is actually trimmed back from when she first stepped in as interim CEO, but ratepayers still forked out over a million dollars for the one role in a single year. Letâs hope we can heap praise on Mary in next yearâs tables.
The numbers are eye watering, and will lead any ratepayers to ask: when did âtown clerkâ turn into CEO-level pay? These arenât startup moguls; theyâre bureaucrats. With very hefty pay packets.
Bottom line: public service is supposed to mean service, not six-figure salaries while households struggle. Rates keep climbing, but somehow thereâs always room for another pay bump at the top.
See how your council's Town Clerk's pay packet compares at www.RichList.nz
OIA loophole: MPs keep their secrets safe đ
Hereâs one for the ârules for thee, not for meâ file. Parliamentâs just pushed ahead with an update to the Parliament Bill â but guess whose spending still won't be covered by the Official Information Act... Members of Parliament!
Spending by Ministers, Departments, and councils are subject to OIA or its local government equivalent requests⌠but your local MP? Off limits. No obligation to release the documents, correspondence, or advice they rely on. Transparency for everyone else, but secrecy for the very people making the laws.
Our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys (who, by the way, I reckon must be the most prolific OIA user in the whole country) went on The Platform this week to call it out.
If MPs want to rebuild trust, the first step is simple: apply the same sunlight rules to themselves that almost every other public agency lives under.
Otherwise, the message is pretty clear: transparency is great, just not when itâs about them...
Rangioraâs $28m Gold-Plated Gym đď¸
Rangioraâs MainPower Stadium has been unveiled with all the bells and whistles â and we mean all of them. Six thousand square metres of courts, event space, a modern gym, fancy lighting, passive cooling, and even rainwater harvesting.
Sounds flash, right? Well, it should. The final bill came to $28 million. With just 7,100 households, that's nearly $4,000 per household!
Thatâs a lot of ratepayer money for essentially a gold-plated gym.
Sure, itâs picked up an industry award, but trophies donât pay the rent. And when households are tightening belts, youâve got to ask: do we really need top-shelf features in a community gym? Or would a solid, no-frills stadium have done the job without the champagne price tag?
TAXPAYER TALK: Mayor Andrew Tripe on the Lowest Average Rates Increase in the Country đď¸đ§
Rates across the country have soared, many into the double-digits. But while most councils point fingers and find excuses, Mayor for Whanganui Andrew Tripe has kept his average rates increase as little as 2.2 percent â the lowest in the country this year.
This week, Mayor Tripe joins Peter Williams for a discussion on how this was achieved, and the work behind getting his Council focused on the basics, while keeping up with important infrastructure and services, and paying down debt.
Speaking of podcasts... đ§
Not to compete with our own podcast, but our Executive Director, Jordan, was on The Good Oil Podcast with Cam Slater. Jordan and Cam discuss bureaucratic bloat, freedom of speech and why democracy needs defending now more than ever. Watch here, or find it in all your usual streaming services.
As always, thank you for your support.
Have a great week.
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 Tory Relf New Zealand Taxpayersâ Union |
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