New Zealand Taxpayers' Union
145 posts | 4 images
The Taxpayers' Union today mourns the passing of Garrick Tremain, widely regarded as New Zealand's finest and most influential political cartoonist of the contemporary era.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal that the Department of Conservation's "Always Be Naturing" campaign, which will cost $2.07 million, is projected to bring in revenue and savings of $16.4 million through private‑sector partnerships, donations, and value‑in‑kind support over the campaign's three‑year timeframe.
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Government debt continues to grow as a share of the economy every year until 2029, confirmed by today's Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update.
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The Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update has confirmed taxpayers' worst fears, as plans for a surplus have slipped back another year to 2030.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is warning that Wellington region mayors are pushing ahead with council amalgamation without a clear mandate from residents or any transparency over what the changes would cost ratepayers.
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The Taxpayers' Union has today launched a confectionary company – Nicola's Fudge – to call out what it says is the Government's growing habit of sugar‑coating fiscal truths, front loading spending while pushing savings back into the future and ultimately failing to honour pre‑election promises on fiscal responsibility.
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The Taxpayers' Union is delighted Nicola Willis is going to front up for a debate on the country's fiscal pathway.
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Commenting on the Government's announcement today that the Resource Management Act is set to be replaced by the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill in 2026, Taxpayers' Union Spokesman James Ross said:"The Resource Management Act has been the worst handbrake on New Zealand's productivity bar none.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is calling for the principals of schools identified by the Auditor‑General as having used public money inappropriately to repay taxpayers in full.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is again slamming the long-delayed National Ticketing System (NTS) after Greater Wellington Regional Council announced it will introduce its own contactless payment system rather than continue waiting for the stalled national rollout.
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The Taxpayers' Union has today launched the Rates Cap Dashboard, revealing the staggering financial relief households across New Zealand are being denied by the Government delaying rates caps.
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The Taxpayers' Union is slamming yesterday's quiet announcement on the IRD's Policy website that the Government intends to treat company loans to shareholders as income, resulting in a double taxation and the most dramatic tax grab on SMEs since the Muldoon era.
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The Taxpayers' Union is seeking a meeting with the Inland Revenue Department for them to explain their system error left thousands of New Zealanders with incorrect tax bills.
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The Taxpayers' Union is calling for greater transparency and a hard cap on exit payouts in the public sector after taxpayers have funded an eye-watering $837,000 bill for golden handshakes this week alone.
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The Taxpayers' Union says the resignation of former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster is long overdue and should never have required weeks of costly garden leave.
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The Taxpayers' Union is pushing back at Christchurch City Council advisers calling for a Greater Christchurch "super city", saying amalgamation must only ever come from the community, not from policy staff.
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The Taxpayers' Union is calling for a law change to prevent the payout of golden handshakes to public servants paid more than MPs, after yet another health boss has walked away with a $350,000 payout despite leaving voluntarily.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that risk aversion is undermining the principle of free and frank advice within the public service.
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The Taxpayers' Union is celebrating today's announcement of a future rates cap as a win for ratepayers but says the Government risks neutering the policy by pushing it years down the road.
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Are Labour's use of a Parliamentary Service‑funded social media advisor to produce political content at its party conference raises serious questions about how public money is being used.
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The Taxpayers' Union is welcoming Finance Minister Barbara Edmonds' comments over the weekend that she will prioritise fiscal consolidation and getting the Government's books back in order.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is slamming the revelation that Waka Kotahi NZTA has so far spent $24.2 million on consultants, including a $535‑an‑hour consultant as part of the ever‑delayed National Ticketing System.
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The Taxpayers' Union has today released a new paper, How to Cap Rates Now, providing a benchmark for the Minister of Local Government to use in formulating the rates cap policy promised by Christmas.
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Responding to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's decision to cut the OCR by 25 basis points, Taxpayers' Union spokesman James Ross said:"With the economy grinding to a halt, calls to bring the OCR down below 2.5 percent have been growing.
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The Taxpayers' Union is welcoming the Government's plan to remove regional councils but warns that any reform must genuinely cut bureaucracy, and focus must remain on the ultimate cost to ratepayers.
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Responding to The Post article published today revealing that Porirua City Council spent less than a fifth on their inauguration compared to Wellington City Council, the Taxpayers' Union says fiscal management like this should be compared and commemorated.
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In response to the latest story about Maruameno Kapa‑Kingi's expenses, the Taxpayers' Union is repeating its call for proper transparency over MPs' expenses by asking Parliament to Open the Books.
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Responding to the Newsroom piece published today revealing that Nicola Willis has, again, requested public service bosses to examine their spending to see where savings can be made, the Taxpayers' Union says Ministers need to do their job and 'take back control' for the sake of taxpayers.
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The Taxpayers' Union is welcoming Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger's push for more information on the Council's $1.36 million spend on a Māori consultancy firm, saying it is a positive step toward transparency but warns the public still hasn't been shown the documents that matter.
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The Taxpayers' Union is calling on Nicola Willis to publicly explain why she has continued Labour's trajectory of increased government spending despite the $3 billion of proposed savings from her Associate Minister of Finance, David Seymour, as revealed by Stuff today.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers Union is praising the Masterton District Council for following the Ombudsman's advice and opening council workshops to the public and live streaming these sessions online.
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The Taxpayers' Union is congratulating Christchurch City Council for refusing to buy Te Pae, as new reporting shows the convention centre continues to run at a $3.4 million loss, leaving taxpayers exposed.
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Responding to the Government's move to slash Clean Car Standard charges, Taxpayers' Union spokesman James Ross says the scheme should be scrapped, not salvaged.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming today’s announcement of a new Cook Strait ferry plan that finally brings the project back under control.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union says the latest job cuts at Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) are the inevitable result of years of executive-level overspending affecting the frontline.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Public Service Commissioner Brian Roche to immediately sack the Social Investment Agency's CEO, Andrew Coster and rule out a golden handshake or exit payout.
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On Friday, Treasury’s latest Investment Statement delivered yet another warning that the Government’s current fiscal path isn’t sustainable.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming ACC’s decision to halt funding to Water Safety New Zealand, saying taxpayers deserve spending based on results, not emotion, lobbying, or good intentions alone.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling Labour’s proposed capital gains tax (CGT) an unfair and poorly thought-out policy that punishes ordinary New Zealanders for inflation, not real gains.
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A new Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll reveals worrying levels of support for political violence across the political spectrum.
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Analysis of the 2025 preliminary local election results shows a clear pattern that mayors who treated ratepayers like an ATM have been thrown out of office, while those who showed fiscal restraint have been rewarded.
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The Taxpayers' Union is calling on Finance Minister Nicola Willis to justify why a $416k golden parachute was approved to disgraced governor Adrian Orr, and whether she knew about the proposal before it was agreed to by the RBNZ Board.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through Official Information Act requests that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for the Environment sent 13 staff to the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling for an end to the 16 year old National Ticketing System (NTS) after the announcement the scheme's full implementation will now be delayed until 2027.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) collected $712 million from the fire levy last year, yet are failing to maintain frontline equipment while executives and back-office staff take home millions.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that Radio New Zealand (RNZ) staff streamed Netflix on RNZ networks 832 times in the last 90 days.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that NIWA is refusing to disclose how much it paid private developers to build an online climate adaptation game, or the total cost of the game, despite the project being funded by taxpayers through the MBIE Endeavour Fund.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming news of further cuts to taxpayer-funded research that results in little to no value to the taxpayer, including the Marsden Fund and the Endeavour Fund.
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TAURANGA — The decision to withhold the list of invitees at a $40,000 private cocktail party, organised by Tauranga City Council to farewell its appointed commissioners, has been found unreasonable by the Chief Ombudsman.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Finance Minister Nicola Willis for failing to deliver a leaner, more efficient public service, with new figures revealing that the public service is now larger than it was at the 2023 election, despite months of so-called ‘cuts’.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for the resignation of Reserve Bank Chair Neil Quigley, saying his position is now untenable following revelations in the last 24 hours that he misled the public over Adrian Orr’s departure as Governor.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the Department of Conservation’s latest staffing changes as another weak attempt to dodge real savings, saying the bureaucracy remains overstaffed and under-accountable.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the Prime Minister’s intervention to rule out the Inland Revenue Department’s proposal to apply Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) to all utes worth $80,000 or more and other work vehicles — a plan directed by Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming IRD and Statistics NZ after the Government announced it’s scrapping the Census and replacing it with a mass data-harvest from across government departments without public consent.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for the complete scrapping of the “Motu Move” National Ticketing Solution following confirmation that the project is ‘not on track’ and under external review.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the Green Party’s so-called “Fiscal Strategy 2025” as reckless and would saddle New Zealanders with crippling debt, soaring taxes, and zero accountability.
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The Taxpayers’ Union has revealed through an Official Information Act request that the Department of Conservation (DOC) has spent $411,875 on the endangered southern Powelliphanta augusta snails.
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The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act response that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has lost or had stolen 280 taxpayer-funded iPhones and iPads over the last three financial years.
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The latest Public Service Commission workforce data shows an uptick in public service employees since December 2024.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the Department of Internal Affairs for wasting nearly $23 million of taxpayer money on a failed IT upgrade for the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry — a project that’s now been abandoned with nothing to show for it.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has today updated its online Debt Clock to reflect Total Crown Borrowings, replacing the previously used measure of Net Core Crown Debt.
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WELLINGTON CITY — Responding to news that Wellington City Council’s consultant costs have more than doubled since 2020, Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman Sam Warren said: “This is incredibly insulting as a 12.0 percent rates increases has just been announced—on top of last year’s 16.9 percent hike.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the Government’s lack of ambition when it comes to promoting growth, highlighted by the failure to implement full expensing of capital expenditure.
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Commenting on Budget 2025’s failure to restrain New Zealand’s runaway Government debt, Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman James Ross said: “Debt is increasing every single year over the forecast period in Budget 2025, reaching $108,700 per household by 2029.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the decision to limit access for 18 and 19 year olds who are not working or in education to Jobseeker Support and Emergency Benefit, but is questioning why this change isn’t being implemented until July 2027.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the Government’s decision to expand the rates relief regime for SuperGold cardholders, describing it as a ‘bailout for wasteful councils’.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Budget 2025 as a waste of time and hype, with its team of analysts in this year’s Budget left asking ‘is that it?’ "Nicola Willis has failed,” says Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman Jordan Williams.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal, through an Official Information Act response 12 contractors have been continuously engaged by IRD for more than five years, costing taxpayers a total of $20.8 million over just the past five years.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining the Public Service Association in slamming Health New Zealand for blowing nearly $2.75 million on consultants to “manage restructures”.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union marks the passing of Sir Robert Jones with sincere sadness and gratitude for a life lived without fear or filter, in relentless pursuit of free thought and freer markets.
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Responding to the New Zealand Herald’s front-page coverage of Finance Minister Nicola Willis’s pre-Budget speech, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said: “Nicola Willis has taken a step in the right direction – but let’s not kid ourselves.
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The Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill has drawn criticism from several Tauranga Councillors, objecting that revenue could be invested elsewhere.
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DUNEDIN — The Dunedin City Council has come under fire for its $92.4 million development of Smooth Hill landfill—at risk of blowing out to become ‘another white elephant’.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through a Official Information Act request that the total cost through the Members of Parliament (Former Prime Ministers Travel Services) Determination 2017, that former Prime Ministers car entitlements of $296,009.87 in purchases and $14,061.99 in fuel and maintenance.
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On the news Health NZ paid for outgoing Chief Executive Margie Apa to attend a governance course — after she’d already resigned.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is calling out spin over the Reserve Bank’s newly signed five-year funding agreement, warning that despite talk of “funding reductions”, the deal still locks in a major increase compared to the previous period.
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INVERCARGILL — The Taxpayers’ Union has today slammed the $5.2 million spend on consultants by Invercargill City Council for the Te Unua Museum of Southland, as part of the wider $87 million dollar ‘Project 1225’ development.
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Responding to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's decision to cut the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 25bp to 3.50%.
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The Taxpayers’ Union is responding to the Government latest supposed “Going for Growth” announcement, which will restrict Government departments and agencies to only using New Zealand wool.
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On the news of the Government’s decision to wind down the New Zealand Green Investment Finance Ltd (NZGIF), which has cost taxpayers $400 million.
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Responding to the PM’s latest claims around the affordability of the latest defence spending plans, the Taxpayers’ Union is wondering where the recently announced 12 billion dollars of defence spending is coming from.
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Today, President Trump imposed a ten-percent tariff on New Zealand exports to the United States, with the possibility of larger tariffs on agricultural products in the near future.
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The Government’s announcement today of legislation to finally repeal and replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) is a long-overdue, much-needed win for New Zealand’s productivity.
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WELLINGTON CITY — The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request that Wellington City Council flushed $21,702 (exc.
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BAY OF PLENTY — Western Bay of Plenty District Council has today voted to leave Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) with one councillor saying it has swung ‘so far left’ that it no longer represented local views.
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is today launching the first in a series of briefing papers aimed at tackling the country’s long-standing under-capitalisation and low productivity.
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HASTINGS — A report released by the Ombudsman has found Hastings District Council failed to properly maintain its streams and damns prior to Cyclone Gabrielle despite concerns raised during 2016 and 2021 reviews.
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DUNEDIN — Dunedin City Council argues local water bills doubling ‘inevitable’ over the next 10-years as they seek consultation on a replacement for its Three Waters department.
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