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Dear Friend,

As we wrap up the year and before the staff knock-off, the team are reflecting on a challenging but successful 2023 and looking to the year ahead. 

Some highlights of what our supporters made possible this year

• The Labour Government extended the fuel tax cut (and then did it again!) after months of petitioning, emails to Ministers and lobbying from our supporters. 
  
  
• During the election campaign, hundreds of supporters bought and put up our "Wants to Hike Fuel Taxes" signs highlighting Labour's plans to increase fuel taxes by 14 cents per litre if re-elected. The new Government has cancelled this planned hike. 
  
  
• We held our Annual Jonesie Waste Awards highlighting the best of the worst in Government Waste.
  
  
• The Government put the costly new jobs tax on ice when Chris Hipkins became Prime Minister. The new Government is scrapping it altogether.
  
  
• We beat back Willie Jackson's undemocratic, expensive RNZ/TVNZ mega-merger which was scrapped by Chris Hipkins – preventing further state influence in the media. 
  
  
  

How we Scrapped Three Waters

• The pressure from the public surrounding Three Waters became too much for the Government. Our polling when Chris Hipkins became PM revealed we had turned it into the number one policy voters wanted Hipkins to scrap – including among Labour supporters. Labour substantially watered down their Three Waters policy (but still kept the worst elements). 
  
  
• Labour were so worried, they re-branded Three Waters to 'Affordable Water Reform'.  But no one was fooled...
  
  
• National and ACT's Three Waters proposals were in line with our alternative.
  
  
• We made significant progress in drafting our replacement Three Waters bill which will end co-governance, restore local ownership and lead to higher quality, more efficient delivery of water services. 
  

And in the new year, the work will continue. We've scrapped Three Waters – but we need to ensure the replacement is up to snuff.

Three Waters 2.0 – Stopping David Parker's 'Central Planning Committees' power grab

• Our petition and nationwide Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees roadshow bought the issues surrounding David Parker's resource management reforms into the public eye. On the same day we launched the roadshow, David Parker back-tracked on one of the most contentious elements of the reforms that would have seen a National Māori entity with power to review the Environment Court!
  
  
• The new Government has repealed David Parker's RMA reforms and is beginning work on a replacement that will (if we have anything to do with it!) make it easier and less bureaucratic to get things done in this country. 
  

And more...

• Tens of thousands of New Zealanders signed signed up to our campaign to Axe the Ute Tax that punished farmers and tradies in order to subsidise Teslas for wealthy elites. We got a strong commitment from Chris Luxon at Fieldays, along with other National Party MPs that it would be gone by Christmas – they delivered on that promise.
  
  
• We successfully campaigned for Minister Michael Wood's resignation following the scandal of him holding undeclared shares in Auckland Airport and failing to sell them despite being told to 12 times.
  
  
  
• Our election debate series, co-hosted with Damien Grant and Martyn Bradbury from The Working Group podcast received national media attention and reached hundreds of thousands of voters online. 
  
  
• Our 2023 Ratepayers' Report held councils all across the council accountable for how they are spending money on staff, consultants and contractors and allowed ratepayers to compare their rates with other councils. 
  
  
  
• We launched our Debt Clock outside Parliament and took it all around the country to election debates, rural shows and political events.
  
  
  
• We started a (tongue firmly in cheek) new moving company, Robbo's removals, to highlight the number of skilled Kiwis leaving New Zealand due to the bad policies of the previous Government. 
  
  
• We lived rent-free in Chris Hipkins' head -– and he showed off our work to the national media.
  
  
• Our research team exposed the fiscal holes in Labour's GST policy while Taxpayers' Union research fellow, Jim Rose, produced a report outlining why the whole thing was a bad idea – even if the numbers do add up. 
  
  
• Our book, The Mission: Taxpayers' Union at 10 was launched to celebrate 10 years of the Taxpayers' Union. Get your copy here.
  
  
• Lord Hannan (Daniel) came over from the UK to celebrate our tenth birthday and delivered a must-watch speech on the role of the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand.
  
  
• Supporters like you have sent hundreds of tips through to our confidential tipline exposing countless cases of government waste (we'd forgotten about the wallabies!), corporate welfare and council extravagance. 

A Christmas feast that satisfies the government health tsars

While Kiwis are busy preparing for a day of eating and drinking with loved ones, one of our interns has been busy preparing a Christmas feast that abides by all of the government’s dietary and health guidelines.  

Among the hundreds of pages of guidance and bureaucratic jargon, there is a whole range of health guideline suggesting that the almighty health overlords know how you should live your life better than you yourself. 

And the result is frankly depressing. You're gonna have to put the Christmas ham away, and alcohol? Don't even think about it. 

For breakfast, you're allowed two wheatmeal slices of bread with 40 grams of peanut butter and a 200ml cappuccino with 100ml of milk on the side.

The Tax on Christmas 

For most of us, Christmas is about giving. But, for the Tax Man, it’s all about taking. Connor wraps up the year with a special video revealing the incredible reach of the “Tax on Christmas”.

Looking for some summer listening?

This year we released 19 new episodes of our podcast, Taxpayer Talk, featuring MPs, councillors, bureaucrats, policy experts, Taxpayers' Union board members, a Lord, and more. 

If you find yourself with any spare time over the break, you can catch up with Taxpayer Talk on our website | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio

One last thing🎅🏻🎄

As you've seen Friend, no one can say we haven't worked hard this year! But everything done and accomplished has been thanks to the support of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who support our work, and the tens of thousands who donate and make our work possible. 

If you agree that it is important that we keep up the momentum next year –  and ensure the government delivers the fundamental reforms required to get New Zealand back on a path to prosperity – please embrace the holiday giving spirit and chip in to our 2024 fighting fund with an end of year donation.

From all of the team at the Taxpayers' Union, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

NZ Herald Govt announces review of Kāinga Ora, Christopher Luxon responds to criticism over publicly-funded te reo lessons

Otago Daily Times Taxpayers foot bill for Luxon's reo Māori lessons

RNZ The Panel with David Cunliffe and Nalini Baruch (Part 1)

1 News PM denies his taxpayer-funded te reo Māori lessons are hypocritical

RNZ PM in hot water over tax payer funded te reo tuition

NZ Herald Gerry Brownlee off to a solid start as Speaker - Audrey Young

Rural News Tough Times

Interest.co.nz Finance Minister Nicola Willis wants Treasury to report fiscal risks more clearly