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Happy Monday Friend,

A lot has happened since my last email – from pushback on our latest poll – to a disturbing economic update – and a Wellington Mayor selling her car to 'help pay the bills'. Or did she?

No time to waste, let's get cracking. 

UPDATE: More than 7,000 Kiwis demanding answers over privacy leak 🥊 😡

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Last Tuesday we launched IRD-Leak.nz <[link removed]> following the extraordinary news that Inland Revenue has been caught red-handed leaking the private information of taxpayers to social media giants like Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. 

Already, more than 7,000 Kiwis have used the tool to make a Privacy Act request to Inland Revenue, demanding the status of their sensitive taxpayer data.

Right now, there's no telling where your information has ended up – and IRD and the Minister aren't fronting up. But clearly taxpayers want answers! 

My inbox has been flooded with messages of outrage and disbelief. "How can they get away with this, Jordan!?"

As I told the media  – unlike voluntarily giving your data to third parties – you literally have no choice with IRD by law. This creates an expectation of trust, which has been broken.

To find out whether your personal tax data has been caught up, click here and ask IRD for the answers. <[link removed]>

🚨 NZ economy now officially in deeper dodo than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis🚨

On Thursday our in-house economist, Ray, was glued to his screen anxiously waiting for Stats NZ's release of gross domestic product for the second quarter of 2024.

New Zealand's GDP has fallen 0.2% this quarter, and while narrowly escaping a 'technical recession' <[link removed]>, this will almost certainly be true with the next quarter’s result which is expected to also signal a further decline.

TL:DR: Friend – we are now officially in a worse position than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, which took another six quarters for GDP per capita to rise consistently, which only then signalled real economic growth returning. 

The answer? The Reserve Bank must accelerate its program of reducing the official cash-rate in light of continuing weakness in the economy.

The Government also needs to play its part with further spending cuts – especially at the bloated policy ministries. 

After 2008, strong fiscal consolidation played a big role in returning New Zealand to surplus and enabled debt to be paid down. It's important that this Government increases its efforts to achieve the same.

Chris Hipkins' didn't like our last poll! So he attacked the pollster... 🤦

Our latest Taxpayers' Union-CuriaPoll wasn't good news for Chris Hipkins. And boy did he not like it! <[link removed]>

Our poll showed many things, but the media was most interested in the Preferred Prime Minister results – revealing a 6.1 point drop in Hipkins' popularity, from 18.7% in July – to 12.6% this September.



In comparison, Luxon was sitting on 32.7% as preferred Prime Minister – down 1.8 points since last our July poll.

Rather than acknowledging the gaping wound in Labour – many on the left chose instead to attack us, as well as our pollster, Curia Market Research.

You probably know that Curia is run by David Farrar – who co-founded Taxpayers' Union with me eleven years ago. This has always been public. He also has run polls for National, and many other groups in the past (including, ironically, Labour!).

Curia remains one of (if not the most) accurate pollsters in the country, which is exactly why I stand by David's work. In fact, David did a better job of picking the final election results than any other public poll in the lead up to last year's voting (oh, and the 2017 election when he was also the closest)!

Curia continues to deliver accurate and unbiased polling, and suggesting otherwise is laughable – as you will remember, it was Curia's polling that revealed National's political turmoil in 2020. Which arguably led to the demise of Judith Collins as National Party leader

My advice to our friends on the left and Mr Hipkins: Just because they don't like the results – doesn't make them any less accurate.

Willis' Bureaucrats paid twice the sector average 🤥 🤥



If Christopher Luxon is serious about “getting back to basics”, he must have Nicola Willis on notice after news broke of her own pet ministry's spending.

At the risk of being scrubbed from their office Christmas party invite list (they are literally on the floor below us in Wellington) it has come to light this week that Nicola Willis’ “Social Investment Agency” has doubled its budget compared to its equivalent agency, which was disestablished last year. <[link removed]>

So where is all this extra money going? It turns out that it pays to be a bureaucrat for Nicola Willis. Reports show that bureaucratic salaries at her new agency make up an average of $148,215.

That’s compared to the average public paper-pusher salary of $97,200!

Nb: for comparison, according to Stats NZ the overall average (public and private sector combined) is $76,810 – but that's a different issue...

If Minister Willis is serious about getting “back to basics”, she shouldn't be giving gold-plated salaries to her staff.

As a taxpayer, you should not have to foot the bill for more overpaid bureaucrats. It’s high time for her to quit favouritism and start taking her boss’s advice on canning the “nice-to-haves” seriously.

Ministry of Regulation's $400,000 Bill 💸 🤦‍♂️



And from the same file, David Seymour's also deserves some stern questions... 91 staff at his newly made Ministry of Regulation have an average salary in excess of $150,000.

But there’s more – turns out these 91 bureaucrats weren’t enough to get the job done. Seymour's agency is spending another $400,000 of taxpayer money on outside consultants. <[link removed]>

Really important to understand, I think, that this Ministry was created to reduce red tape and save taxpayer money – it seems to be in danger of being highjacked by career grifters <[link removed].> doing the exact opposite.

It is a perfect illustration of a much bigger problem in Wellington. Even for brand new ministries, Ministers are not responsible for the selection of CEO appointments (that's left to the "experts" at the ironically named "Public Service Commission") thanks to reforms ushered in under the Ardern regime by one [checks notes] Hon Chris Hipkins.

Technically, under the Public Services Act 2020, Cabinet can reject a recommended appointment – but so far that's never happened.

So instead of getting an economics or regulatory expert to head the Ministry of Regulation, pool ol' Seymour has had a life-long Mandarin former Oranga Tamariki boss Gráinne Mossforced upon him by the Wellington blob. Is she taking one for the team? <[link removed]>

Misinformation is being used to bang the same 'we need a Capital Gains Tax' drum 🥁💸



Hipkins is rallying his (remaining) supporter(s) to push for a wealth tax – and clearly aren't willing to let the truth get in the way of a good story! A recent RNZ headline read "Wealthy people pay lower tax in NZ than in similar states, study shows <[link removed]>" – so naturally, we were curious.

Firstly, the article itself is based on a report compiled by a social policy researcher – not an economist or taxation expert.

Core arguments are based on data pulled from a 2023 OECD report that appears to use a similar methodology to that used in the discredited work produced by Inland Revenue and the Treasury last year under instruction from then Revenue Minister, David Parker.

My thoughts on a wealth tax were included in the article – albeit at the very bottom. Here are my two cents 👇

"The problem is that we've got an economy that's under-capitalised, with too much money going into housing.

"Any capital gains tax that's been proposed to date, of course, rightly excludes the family home.

"A CGT would likely make the housing problem worse and starve our economy of what it actually needs for growth and, frankly, more productivity and higher wages.

"The tax on company profits, for example, the ability to get capital in and out of the New Zealand economy, that is where we do pretty poorly.

"We've got one of the highest company taxes in the world. That means for the rest of the world, investing in New Zealand at a 28% company tax rate is pretty unattractive."

Even our highly paid Mayors are struggling at the moment 🎻




Friend, we both know it's hard at the moment – and rates across the country are skyrocketing thanks largely to poor planning and wasteful spending in councils.

But we can spare a thought for Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau – who last week said she had to sell her car to help keep herself afloat during this economic crunch. <[link removed]>

This was despite her recent 3.7% pay bump, bringing her mayoral salary to $189,799 – and I won't even mention that Mayor Whanau won $1.4m from Lotto back in 2002!

Now after an interview on Q+A with Jack Tame, she says she didn't sell her car to help pay the bills! Rather, her initial statement was 'taken out of context'. 

How dare the Mayor of Wellington take the Mayor of Wellington out of context! Someone ought to write a stern letter.

Friend, I think these comments from Whanau are indicative of an out-of-touch attitude that we are seeing across councils up and down the country.

Remember only weeks earlier when Whanau claimed there is no more 'fat to trim' in terms of her council's expenditure, despite revelations of a $563,000 bike rack literally right across the road below her office! <[link removed]>

Taxpayer Talk: Ewan McQueen on treaty issues🎙️



I was pleased to welcome Ewan McQueen onto the podcast this week. Author of "One One Sun in the Sky: the untold story of sovereignty and the Treaty of Waitangi <[link removed]>" Ewan provides fascinating commentary on the topic of using an evidence-based perspective on questions surrounding sovereignty and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Like so many, I was interested to hear Ewan's thoughts after comments recently made by some senior politicians (yes, it's you again Mr Hipkins!) on whether Māori ceded sovereignty. Have a listen and decide for yourself 👇

Listen to the episode on our website <[link removed]> | Apple Podcasts <[link removed]> | Spotify <[link removed]> | iHeart Radio <[link removed]>

Have a great week! 😊


Jordan Williams
Executive Director
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

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In the Media:


The PostChris, both Luxon and Hipkins, take tumble in latest poll <[link removed]>

RNZHipkins loses support in latest TPU-Curia poll <[link removed]>

Newstalk ZBRyan Bridge: Christopher Luxon has reason to smile this morning <[link removed]>

Newstalk ZBJason Walls: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll figures <[link removed]>

Newstalk ZBMike Hosking: The Re-wrap - In Polls We Trust <[link removed]>

InterestThe New Zealand Tax Podcast – taxing capital back on the agenda <[link removed]>

The PlatformSam Warren on White Guilt and Wasted Taxpayer Money <[link removed]>

The PressPollster stands by work despite Labour attacks <[link removed]>

NZ Herald Claire Trevett: Labour leader Chris Hipkins an easy target after a bad poll, talk about tax and an overseas trip <[link removed]>

RNZWealthy people pay lower tax in NZ than in similar states, study shows <[link removed]>

Media Releases:

Wellington City Council reversing decision on Airport sale <[link removed]>

The Reserve Bank Engineered Recession <[link removed]>

Nicola Willis' New Social Investment Agency Doubles Budget and Raises Salaries <[link removed]>

More than 6,500 Kiwis demand answers from IRD at  <[link removed]>IRD-Leak.nz <[link removed]>

IRD Data Leak: Taxpayers' Union launch tool for taxpayer <[link removed]>

New Zealand Taxpayers' Union Inc. · 117 Lambton Quay, Level 4, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
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