<[link removed]>Hi Friend,

Every week the team at the Taxpayers’ Union are uncovering, exposing, and publicising government waste.

And, as you’ll see below, the change in government hasn’t fixed the problem. In fact, it's getting worse, not better.  

While the media and opposition politicians talk about new ways to tax New Zealanders more – if only they focused on how to improve the quality of government spending.

It’s time we said enough is enough. We need to go to war on government waste, but we need your support today so we can mount it. <[link removed]>

Case in point: even more wasteful “scientific research” spending…



, you may recall the Taxpayers’ Union recently exposed the millions ACC is spending on "Rongoā Māori" (traditional Maori healing and prayer) for humans. We never thought that taxpayers were also funding Rongoā Māori for trees! We were wrong.

A decade ago, the Government established something called the “National Science Challenges”. Managed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), it was intended to “tackle the biggest science-based issues and opportunities facing New Zealand”.

According to MBIE’s website, the 11 Challenges are supposed to “focus science investment on issues that matter to all New Zealanders” and bring together “the country’s top scientists to work collaboratively across disciplines, institutions and borders to achieve their objectives.”

The Government has “invested" sorry, spent, just over $680 million taxpayers' money to date.

Given the previous examples of unscientific spending the Taxpayers’ Union has already uncovered this year, I asked our research team to have a quick look at the latest funding and progress reports for the eleven challenges. 

First up, we were really encouraged to see that one of the founding 'Principles' of the National Science Challenges is 'Science Quality' meaning (according to MBIE’s website):

"Each Challenge is dynamic and includes mechanisms to bring in new ideas, researchers, and research providers to refresh the Challenge. Each research plan involves identifying and selecting the best science to address the Challenge."

You can see where this is going…

What do sperm whales and kauri trees have in common? 🐳 + 🌳 = 💸

Friend, one of the eleven challenges is 'New Zealand’s Biological Heritage Challenge' which the Government says is “to protect and manage New Zealand’s biodiversity, improve our biosecurity, and enhance our resilience to harmful organisms”.

But in Wellington, nothing can be done without incorporating an indigenous worldview.

So a pōwhiri or hui? Goodness no, the boffins at MBIE, the Ministry for the Environment, and AUT decided that for this challenge, traditional Maori “ways of knowing” (known as Mātauranga Māori) be given equal weight as the “alternative ideology” (and that is literally the description in the official MBIE documents) of science.

So that’s what led to the project titled Ngā Rakau Taketake Saving Our Iconic Trees.

According to MBIE:

“[the] programme name Ngā Rākau Taketake (NRT) reflects the historical connections Māori and other New Zealanders have with our kauri and myrtaceae trees. ‘Taketake’ refers to the permanence of that relationship. This programme aimed to protect and restore this relationship and connection."

A government 'Science Scoping Group' was commissioned, which, according to MBIE “scanned the research landscape to identify where the research and impact needed to be made in the myrtle rust and kauri dieback spaces”.

They came up with seven themes of research, all working towards what officials called their 'guiding star' of:

The mauri (life force) of the kauri and of our native myrtle species are safeguarded, sustained and enhanced for our tamariki and mokopuna.

Make no mistake, Friend, at the Taxpayers’ Union we support saving the trees! Kauri dieback and myrtle rust diseases are challenges the Government ought to be spending time and money on to figure out.

But I’m not sure this is what most taxpayers would have in mind…

🎶 Mātauranga Māori-based solutions for kauri dieback and myrtle rust 🎶



There are mountains of material to work through (so expect more to come), but we thought we'd give you a flavour of what your money is being spent on.

The quotes below are taken directly from the official science challenge website:

Overview  Te Tirohanga Whānui

Māori worldviews are essential for establishing priorities and allowing the co-production of knowledge in response to threats to taonga rākau (treasured tree) species.

In the fight against kauri dieback and myrtle rust, Māori have been seeking solutions that call on their knowledge systems and understandings of the physical and meta-physical elements of the universe. This includes solutions embedded in the spiritual dimensions of this knowledge, that are vital to the protection and enhancement of the natural environment. These are often overlooked, or at worst subjugated, by conventional environmental management practices and the science knowledge that underpins its decision-making.

Te mauri o te rakau, te mauri o te ngahere, te mauri o te tangata: Mātauranga Māori based solutions for kauri dieback and myrtle rust was a suite of kaupapa Māori projects that aimed to restore the collective health of trees, forests and people. The team did this by connecting to, and resourcing, Māori communities and their environmental knowledge holders to explore solutions embedded in mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge).

The 'Research Area Summary' document outlines:

Māori whakapapa describes how the kauri and tohorā (sperm whale) are brothers, but they were separated when the tohorā chose the ocean over the forest. In this research area we looked at how this connection could possibly help save the kauri from kauri dieback disease.

The team was led by Matua Tohe Ashby and investigated rongoā (traditional medicine) solutions for kauri dieback. This involved tohorā, karakia and mōteatea, and tied into the second Oranga research project: Te reo o te waonui a Tāne. The team also trained kauri communities in rongoā solutions to help save their rākau (trees).

It goes on to explain what the “research” actually involves:

Led by the Pawarenga community, Dr. Valance Smith and his team collaborated with kaitiaki and leaders from Pawarenga to delve into the realm of ‘ihirangaranga’— vibrations and frequencies—as healing sounds, to construct a sonic tapestry of rejuvenation and well-being.

Nestled amidst the Te Auwarawara forest, the soundscape is a layered composition, intricately woven with sonic samples of healthy kauri within its untouched habitat, the whale song of its cetacean kin the tohora, inlayed with the healing sounds of taonga puoro, takutaku, and karakia, representing profound layers of ancient wisdom and knowledge, deeply ingrained in the very fabric of the soundscape.

In addition, the soundscape of ailing kauri trees has been captured and examined to gather vital baseline data, enabling continuous monitoring and tracking of their healing progress.

This project was supported by an array of mātauranga Māori tools, including pūrākau (oral narratives), maramataka (lunar calendar), and ngā kaupeka (phases of summer and winter) unique to the Pawarenga region. These invaluable resources serve as both treatment modalities and management tools, empowering the community to foster the well-being and vitality of their kauri.

Let’s put this into plain language.

Money, taxpayers were told was being used for the best possible “Science Quality”, is being used to record whale sounds, mix them with sounds of healthy forests, and then by sending people with boom boxes, taken into unhealthy Kauri forests to figure out whether the sounds “soothe” Kauri trees suffering from Kauri dieback disease.



The millions wasted: You couldn't make it up 🤦

They’re also spending millions (yes, millions, see below) so that the sound of ailing trees is also captured to 'gather vital baseline data, enabling continuous monitoring and tracking of their healing progress' – because not doing that would just be silly, right?

According to the “Scoping Panel Report” document that our research team now has their hands on, somewhere between $29.6 and $65.5 million of taxpayer money has been spent on the Kauri dieback project alone.

Just one in a series 👀

According to MBIE, this project is just one of a ‘whole series’ of research programmes along these themes that have been implemented under the “Science Challenges”

Even Kara kea – singing at certain frequencies – is being used to "help the Kauri healing process" against the dieback pathogen.

🚨 Declare WAR on Wasteful Spending 🚨

Friend, this is a perfect illustration of what is going wrong in Wellington. If it weren't for the Taxpayers' Union these things wouldn't see the light of day.

That’s why I’m asking for your support today so that we can declare war on government waste. <[link removed]>

Will you support this effort with a confidential donation? <[link removed]>

Exposing the [taxpayer funded! 🤯] ideology behind the waste 😡

Few would dispute that traditional Māori “forms of knowledge” are worth protecting. But the anti-science of this project is astonishing.

Dr Smith, millions spent singing to the trees.



As part of our research, we've discovered a video of Dr Valance Smith (referred to above as the leader of the NRT project – pictured) saying that Indigenous knowledge gets no respect because the “colonisation process” has “tried to remove our knowledge” and that projects like this must be given an equal footing to the colonisers ideology (i.e. the scientific method).

In fact, Smith is even on tape acknowledging that this project 'isn't really research' but is (apparently) 'even better' because it is allowing mātauranga Māori to stand 'as equals' with the worldview of 'colonisers'.  His academic profile states: 

Recently, Dr Smith was appointed Assistant Pro-Vice Chancellor (Māori Advancement) and leads the Mātauranga Māori Strategy at AUT. Valance provides cultural leadership to AUT, his whānau and abroad, this year accompanying the Pacific Mission Delegation to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands alongside Rt Hon Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

While his doctoral thesis looked at the role of contemporary Māori music in promoting te reo Māori (2014), his most recent research applies mātauranga Māori across many disciplines of research including kaitiakitanga, well-being, and research in design for health.

Again, let's translate to plain language: the six-figure salaried "expert" leading what is supposed to be one of New Zealand's 'top science quality' projects, is nothing more than a cultural and music expert.

As a result, taxpayers are literally seeing millions spent on playing whale music to trees.

Sunshine is the best disinfectant 🔍

If you agree that these sorts of projects need to be publicly debated, and an injection of realism into both Wellington and science spending, please stand with the Taxpayers’ Union so that we can continue our work and declare war on government waste <[link removed]>.

<[link removed]>👉 MAKE A SECURE DONATION 👈 <[link removed]>It's time we declared War on Government Waste.

Are you with me? <[link removed]>

Thank you for your support.


Jordan Williams
Executive Director
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

Ps. The media should be doing this job, but isn't. Unless the Taxpayers' Union can continue its work to find, expose, and publicise government waste nothing will change no matter which politicians are put in the Beehive. We hope you will back this effort so the Taxpayers' Union can keep on digging. <[link removed]>

New Zealand Taxpayers' Union Inc. · 117 Lambton Quay, Level 4, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
This email was sent to [email protected]. To change your email preferences, click here <[link removed]>.
Authorised by the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, Level 4, 117 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6011.