Hi Friend,

I’m writing to you about the Treaty Principles Hīkoi and blatant misuse of taxpayer money by Te Pāti Māori. We need your support to stop this shameless rort.

Far from the ‘grassroots movement’ the media would have you believe, the leader of the Hīkoi is none other than a Parliamentary staffer of the Māori Party!

Last night, the Taxpayers’ Union managed to 100% confirm that Eru Kapa-Kingi (pictured) is on the Parliamentary payroll as a full-time taxpayer funded staffer.

Friend, when the Taxpayers’ Union complain about MPs abusing their taxpayer-funded staff, office and travel secret slush-funds, this is exactly what we mean.

MPs are given a budget to provide services to constituents, and enable them to do their jobs. But too often the money is being siphoned off to party-political activity and campaigning – in this case literally creating a protest movement to confront the Government!

Will you step-in to support us to blow open Parliament's books, get this issue into the media, and demand transparency of MPs spending of their secret slush funds?

If this was a Ministerial staffer, the activity would be covered by the Official Information Act. But the Māori Party are using Parliamentary resourcing, which is kept totally secret! That means there is no way we can know what other taxpayer funds and resources are going into the Hīkoi.

Meanwhile, Te Pāti Māori MPs just refuse to answer questions. They know full well that the public can't do a thing to probe further.

Friend, only the Taxpayers’ Union has been pointing out this blatant flaw in our democratic transparency.  All spending by Ministerial offices is already covered by the Official Information Act. Why should opposition MPs' offices be any different?

But we can’t hold MPs who are misusing their Parliamentary funds to account until we can blow their books wide open with transparency.

Support our campaign to demand Parliament 'Open the Books' by clicking here.

Our plan to win this.

With your support, we will launch a campaign to hold Te Pāti Māori – and all the other MPs rorting the system – to account. 

You've already seen our first part of this campaign. We managed to convince 18,400+ New Zealanders to make a submission calling for Parliament to 'Open the Books'. Now comes the next part, but we are reliant on you chipping-in to make it possible.

So if the media won’t do their job, we’ll do it for them with paid advertising, lobbying the Auditor General to take a stand, and keeping the heat on MPs still burying their heads in the sand over the secrecy provisions that apply to spending by MPs and their offices.

If you agree that MPs should be transparent about what they are spending your taxpayer money on, I hope you will support this effort.

Thank you for your support.

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

ps. Only with transparency can we force MPs to STOP using taxpayer-funded resources to support party-political activism by the back door. To make a confidential donation to this campaign, click here.