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Hi Friend
It's silly
season in Wellington, with Christmas joy (i.e. taxpayer funded) knees
up well underway.
There's
also the usual December "take out the trash" silliness where
exceedingly well paid government spin doctors dump the bad news at the
very time the media and public aren't looking...
But here at
the Taxpayers' Union, we're still at it and will be at right up until
the fat man in the red suit arrives in a few weeks.
Merry
Christmas (to the Debt Monster) 🎄
 This week we're expecting the
Government's solution to the Interislander debacle (quite why Kiwirail
isn't expected to fund its own asset purchases, just like the
privately-owned Cook Straight ferry operator does has never been
clear), and next week, on the Eve of Christmas comes Nicola Willis'
Budget Policy Statement, and Half Year Fiscal and Economic Update.
There, we're expecting the inevitable announcement that budget surplus
is being pushed back, yet again.
So the Government
Debt Clock won't be stopped for Christmas, in fact it's ticking at
a faster rate than when Grant Robertson was in-charge. The
only one who's happy is the Debt Monster.
Meanwhile,
Labour thinking about how to make New Zealand more prosperous tax you more
🤦
The Labour
Party was hammered at last year's election, and last week Party
members gathered in Christchurch for their annual conference to
discuss the rebuild.
You'd think
that they'd learn some lessons and take the message, right? After all,
Labour's increase in Government spending (gross core Crown spending
by 83 percent in just seven years ! ) resulted in high inflation and,
arguably, worse public services.
But it
seems Christopher Hipkins missed the memo.
Instead of debating the challenges the New
Zealand economy faces, our structural overspending, and lack of
productivity growth in both the private and public sectors,
the Labour Party's main agenda item was to debate [re-checks notes]
which new tax they should introduce!
➡️➡️➡️ Walk this way to higher taxes
➡️➡️➡️
To help Labour Party delegates find their way to
the venue, your humble Taxpayers' Union were on hand to help.
😉
Even Stuff
liked the gag! Young Alex (who came to work for us from our sister
group, the Canadian
Taxpayers' Federation) got his
first interview on the 6 o'clock TV news to give the taxpayer
perspective.
Despite
our best intentions to be helpful, Labour's delegates weren't so keen
on our helpful sign posting (video here). Weird.
NEW
POLL: ACT & Te Pāti Māori gain in final Taxpayers-Union Curia Poll
for 2024 📊
There will be sighs of relief in the Beehive with the
centre-right commanding a comfortable majority in our final poll for
2024, despite a hard month and media attention on
the hīkoi.
The poll, conducted 1 to 3 December, has both National
and Labour down 4.6 points from last month, National at 34.2% and
Labour at 26.9%.
Despite some progress on the "Preferred PM" results (see
below), it's not much progress for Chris Hipkins, 26.9% is the exact
result Labour got at last year's general election.
The Greens are down
1 point to 8.3%, while ACT are up 4.5 points to 13%. That puts ACT
ahead of the Greens for the first time since February
2024.
New Zealand First is down 1.1 points to 5.4% while Te
Pāti Māori is up 3 points to 5.5%.
For the minor parties, Outdoors and
Freedom is on 2% (+0.7 points), TOP is on 1.1% (+0.2 points), and
Vision NZ is on 0.2% (-0.2 points).
Converting that to seats in Parliament, these results
would mean National and ACT would not need NZ First to form a
Government. The total number of seats for the Centre-right is 68,
while the left has only 52 seats in the 120 Parliament.
In terms of Preferred Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon
is up slightly from last month to 27.1% (+0.6 points) while Chris
Hipkins is up to 19.9% (+4.4 points). David Seymour is at 5.8% (-1.6
points) matched by Winston Peters (-0.5 points) at 5.8% and Chlöe
Swarbrick at 4.5% (-0.7 points).
This month we're also publicly releasing what
participants said was their "most important issue" that would
influence how they would vote.
Although it is getting much media attention, just 8.4% of
voters listed the Treaty as their top voting issue. That could suggest
that media attention does not necessarily correlate to importance in
the minds of most voters.
You
can read more results over on our website.
EXPOSED: New Zealand's infrastructure benchmark - more
traffic cones than sheep? 👀 🚧 🐑
The
Taxpayers' Union has exposed that the New Zealand Transport Agency's
spending on 'temporary traffic management' has been a massive $786
million in just three years.
That's more than $390 per household on road cones
and lollypop signs.
And it gets worse, Friend. The $786 million is 'only'
what comes from central government. It doesn't include what your
council is spending on cones (those higher rates have to be going
somewhere!).
Politicians and talking heads in the media complain about
New Zealand's "infrastructure deficit" and argue that we must spend more. But
according to the OECD (a think tank funded by the governments of most
developed countries) New Zealand spends at higher levels than
Australia and the median OECD country on infrastructure.
So why aren't we enjoying world class infrastructure?
Like so many areas of spending coming from Wellington, it's not
how much we're spending, it's what we're getting (or
not getting) due to New Zealand's very poor productivity.
And it's no state secret. As
our friends over at the NZ Initiative think tank have pointed
out:
Despite this comparatively high
spending, New Zealand reaps a relatively poor return from its
infrastructure investment. Alarmingly, we rank near the bottom 10 per
cent of high-income countries for the efficiency of our infrastructure
spending.
A cone-spiracy? 🤷
Your humble Taxpayers' Union suggests that when you're
spending so much on traffic management there are (so we are told) more
cones than there are sheep, overly zealous traffic management would be
a good place to start to get more bang for our buck from
NZTA.
No one is
saying 'end all road cones' (well, maybe a few of us in the office),
but
when Alex and the team stumbled upon a single Wellington
intersection with more than 200 road cones, surely something
has to change?!
A
tree-mendous waste of $1.2 million 🎄🎅🏻
Christmas
is a time for family, and our Auckland ratepayer campaign has been
digging deep.
On
behalf of the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance I found myself playing the
Grinch when I broke the news that Auckland's new Christmas Tree cost
up to $1.2 million. Ouch!
It seems no
expense was spared on this 18-metre ornament, with Council committing
$800,000 of rates money.
We can only
assume the baubles are made of solid gold (we asked, but Auckland
Council refused to provide a breakdown of the $1.3million – so it's
anyone's guess).
Christchurch
on the other hand erected their 10 metre Christmas tree for just four
percent of the cost.
Wellington
also managed three Christmas trees for about the same cost as
Christchurch's one. You read that right: Wellington City Council
actially kept costs down for something – it's a Christmas
miracle!
Your
household's $57 SolarZero charge: time for some sunlight
☀️🔥
Politicians
love to give old fashioned corporate welfare new labels such as 'green
investments'. But in the case of the $115 million taxpayer dollars
basked onto SolarZero, a private company, through the so-called "Green
Investment Finance Investment Bank" even an Orwellion name and
$155million wasn't enough to stop the collapse.
According
to the NZ Herald, Finance
Minister Nicola Willis is "seeking advice" on the investment and why
it went wrong.
Here's what
the advice should say: Big gambles mean big losses, and
taxpayers shouldn't have to front up with (in this company's case) $57
for every Kiwi household to subsides (via cheap capital) because a
business or industry is green fashionable.
The
Government was elected to cut wasteful spending. Corporate welfare
funds like the Green Investment Finance Investment Bank would be a
good place to start. After all, if you're a half decent
investment banker, are you really likely to be working for
the New Zealand Government...
More money
muscled musseled
out of Shane Jones 🦪💪
Speaking of
corporate welfare, the
hapless mussel farm in Opotiki has received yet another $16.5
million of taxpayer cash courtesy of Shane Jones.
Most Kiwis
love a good seafood feast. But for those counting, this latest handout
takes the total corporate welfare handouts to $52 million, for just
one mussel farm!
We hope you
like mussels because every NZ household has now stumped up $26
subsidising this one company.
Shane Jones says he wants to create a sustainable
industry out of mussel farming in the area. But the company
he's showering has never turned a profit. Not even once.
Speaking of creative accounting...
Official
Dis-information? South Wairarapa District Council's audited accounts
show wrong CEO pay numbers 🫢
They won't
tell anyone what the extra money was for, except that it was in
relation to "contractual obligations". Sounds like a golden goodbye to
me...
Forcing every single one of the 7,400 households
in the small district to chip in $10 as a goodbye a bit rich.
But to then not disclose the payout (as required by law) is a bit
poor, to say the least.
Have a
great week,
 |
Sam Warren
Local Government Campaigns Manager
New Zealand
Taxpayers' Union
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