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Hi Friend,
Better
late than never... media wake up to whale song 🐋
Thanks for
all the feedback on the $ 4 million "whale music to heal Kauri tree
science project"
(we've received more than a thousand emails alone!). We
even received a Spotify Playlist of, you guessed it, Whale
Songs! At $18.99 per month, Spotify Premium would have been a lot
cheaper than the $ 4 million taxpayers forked out!
And, thanks
to persistence from your humble Taxpayers' Union, the media
couldn't continue to ignore it. First up, Sean Plunket on The
Platform interviewed me, and this morning Mike Hosking
pontificated about the wasteful project (and, rightly, asked why there
had been so little media attention on it). Thank you, Sean and Mike!
(Click on image to listen).
"Save the
Whale [songs]?" 🎶 Govt pulls plug on funding 🎉
Not only
has the media now taken notice, but so too has the Beehive.
A Taxpayers' Union board member was contacted
over the weekend with assurances from a very senior government figure
😉 that the Government's so-called "Science Re-set" will see the
decade-long funding of the "National Science Challenges" (originally
set up by Key-era Minister Steven Joyce) come to an end.
In fact,
outgoing Science Minister Judith Collins made the decision last year,
as part of a greater shake-up that was announced as part of last
Thursday's speech on the economy (more on that below).
So who's
to blame? What the officials wouldn't tell us... 🤫
The
background to the project and MBIE's general approach to intertwining
traditional Māori knowledge (also known as folklore) was also
outlined by our source in the Beehive.
Because
MBIE had been so cagey (it literally took us months just to get the
cost out of them!), we had assumed that the misappropriation of
science funding was due to bad eggs within MBIE and Landcare Research
getting ahead of themselves in 'decolonising' science.
Guess who...
Taxpayer Update has learned that what led to the
whole "Oranga Wellbeing" project was in fact hatched from a directive
from former Ministers
for Research, Science and Innovation under the last
Labour-Government. Clearly leaning into the innovation rather
than the science maybe?
The
Taxpayers' Union has some questions for the former
Ministers, Drs Megan Woods and Ayesha Verrall about why prayer and
whale song for forest health is a good use of taxpayer money.
And credit
where credit is due, the Labour Party Chief Press Secretary
immediately responded to my request for a sit-down interview (we
normally have to wait for days!).
Alas,
they don't want to talk about it...
That
speech on the economy: Is Christopher Luxon serious about "going for
growth"?
After a bad
poll, and the majority of voters voicing that the country is headed in
the 'wrong' direction, all eyes were on Christopher Luxon last week
for his 'State of the Nation' speech in front of the Auckland Chamber
of Commerce last week.
I headed
along to listen, and as is often the case with politicians,
Christopher Luxon was more passionate and convincing in the Q&A
(with the Chambers' new boss, Simon Bridges) than in the set piece
speech.
The message
was simple: for New Zealand to get ahead we need to stop saying 'no'
and go for economic growth.
Amen to
that! From a taxpayer perspective, economic growth isn't
everything, but it's just about everything.
Here was my
reaction as I left the venue.
Why Growth
Matters 🚀
David
Farrar and I co-founded the Taxpayers' Union because we love
this country but don't want to feel guilty bringing up our kids in a
New Zealand that is poor. We are as natural-resource rich as
Australia, as innovative as the Americans, and offer a stable
english-common law legal system. So why are we falling further and
further behind?
As Mr Luxon
rightly identified, it's policy choices and an approach of
'saying no' that costs us – and we are seeing with the state of our
economy, public services, and numbers leaving for greener pastures the
result.
So unless
New Zealand pulls up its socks, grows our productivity, and tackles a
bloated wasteful government sector, the opportunities for our
children relative to our Australian cousins simply won't be
there.
So, in
terms of rhetoric, Mr Luxon gets the big tick.
But now for
the substance. Mr Luxon was let down badly by his policy team. Even if
he successfully convinced the crowd that he was serious about turning
around New Zealand's economic fortunes, the speech failed to produce
the goods.
Mr Luxon
said he wants New Zealand to be more like Ireland and Singapore.
But instead of taking the policy settings towards those role
models, the only announcement was to rearrange New Zealand Trade and
Enterprise officials into a new bureaucracy to be called "Invest New
Zealand".
I can't
believe I'm writing this, but yes the Government's headline economic
growth announcement was (drum roll...) another Government
agency. To do exactly what Trade & Enterprise and MBIE
officials are supposed to be doing already.
So for one
job, we will now have not two, but three sets of bureaucrats
doing the same thing! Feeling richer yet?
If the
Ardern-Government taught us anything it is that political rhetoric and
jawboning isn't enough. If
New Zealand really is to become the next Celtic Tiger or the South
Pacific version of Singapore's "Lion City" a government marketing
agency doesn't cut it.
This was
the comment we gave to the media:
“The speech represents shifting deck chairs,
not the sort of economic reform the times call for.”
“People
don’t invest in a country because a government agency tells them to.
Claims that this model is seen in Ireland or Singapore are fantasy.
Investors in those countries don’t have among the highest corporate
tax rates in the developed world. Today’s speech would have meant
something had it tackled our tax settings or securities law which make
investing here so unattractive.”
“New Zealand’s lack of foreign
investment isn’t because of a lack of bureaucrats. It’s because we
don’t offer competitive investments. Today’s speech lacks
the seriousness or urgency in ‘going for growth’.”
Ireland and
Singapore weren't fuelled by marketing fluff, or investor "concierge
services" but by low corporation taxes (12% and 17% respectively, vs
New Zealand's 28%), an investor-friendly foreign investment legal
framework, and an efficient, lean government.
As a
Minister of Finance from the 1990s put it:
"If the Government is serious about growing
the economy it would immediately cut the company tax rate – or allow
for full expensing of capital expenditure this year to put a rocket
under investment incentives and to grow productivity."
"But
such measures would have a cost. They would require significant cuts
to wasteful government spending."
The ball is in Christopher Luxon's court. Hard
work and bold policy are necessary to grow New Zealand's productivity
and New Zealanders' prosperity.
The
job of the Taxpayers' Union is to ensure he
delivers...
You
can read the PM's full speech
here (or watch
the video here).
RIP
Callaghan Innovation 🪦💰
Luxon's
speech did have one thing to celebrate though: The Government is
finally scrapping its corporate welfare arm, Callaghan Innovation!
With a budget of $240m this year alone, it's no small fry.
Long time
readers of Taxpayer Update will recall Callaghan Innovation
are the poster child of government waste. On paper, the agency exists
to commercialise science and innovation. In reality, it's led by
people who failed to make it in the commercial world, but chuck away
millions in corporate welfare to big businesses to
'innovate'.
On top of
that, the agency has had a broken culture for about as long as it has
existed. Wasteful spending has been coming out of their ears, and even
as far back as 2015/16 (it was only founded in 2013), the Taxpayers'
Union exposed this relatively small agency for spending nearly
$3m on entertainment, airfare, and accommodation in just one
year!
Of course,
the devil will be in the detail, the Government says it'll be "moving
its most important functions to other parts of the system." So don't
count your chickens just yet - no doubt the corporate welfare
lobbyists are already out in force looking for another backdoor into
taxpayers' back pockets.
If you're
interested in the details of the science announcement, head
over to the Beehive website here. Also worth reading is Steven
Joyce (who held the Science portfolio in the John Key-era)'s opinion
piece from the weekend: Government’s
science plan is like rearranging the deckchairs – Steven Joyce (NZ
Herald)
Governor-General gives herself the Royal
treatment 🫅🥂💁♀️
Thanks
to a tipoff from within the Government, we've exposed that the
Governor-General has spent more than $23,000 of taxpayer cash on VIP
treatment at just one airline airport alone!
London
Heathrow Airport's "VIP facilitation service" covers everything from
chauffeurs to fine art - not to mention the Michelin-star
food. Not bad if the taxpayer's footing the bill.
Dame Cindy
Kiro would hardly be the first person to use a taxpayer-funded trip
overseas as an excuse for a taste of the high life.
In fact, it seems to be the Film Commission's entire
job!
It's one
thing to fly the world's best airline business class around the world.
But to require a limo to pick you up from the plane (when diplomats
already get rushed through special lines at security) isn't really the
Kiwi way. In fact, even Prime Ministers seldom use these
services.
But that
rorting just stings a little bit more when the person doing it already
lives in a mansion with domestic staff fully paid for by
taxpayers.
Dame
Cindy's pulling home a salary of $447,900 a year, as well as an
expense package of $40,551 (clothing and luggage are expensive these
days!). When that comes to nearly seven times the median wage, is it
really too much to ask for the Governor-General to pay for her own red
carpet reception?
Since the
team published the story, we've had some other government insiders
contact us to report other areas where the Governor General is taking
(to put it politely) an entitled approach. More to
come...
Have a
great week,
 |
Jordan
Williams
Executive Director
New Zealand
Taxpayers’ Union.
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