|
📌 View
Online | 🚀 Share
on Facebook
Hi Friend,
EXPOSED:
New Zealand's best and worst Mayor. How does your local Mayor
rank? 🥇
With media
thinner and thinner, and community newspapers often reliant on their
largest advertisers (i.e. councils) accountability in local
government is at an all time low. But your humble Taxpayers'
Union is here to help...
To kick-off
local body election year, we've published Mayoral rankings – based on
the responses of random samples of voters as part of our regular
political polling.
The Sunday
Star Times splashed the headline results (read
the coverage over on Stuff.co.nz)
Friend, the
verdict was not good. Barely half of the country's Mayors have
a positive 'net approval' among their voters.
The
country's most loved is the Far North Mayor, Moko Tepania with a 39
percent net approval score.
Coincidently... the Far North District Council /
Mayor Moko Tepaia, delivered the lowest
rates rise of anywhere in the country this year. Perhaps
a lesson there for those local body politicians who we know
read Taxpayer Update 😉
Incredibly
the research suggests that there are Mayors even worse than
Wellington's "Night Mayor", Tory Whanau. 😲
Good news
for Brown, bad news for Whanau 🗳️
Because a
higher proportion of New Zealanders live in the three big cities, the
larger sample sizes for the mayors of Auckland, Christchurch, and
Wellington allow for statistically meaningful trend data. As
you might expect, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is growing his support,
while it seems Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau is turning voters off the
more they get to know her. Ouch.
🚨🚨🚨 Disinformation Alert 🚨🚨🚨
Public Sector Union promote myth about 'cuts to
health spending'
Imagine if
the Taxpayers' Union did a survey that asserted false
information in the question, and then took the media results to
justify complaining about the false information. We'd never get away
with it (and rightly so!).
But the
Public Service Commission – the self-interested union for Wellington's
back-office bureaucrats – run by a former Labour Party
candidate, Fleur Fitzsimons, did just that! And Stuff lapped
it up! 🤦
This was splashed on
Monday's front page of Wellington's The Post (owned
by Stuff):
A couple of problems with that headline and the
quote highlighted.
Contrary to what the bureaucrats want you to
think, health funding has actually increased under the current
government.
In fact, according to the Treasury's most recent
fiscal update, even when adjusted for inflation and population
changes, the Government is spending more on health than ever
before.
They've also committed an extra $16
billion over the next three years, on top of what the previous
Government was spending on health.
The only 'cuts' are cuts to back office
spending that affect (you guessed it!) the back-office pen-pushers the
PSA represent.
We say, the PSA are entitled to their own
opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts. Stuff / The
Post should be ashamed.
And one more thing: a 'survey' is not a
poll. Polls are based on a random selection of a population.
A survey participants are self selected.
If the standards applied to the PSA applied to
us, we could just survey Taxpayers' Union members and get
front page coverage about how everyone is supporting our campaigns!
But we have too much integrity to do a PSA-style campaign to mislead
the public.
Yesterday,
Jordan was on The Platform to discuss the PSA's false
claims.
DANGER:
Chris Bishop wants to give Councils a new way to tax your
home! 🏠💰
Last week,
Housing Minister Chris Bishop unveiled
changes to how councils fund infrastructure for new housing, hoping to
speed up building homes across the country.
In short,
the Government wants to allow councils to 'value capture' from homes
that benefit from new public infrastructure. In principle, it makes
sense. In fact, value capture levies were how most of the New
Zealand's infrastructure (such as rural roads) were funded in the
early 20th century (they were commonly termed 'betterment
levies').
Say a new
road and pipeline opens up the potential for a big new housing
development. It's only fair that those houses/properties pay for the
infrastructure as their properties (and property values) directly
benefit.
But
there's a danger. Do you trust your local mayor council to decide
what's good for you?
Say your
council wants to build a new cycle lane or bus way to be built near
your home or something else where the council may assert
there's an increased value. See the problem?
So the
devil is in the detail. There needs to be strong legal and economic
oversight to ensure that councils don't just use a new ability to tax
to continue to grow wasteful or unwanted spending. And, while this new
funding mechanism could enable much needed infrastructure to be built,
if it locks-in councils as inefficient monopoly providers in the
actual building of the infrastructure (where other providers may be
able to deliver the same for cheaper) there is also danger.
Make no mistake, this is a 'new tax'. So your humble
Taxpayers' Union will be on watch.
FEEDBACK
SOUGHT: Do you support a four-year term for Parliament?
The
Government announced a Bill to extend New Zealand's Parliamentary term
from three to four years.
Voting is
about the only time Kiwis have any control of the Government. Reducing
elections by a third could seriously damage accountability – something
we take very seriously.
Unlike most
democracies, New Zealand doesn't have an upper house or separately
elect the executive government. That's why New Zealand's parliamentary
term is just three years – to be the main 'restraint' on a wayward
government.
On the
other hand, politicians claim they are constantly in election-mode
with our three year terms, and that it may damage long-term
thinking.
I'll be
frank with you, Friend. I'm against a longer Parliamentary term
because I don't think letting politicians further off the reins is
worth the risk. But it's an issue which splits the team's opinions,
and reasonable minds can differ.
So
we want to hear your views as a Taxpayers' Union
supporter.
Julie Anne
Genter's book review for the Taxpayers' Union! 🤣
Last week,
the media approached us about an incident at Victoria University's
"Clubs Day" involving Green Party MP Julie-Anne Genter.
You can read The
Post's summary here.
Ms Genter
approached the stall of our University movement, Generation
Screwed, and started berating some of our interns and volunteers
who were helping out. It was the usual nonsense you'd expect from a
far-left activist ("foreign shills", "billionaire funded", "Atlas
propaganda" nonsense), not the sort of conversation you'd expect from
an MP.
Our Comms
Officer, Alex, had the quick wit to get it on tape (unfortunately the
sound failed to work), but the screenshots give you an idea of Ms
Genter's, errr, animation...
Given
Ms Genter's very strong views about the Taxpayers' Union and
our book (pictured) we asked Chat GPT to tell us what Ms
Genter would say if she were to formally review the book. It was too
accurate not to share with you!
The Mission: the Taxpayers' Union at
10 – Book review by Julie-Anne Genter MP
Let me be clear: this so-called “book”
is the worst thing to happen to New Zealand since the Atlas Network
installed the Government. The Mission is a right-wing fever dream,
dripping with pro-taxpayer propaganda, designed to undermine the noble
efforts of hardworking politicians (like me) who only want to save the
planet… one taxpayer dollar at a time. The sheer
audacity!
The chapters on government waste nearly made me
throw my reusable coffee cup across the room. If you enjoy fiction,
conspiracy theories, and being wrong, this is the book for you.
Otherwise, compost it immediately.  ⭐☆☆☆☆
What a
review we can be proud of! Grab
yourself a copy before the Green Party snap them all
up!
 Enjoy the rest of
your week,
 |
James
Ross
Policy & Public Affairs Manager
New Zealand
Taxpayers’ Union
|
|
