New milestone for National Debt ⏰
Unnoticed by the media, just before 9pm
Friday, the national
debt quietly hit $190 billion (that's $93,381 per
household!) - based on the most recent Treasury
information release set to be updated with this month's
Budget.
With more
and more Kiwis getting their news and information via social media, to
mark the occasion, the Taxpayers' Union has launched an X (formerly
called Twitter) account to live-tweet
the state of the nation's debt on the hour, every hour, 365 days of
the year.
The bot –
created by a talented intern in between Hīkoi stops – uses the same NZ
Treasury/Budget figures used at the
official New Zealand Debt Clock website at
DebtClock.nz.
Read it and
weep.
That storm 💨
Thank you
to everyone who contributed to make the Hīkoi for Balanced
Budgets possible. The storm may have cleared, but the fiscal
storm continues!
Government
debt is now more than $93,500 for every household in New Zealand. And
it’s growing by more than $47 million every
single day (so much for the ‘cuts’ the media love to talk
about) 🤨
🚨 Next
stop: the South Island
After
dodging literal storms and gale-force winds, we took the message of
battling Nicola’s own (debt) storm throughout the North Island,
stopping at:
📍Mangawhai,
Whangārei, Kaitaia, Paihia, Kerikeri, Dargaville, Wellsford, Kaikohe,
Waitangi, Hamilton, Thames, Morrinsville, Tauranga, Taupō, Tūrangi,
Taumarunui, Rotorua, Feilding, Palmerston North, Levin, Paraparaumu,
and Porirua.
Everywhere we went, people stopped, pointed,
snapped photos — and asked: “Is the debt that big..?” “I
can’t believe it’s that big.” Sadly, Friend, it really
is that big. 😔
The Hīkoi Debt Clock is
currently crossing the Cook Strait and starts the South Island leg
with a stop in Christchurch tomorrow. Details are here.
Friend,
this campaign isn’t just about big numbers. It’s about the future our
kids and grandkids inherit. Every extra million borrowed means
more interest payments to overseas investors and less for the public
services we enjoy.
👉 See the full list of South Island stops
here.
NEW POLL: Coalition could form
Government, but country direction back in the red ⚠️
The Government Coalition holds on to its
lead in this month's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll, dropping by
a single seat compared to last month.
But the PM won't be "totally relaxed"
with today's results, with an increased number of voters
telling pollsters that they think the country’s going in the "wrong
direction".
In terms of the party vote, National is
up 1.1 points to 34.6 percent while Labour is up 3.4 points to 33.2
percent. The Greens are down 1.9 points to 9.1 percent, while ACT is
down to 9.5 percent (-0.5 points). New Zealand First remains on 7.4
percent while Te Pāti Māori is down 0.4 points to 3.9
percent.
The projected seats for the Centre-Right
is 63 – that's down 1 seat from last month. The combined seats for the
Centre-Left is up 1 seat to 58.
On these numbers, National and ACT would still
require the support of New Zealand First to form a
Government.
The interesting move is in net country
direction. Only 33 percent of people now think the country’s heading
in the right direction (that's down a lot: nine points since last
month's poll), while 46 percent (up two points) told our pollsters the
country is headed in the "wrong direction".
As Sam said on our staff call this
morning: "As you stare into the Debt Clock and the the sea of red,
it's difficult not to conclude that something's headed in the 'wrong
direction'." Indeed!
<<See the poll
results here>>
Spaghetti
Government: too many cooks in the cabinet? 🍝
Regular readers of Taxpayer
Update will be familiar with the spaghetti maze of ministries
exposed by a recent report by the New Zealand Initiative think tank,
(we note authored too by none other than Taxpayers’ Union
alum Max Salmon 😉) which exposed the labyrinth of ministries and
reporting lines and proving that Nicola Willis still has a lot of
cleaning up to do 🧹 (read
the report here).
Recall this is New Zealand's lines of
responsibility between Ministers, departments, and major sectors of
the economy.
And here is
a country of roughly the same size, Norway. Notice
any difference?
But Christopher Luxon doesn't want the
memo, telling Mike Hosking on Monday that he's "happy with the
number of ministries". 🤯
Put well by the New Zealand Initiative
boss, Dr Oliver Hartwich:
“As if the minister
of finance should not always be automatically normally the minister
also taking care of economic growth. It’s just window
dressing.”
Indeed!
More than
10,000 emails to the PM and Minister Watts calling for Rates Capping
Law 📩
More than
any other issue, rates are cited by our
supporters as the biggest driver of the cost-of-living
pressure. Last year, rates increased by
an average of 15 percent.
Our Local
Government Campaigns Manager, Sam Warren, sounded the alarm last week
to the Government, asking them to commit to rates capping – laws to
limit how much your rates can be increased each year, and make
Councils live within their means – just like the communities they are
supposed to serve.
Friend, since Sam’s message, more than 10,000 emails have been sent to the Minister
and Prime Minister telling them to stay firm and cap council rate
hikes. Clearly, people are fed up and want a return to the basics:
pipes, roads and rubbish.
If you've
not already, please
take a moment to add your name and email the PM and Minister of Local
Government using our tool here.
A lot
more to come on this campaign – and other work we're doing to improve
and curtail local council costs. Keep an eye out once the dust settles
on the Budget in two week's time.
Ex-PMs are
taking taxpayers for a ride? 🚗💨
When most
of us move on from a job, we're expected to hand back the company car,
right? Well, not so much with former PMs, who as it turns out, not
only get a gold-plated pension, but also brand-new, taxpayer-funded
cars!
Our
research team has found that since 2017, nearly $310,000 has
been spent on “Former Prime Ministers Travel Services” entitlements:
$296,009.87 on the cars themselves, and another $14,061.99 on fuel and
maintenance.
The only
ones who turned down the offer? John Key, who declined the
'entitlement' (good on you, Sir John!), and Chris Hipkins (who didn’t
last long enough to qualify).
Cultural
Impact Assessment for a [checks notes] public loo 🤦
Our young
research interns often uncovered, errrr, crap from Councils – and
sometimes we have to tell them that that not every overpriced public
toilet is worth highlighting by the Taxpayers' Union.
But the
costs of a Far North public lav has a strange odour. The
Council spent more than $150,000 on one public toilet in
Kerikeri – with $30,000 eaten up by compliance and red tape
alone!
The thirty
grand was made up of $5,000 for a Cultural Impact Assessment from
local Hapu, $5,198 for an Archeological Research Survey and Assessment
work, and a further $19,732 on various consents, project management
and monitoring!
$150,000 for a loo involving consultants, cultural
monitors, and bureaucratic sign-offs. This is why we
can't have nice things and reasonable rates.
If only
the Far North District Council could provide facilities for relief,
not money flushing.
Thanks for
your support,
 |
James
Ross
Policy & Public Affairs Manager
New Zealand
Taxpayers’ Union
|
|
It is with sadness
that on Friday we learned of the passing of Sir Robert Jones.