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Hi
Friend,
This week,
your humble Taxpayers' Union are exposing Waipā District
Council, asking why Selwyn let the kids make decisions, and it's bad
news for the Government in our latest Taxpayers' Union Curia
poll.
Selwyn's
childish consultation debacle 🎨
Last week,
we uncovered that Selwyn District Council has been caught mixing
feedback from children with real submissions from adults in its big
"Future Selwyn" survey data that was presented to
Councillors.
It
turns out, kids as young as seven helped shape Council
policy!
Our
research team uncovered that submissions from schoolchildren weren't
separated from the adult responses, so Councillors had no way of
knowing whether a submission came from a ratepayer or a Year 3 student
fresh from the playground.
Sure, it’s
great to get kids involved in local politics.
But this isn’t a
colouring contest. It's about infrastructure, housing, and how
ratepayers' money gets spent in the area.
Imagine
little Liam’s dream of more playgrounds being considered with the same
weight as your submission on road
maintenance.
Unless they were looking for
crayons and pictures, it seems hard for the councillors to know who
the submissions came from!
Selwyn Mayor Broughton is already in the naughty
corner for planning a 42% rates hike over the next three years.
Friend, maybe they all need to go back to school.
Selwyn
residents deserve adult conversations about adult decisions. When
ratepayers are footing the bill - they should be the ones
being heard.
Waipā's
$800K spin machine 🎭
Our
research team have been poking around and uncovered something rather
staggering: in
the past nine months, Waipā’s Comms and Engagement team has
racked up $799,750 in salary payments.
Friend, that’s
almost $800,000 spent on spin while the basics like rubbish and roads
are ignored.
This is the
same council currently hiking rates by an eye-watering 14.8 percent.
And what do ratepayers get for this money? Branded tote bags?
Heartfelt Facebook videos?
Here’s the kicker: according to their External
Communication and Engagement Strategy, only 17 percent of
respondents think the Council is acting in their best
interest.
Waipā
Council isn’t listening to their community, spending money on more
communications and engagement rather than focusing on core essential
services.
If
Waipā truly wants to regain public trust, it can start by putting
ratepayers first.
NEW POLL:
Labour on more seats than National for the first time since
January 📉📈
Bad
news for National in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia
Poll as Labour would now be the largest party in
Parliament.
Labour
gained 3 seats to take them to 44, while National remains unchanged on
42 seats - BUT the centre-right could still form a government with the
support of New Zealand First. They would hold a
predicted 62 seats (down 1 seat from last month) to the centre-left's
60 seats (up 2 seats from last month).
Labour is
up 1.6 points to 34.8 percent while National is down 1.1 points to
33.5 percent. ACT is down 0.4 points to 9.1 percent, while the Greens
are down 0.9 points to 8.2 percent. New Zealand First are down 1.3
percent to 6.1 percent, while Te Pāti Māori is down 0.6 points to 3.3
percent.
For the
minor parties, TOP is on 1.8 percent (+1.3 points), Outdoors and
Freedom is on 1.1 percent (+0.7 points), New Conservatives are on 0.7
percent (+0.7 points), and Vision NZ is on 0.6 percent (+0.2
points).
Luxon is
still the preferred candidate for PM, although down from last month to
20.3 percent (-4.2 points). Chris Hipkins is down 1.5 points to 18.5
percent.
However,
for the first time since October 2024, Cost of Living has been
replaced as voters' top issue.
The Economy
more generally is the most important issue to voters at 20.2 percent
(+3.7 points), followed by the Cost of Living at 18.1 percent (-8.3
points), Health at 11.9 percent (-5.0 points) and Employment at 5.8
percent.
<<
See the full poll results here >>
Join us to
tell Minister Watts to Cap Rates Now 🧢🏠
Earlier
this week, we launched our new campaign at National Fieldays, calling
on Local Government Minister Simon Watts to introduce Australian and
UK-style rates caps to limit annual rate increases to
inflation.
More than
10,000 people have already signed the petition, and we have an
exciting update.
Thanks
to a generous donor, everyone who signs the petition is in the draw to
win their rates bill back 💸
We've
talked to thousands of people at Fieldays and hear the same
story time and time again.
Across the
country, double-digit rates hikes alongside growing Council staff
numbers, daft vanity projects and fewer core services being
delivered.
If you haven't already - Sign the
petition ✍️
Napier
ratepayers are facing a hike of 20 percent, along with Gore, Upper
Hutt, Hastings... The list goes on and on.
Under our
proposal, councils will still be able to fund genuinely
important projects. They’ll just have to justify the cost and get community
backing - ensuring accountability, transparency, and
putting ratepayers first.
Taxpayer
Talk: Sir Bill English on the future of Super 🦸♂️
Sir Bill
English is retired, but don’t let that fool you. He’s still got strong
opinions and zero chill when it comes to wasteful government and
outdated Super rules. On Taxpayer Talk, he says keep the
pension, but lift the age and the standards.
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