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Hi Friend,
Bumper
newsletter today. It's poll time (and this month's Taxpayers'
Union-Curia Poll is more dramatic than usual...).
And the
local government file is running red hot. Today's we're publishing our
latest local government briefing paper: Building
Better Councils.
Let's get
into it.
💥 Building
Better Councils: Ten ways to tackle unaccountable 'Big Council'
💥
Despite
everything going on with LGNZ and rates capping – our local government
guru, Sam Warren, has had his head down this week and has published a
new briefing paper: Building
Better Councils: Solutions to improve local
government.
The paper
is a blueprint to rein in excess, refocus priorities, and restore
trust in local town halls. The bottom line is that local government is
meant to serve ratepayers, not itself. Click
here to take a read.
Ratepayers
are funding bloated bureaucracies while getting potholes and
platitudes in return.
So let's fix it! And
here's our top ten suggestions on how to rein
in council waste and restore accountability. From capping
rate hikes to inflation, mandating financial transparency through
standardised reporting, and refocusing councils on core
services.
We’re
pushing for real benchmarking, radical transparency, and shared
services to cut costs – not just cut ribbons. You
can read the paper here.
Rates
capping continues to gain political traction 👏
Heather du Plessis-Allan is filling in for Mike
Hosking on Newstalk ZB's breakfast show. On Monday she covered our campaign
and the LGNZ's secret plan to mount a ratepayer funded nationwide
political campaign against rates capping.
We've also had councillors from across the
country reach out to us, shocked and outraged that LGNZ would go this
far. They had no idea this underhanded campaign was being hatched in
their name. The pressure is building.
If
you've not already, please take a moment to drop a line to your local
mayor and councillors. Tell them not to support Local
Government NZ's proposal to use ratepayer money to fight rates
capping.
Nicola
Willis comes good 👍
Even Finance Minister Nicola Willis has come
out in favour of rates capping.
Now,
Friend, we give Willis a bit of stick for her
higher borrowing and spending even more than the last
lot.
But local
government rates are a major driver of inflation – which saw the
Reserve Bank pause its OCR/interest rate cutting program
yesterday.
So, credit
where credit is due – this is a move we can get behind. Some of Nicola
Willis' talking points sounded awfully familiar... (we’re flattered!
😉).
Go
Nicola!
And so has
Phil Mauger 🥰
Christchurch
Mayor Phil Mauger has also come out backing caps on rate hikes,
and we reckon he’s on his way to earning his ratepayer hero
badge...
Meanwhile,
Labour's Chris Hipkins isn't reading the room. Hipkins has come out in
favour of "Big Council". Labour Party-dominated LGNZ have strong armed
the Labour leader into siding with the bureaucrats over the ratepayers
– yet again.
In
the next few days, we'll be releasing new analysis showing that on average, council rates are now
44 percent higher than just three years ago. But Chris Hipkins thinks
councils need more flexibility? Spare
us.
The tide’s
turning. Ratepayer rights are on the rise – and the old guard is
looking increasingly out of touch.
Desperately clinging to false claims 🤣
Labour and
the Greens are clinging to a weird talking point that 'if only' Nanaia
Mahuta's Three Waters had stayed in place rates would be
affordable.
They must
think ratepayers are mugs!
Three Waters meant co-governance, more
bureaucracy, and no local control. A recipe for efficiency and lower
rates? Yeah, right!
SHOCK
POLL: National back on top... NZ First leapfrog ACT and the Greens 😮
📊
For
the first time in a Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll, New Zealand First is
now the third largest party - leapfrogging both ACT and the
Green.
In fact,
this is the first major poll to show NZ First as the third largest
party since 2017!
This month's poll is
also good news for Christopher Luxon, with the centre-right firmly
ahead across the three coalition partners.
National is
up 0.4 points to 33.9 percent in this month's poll, while Labour is
down 3.2 points to 31.6 percent. New Zealand First is up 3.7 points to
9.8 percent, while the Greens are up too - by 1.2 points to 9.4
percent. ACT are unchanged on 9.1 percent, while Te Pāti Māori is up
0.2 points to 3.5 percent.
Based on this poll and compared to last month, it means
that National remains on 42 seats, while Labour drops 5 to 39
seats. NZ First gain 4 to reach 12 seats, while the Greens gain 2 to
10 seats, and ACT drops 1 to 11 seats. Te Pāti Māori remains on 6
seats.
On
preferred PM, Christopher Luxon is down from last month to 19.7
percent (-0.6 points), while Chris Hipkins is up 1.1 points to 19.6
percent.
Winston
Peters is at 9.3 percent (+1.3 points), Chlöe Swarbrick is at
7.0 percent (+1.4 points), and David Seymour is at 5.7 percent (-0.3
points).
You
can read more of the poll details over on our website, or get the
full polling report (for the sort of data and insights the political
parties rely on with their own internal pollsters) by joining our 'Taxpayer
Caucus'.
The Reserve
Bank: Where the only thing rising faster than inflation is the
perks 🧖♀️⛱️
New figures
reveal Reserve Bank staff are enjoying more than just flexible
monetary policy, Friend: they’re flexing a pretty generous perks
package too.
While Kiwi
households are being squeezed by rising costs and high interest rates,
RBNZ staff are living it up like they’re at a wellness
retreat.
Some RBNZ staff are out of the office nearly 100
days a year - and taxpayers are footing the bill.
Here's what
that looks like: five weeks’ annual leave, 15 days of “wellness”
leave, and the ability to buy even more time off. Add in
work-from-home privileges (70 percent of staff work from home at least one day a
week), and you’ve got a part-time central bank on full-time
pay.
Over the past year alone, the Bank spent $535,000 on
“wellness perks” like gym memberships, $58,000 on home
office subsidies, and nearly $20,000 on morning
teas.
Is it any
wonder staff numbers have ballooned 2.5x since 2018? When they’re
barely in the office, racking up perks and time off, who wouldn’t want
to join the gravy train?
The Reserve
Bank’s job is to keep inflation down - not morale up with muffins and
meditation.
Waste
literally at the Council's doorstep: Whangārei
spends $1.6 million paving roads their courtyard 💰
Whangārei
District Council certainly need to read Sam's briefing paper. Your
humble Taxpayers' Union has uncovered that this rural
council spent $1.6 million on paving a courtyard outside the Council's
offices.
Sometimes
DIY projects take a little longer, and cost a little more than
intended. But the cost of a bit of paving outside the council is
surely DIY gone wrong.
And
what paid for that platinum pavement? Whangārei residents'
10.17 percent rates hike just this year alone.
Members-only Webinar: Budget 2025 and understanding
Treasury's economic and fiscal updates 🤓
 Let's not beat around the
bush. Government finances – and the Treasury projections – are much
worse than the media would have you believe. The “cuts” merely slowed,
slightly, the increases in spending (and debt) because much of the
savings were reallocated to increased spending elsewhere.
Following on from the hundreds of budget and
Government debt-related questions we receive from supporters, we are
holding a webinar for members where our in-house economist Ray Deacon
will dig into the details and explain how it all
works.
Ray will
cut through the usual spin and illustrate how governments conjure up a
fiscal surplus in any particular year and what to look for to
establish the credibility of any (forecast) surplus.
So if you are
interested in a deeper dive than the media usually provides into how
government accounting/ the Public Finance Act works, come along
(virtually) tonight at 7pm. You can RSVP here (we'll send you the link
before 7pm).
Please note, this is a members-only event.
Joining
the Taxpayers' Union can be done online for $25
Hopefully, see you tonight.
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Tory Relf
New
Zealand Taxpayers’ Union
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ps. As
alluded to above, later this week we'll be launching the official 2025
Rates Dashboard. Keep an eye on the media and our website for
details.
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