Hi Friend,

Like most of us in the North Island, my family has been stuck inside this week due to the wind and rain. 😠

But I thought I'd use the bad weather as an opportunity to review the year and thank you for making the work of the Taxpayers' Union possible. 

This email is a recap of some of the things we achieved – thanks to your support, and the support of the thousands of New Zealanders who chip-in.👇

JANUARY

Whale song & “courage courses” 🐋🎓

January began with a bang when we exposed $4 million spent on a research project that used methods such as whale song and whale-oil potions to treat Kauri dieback — plus six-figure “courage-building” courses for public servants. Both became national symbols of Government waste – with the "whale music" story even being raised in Parliament to mock the last Labour Government's 'addiction to spending'.

FEBRUARY

The Jonesies Awards 🏆

The seventh edition of The Jonesies, our annual awards for the worst of national and local government waste, took place with MBIE, Hastings District Council, and Tory Whanau among the “winners”. You can watch the full awards ceremony here.

MARCH

Full Capital Expensing 🧑‍🌾

In March, we released Going for Growth: Full Expensing of Capital Expenditure, our policy paper making the case for full capital expensing’s inclusion in Budget 2025.

The paper made the case for a tax policy with a proven track record of boosting investment, productivity, and wages. Full Capital Expensing allows businesses to immediately write off the cost of new equipment, machinery, and technology, rather than spreading the deduction over years under complex depreciation schedules. The policy has been successfully implemented in the United States and the United Kingdom, driving economic growth and increasing tax revenue in the long run. 

Budget 2025 delivered Investment Boost, allowing for partial expensing of new business purchases - not perfect, but a real step in the right direction.  And the best thing: the Government followed our prescription of applying it to all sectors and businesses - avoiding the problems of politicians and bureaucrats picking and choosing which industries get what tax incentive (think film industry or gaming subsidies/rebates!). That alone is a real win. 🏆

APRIL

Catching the PM’s office with their tabs down 💻

Our War On Waste campaign continued, with the research team finding a little more than they'd bargained for — including catching the Prime Minister’s own department with its, errr, tabs down: Beehive officials browsing adult content on the taxpayer dime. 🤨

Hīkoi for Balanced Budgets begins 🚐

The build up to Budget 2025 saw the team driving the National Debt Clock from Paihia to Bluff, as part of the Hīkoi for Balanced Budgets. With 43 stops across the country, we loved meeting supporters to discuss the rising Government Debt tide. 

MAY

Budget pressure that worked 💰

We released A Pathway to Surplus in May, delivering a veritable menu of options for the Finance Minister to use to get the books under control and back to a surplus.

Film Commission funding 🎥

We highlighted how more than $1 billion in film subsidies have been handed out in just five years — even as Treasury found nearly zero net benefit — and James appeared on international TV to call for a long-overdue end to this corporate welfare.

To put the $1 billion in perspective, it's like adding $490 onto every New Zealand household's Netflix subscription – but with most of the money going to overseas films/productions that aren't available for you here anyway. 🤦‍♂️

Preventing the locking-in of co-governance of water: Te Mana o Te Wai submissions 🌊

When Te Mana o Te Wai opened for submissions, we exposed that two of the three options still embedded “spiritual health of water” concepts — and helped more than 11,000 Kiwis make their voices heard through our online submission tool.

Embedding co-governance and concepts like mauri – the spiritual life force of water would have been a disaster for taxpayers. The concept is completely subjective, changes from region to region, and can’t be measured. It would have left councils exposed to costly legal challenges and constant uncertainty, and ratepayers picking up the bills.

JUNE

Ute Tax 2.0 stopped 🛑

We exposed a secret Ute Tax 2.0 via a Fringe Benefit Tax hike on work vehicles. After we sounded the alarm, thousands of supporters flooded MPs with emails. In fact, our campaign was so effective that the Prime Minister’s office overruled Revenue Minister Simon Watts and immediately killed the policy (within 24 hours!!!) stopping a $100 million-a-year tax grab.

Cap Rates Now launches 🚜

At National Fieldays, we launched our Cap Rates Now campaign, which would become one of our defining campaigns of the year. The campaign grew into 30,000+ petition signatures, trucker caps and roadside signs out nationwide.

JULY

Rates shock exposed 📊

Our 2025 Rates Dashboard exposed that local councils have, on average, hiked rates by an incredible 35 percent over just three years. That compares to inflation of 13 percent over the same timeframe.

At the same time, James was busy getting our new Wellington Ratepayers’ Alliance off the ground (Wellington ratepayers can confirm that it is needed!). Here he is on Breakfast TV explaining how earthquake-strengthening rules are hollowing out the city.

LGNZ rates cap protest 🚚

Our massive Cap Rates Now truck rolled into Christchurch and, errr, broke down right outside the Local Government New Zealand conference... 🤭

By taking the rates revolt straight to council bosses, the blob could not continue to ignore the affordability crisis in the sector. 

And the big kahuna: while keeping the 500 LGNZ conference attendees waiting inside, Local Government Minister Simon Watts stood outside on our ute (the irony!) to address local Taxpayers' Union supporters. His message was loud and clear: Watts publicly committed the Government to capping rates.

AUGUST

A big month for accountability ⚖️

We published our Council CEO Rich List (with Gore District Council among the top pay packets), hosted a packed Generation Screwed mayoral debate in Wellington, and met behind the scenes with the Local Government Commission on how to improve the quality of local governance.

And after our continued campaign that first launched in 2020, the Government confirmed the repeal of IRD’s “Nosey Parker” snooping powers — a major taxpayer privacy win.

CCCFA protest: calling out the National Party for their proposed law to bail out the big banks from consumer class actions 🪧

In the freezing cold outside the National Party conference in Christchurch, Tory led a protest against proposed changes to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA). The proposed law change would have let the banks off the hook by applying changes retrospectively, to kill off a live consumer class-action that was before the High Court involving tens of thousands of Kiwis fighting for fair compensation over unfair fees.

Thousands of Taxpayers' Union supporters backed us by emailing Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson, demanding they scrap the dirty deal.

And it worked! By October, the Government had u-turned and announced the retrospective clause would be dropped.

But the win isn't why I wanted to highlight this campaign. Rather it was the reaction by a very senior figure in the National Party who made an off-cuff remark when I mentioned to him that the Taxpayers' Union would be at the conference and why. He said: "Well I guess it is your role to be the conscience of the National Party sometimes". 

Friend, for a taxpayer group operating under a centre-right government, that comment is, surely, a major compliment and a sign that even in the most senior parts of the Beehive (i.e. those our campaigns irritate) there is a respect for our work. 😘 

SEPTEMBER

Local focus, local wins 🗳️

From mayoral debates across six cities, exposing wasteful council spending, and having more than 350 local candidates actually commit to standing with ratepayers (by signing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge) we kept ratepayers front and centre ahead of local elections. We even produced the official 2025 Ratepayer Voting Guide so voters knew who had signed the Pledge:

OCTOBER

Ratepayer protection delivered ✅

Again, it worked. 101 councillors and six mayors were elected after signing our Ratepayer Protection Pledge — locking in accountability where it matters most.

Responding to Labour's proposed Capital Gains Tax grab 🏡

When Labour announced a Capital Gains Tax, we responded immediately with our briefing Why Labour’s Capital Gains Tax fails the fairness test, exposing the flaws in Labour's proposal.

One of the reasons New Zealand economic performance has been so lacklustre in recent decades is because New Zealand is undercapitalised. Too much money has gone into housing, not enough into job creation. Proposals from Labour (not to mention the Greens!) for more taxes on capital and wealth (which always excludes the family home) disincentivise the very thing we need: more investment in capital, businesses, and entrepreneurship.

So we’ll certainly be fighting proposals to tax New Zealanders harder in the lead-up to the next election.

NOVEMBER

How to Cap Rates Now 🧢

Ahead of the Government’s rates-cap announcement, we released our own practical policy blueprint showing exactly how rates capping should be done — and why ratepayers shouldn’t have to wait years.

DECEMBER

Putting fiscal elephants front and centre 🐘

Our campaign to call out the big fiscal elephants in the room — set the agenda for one of the battles ahead in 2026: how to stop politicians “fudging” on public finance.

And it was noticed: at the end-of-year "opening of the books" Finance Minister Nicola Willis literally went through our Pathway to Surplus paper (see above) in pushing the surplus back again (for a third time in two years).

2025 in numbers

As you can see Friend, it's been a rather busy year.

2025 saw more media mentions and social media engagements than ever before, plus reports, briefing papers, submissions, and our debt clock and debate tours.

Thank you,  

We often reflect on how lucky we are to work for an organisation fighting for causes we believe in. But, as I regularly remind the staff, "we can't save the world if we can't keep the lights on". Thank you to all of those who made our work possible this year.

We will continue our War On Waste, using sunshine and transparency (and sometimes public outrage) to hold to account those who misuse taxpayer money.

And we have much in store too to remind voters ahead of next year's general election that it was the last Government's "addiction to spending" that got New Zealand into the fiscal shtook following COVID. New Zealand cannot afford a return to a Chris Hipkins-style big spend, high tax, high debt path.

But until then, wishing you and your loved ones a happy New Year and best for the summer season. Let's hope the weather improves soon...

Thank you for your support.

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union