India Free Trade Agreement: What's Actually in
it? 🕵️♂️
Just before
Christmas, the Government announced it had reached a free trade
agreement with India aimed at boosting access for Kiwi exporters into
one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies.
But
politically, it’s proving complicated. New Zealand First triggered the
coalition’s “agree to disagree” clause, signalling it won’t support
the enabling legislation when it comes before Parliament. That leaves
National in the unusual position of needing Labour’s votes to get the
deal across the line.
And
in recent days it's got even messier with National and New Zealand
First at logger heads at what the agreement even contains – and what
concessions have been made on immigration.
As
proponents of transparency, our chief nerd Head of Policy, James, was straight
into the media, calling for the obvious way to settle it one way or
the other. Responding to the public disagreement, James
said:
“Kiwis shouldn’t have to rely on hearsay and
rumour to work out what their Government has committed them
to.”
“When two of New Zealand’s most senior politicians are
sniping at each other over a deal the public still can’t read, it’s
absurd to not give Kiwis the chance to work out the truth for
themselves.”
“Regardless of the content, the agreement has
already been signed in New Zealanders’ name. What’s the harm in some
public accountability?”
With all
that going on, we thought we'd ask our Pollsters to find out what
Kiwis make of the deal.
Surprise Poll Report: Kiwis generally supportive of India
FTA 🇮🇳🛍️
While Mr
Luxon and Mr Peters might be at loggerheads, public opinion is far
less divided.
As part of January's Taxpayers' Union-Curia
Poll, Kiwi voters were asked if they thought the recently
concluded trade deal was “overall good or bad for New
Zealand”.
Just over half answered yes (54 percent), while 17
percent thought it was bad and 29 percent were unsure ‒
leading to a net approval rating of +37 percent.
You
can read the coverage here over on The Post.
What
surprised many was the party breakdown. The poll suggests that the
India FTA is broadly popular with voters of all parties except for Te
Pāti Māori. That means that even among NZ First supporters, more
people back the agreement than oppose it.
Why we’re calling out the Government’s logo
addiction 📰🎨
Last week,
we
took aim in The Post at one of the quietest forms of
government waste: endless, unnecessary rebrands with an opinion piece
targeting the 'marketing teams' within government
agencies.
Last year,
we crowned Brooke van Velden a "Taxpayer Hero" for her
intervention at the Department for Internal Affairs, when she
called out designers for wasting 50 hours of staff time on redesigning
their logo to change it back to English. Van Velden even
offered to re-do the logo herself on Photoshop, so her department
wouldn't waste the money!
If only
other Ministers took van Velden's approach!
From NZ
Qualification Authority’s $2.9 million logo and website blowout to
six-figure “brand refreshes” across the public service, agencies keep
burning taxpayer cash on new colours and slogans.
The
frustrating part is that there’s already a fix: Since 2021,
official guidelines say agencies should use the New Zealand Coat of
Arms as their logo. One government. One symbol. No
cost.
But even
the Public Service Commission – ironically tasked with telling
government agencies to simply use the Government crest – found an
excuse to become what's called a 'dual branded' agency (someone has to
keep the graphic design industry employed!).
So the
rules are being ignored, “interpreted”, or quietly dodged, and
taxpayers keep paying. We
say, enough is enough.
With the Government debt at nearly $140,000 per household
(tick
tock, tick tock), trimming totally unnecessary costs like
Government logo rebrands would be an easy win.
So we're
pushing for the government to finally enforce its own rules, and
it was great to see our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys, out there in
the media giving it with both barrels.
👉
Read Rhys' full piece in The Post here.
Speaking of wasting money on new logos
(we’re looking at you, Whanganui District Council)
👀🙈
Friend, as I was drafting this Taxpayer
Update, yet another pointless logo change came through, this time
for Whanganui District Council!
Whanganui spent at least $61,800 to ditch
their coat of arms in favour of a trendy new
logo.
It's a real shame, too, as the Mayor of Whanganui
is usually pretty solid. Andrew Tripe is a leading voice within local
government, supporting our call for the Government to Cap
Rates Now and walks the talk: delivering the lowest rates
hike in the entire country, according to our 2025
Rates Dashboard. We’ve even interviewed
Tripe on Taxpayer Talk.
Just between you and I, your humble
Taxpayers' Union hear from a well informed source in the
River City that this ridiculous, arrogant decision to waste ratepayer
money on a logo came from none other than the Council's new interim
CEO, Barbara McKerrow. 🤦♂️
We
warned Whanganui residents in August that McKerrow would be a
disaster. The definition of the local government sector is
looking after insiders, no matter the incompetence. McKerrow has a
history of rates rises and dysfunction at Wellington City
Council.
We certainly hope that this isn’t a sign of
things to come...
Have you signed our petition to avoid
double-charging on road tolls? 📋🚘
Talking of being forced to pay additional
charges, last week we launched our petition
to stop double-charging road users and keep tolling fair. We’ve
had a great response with more than 6500 signatures since the petition
launched.
To be clear, we’re not campaigning against road
tolling or user-pays models.
Our call is for the basic principles of
tolling to remain:
- Tolls should not be applied to existing
roads - only new ones.
- Road income should be used to fund new
toll roads – not just fund maintenance of existing roads (which is
what RUC and petrol taxes are for)
- Free alternatives should remain – and
people shouldn't be forced to use a toll road.
On Monday, our Policy Analyst, Austin, led our
submission to Parliament's Transport and Infrastructure Committee,
laying out our concerns in more detail.
The main issue with the Government's proposed law
changes is that it allows for ‘corridor tolling’, which means that
road users could be charged for roads they didn’t even use,
effectively just creating a new tax.
You can watch the submission
here.
As it stands, the Bill allows toll revenue to be
spent on maintaining existing roads, roads you have already paid for
through Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges, effectively
double-charging motorists.
Add
your name to our petition calling for keeping tolling fair, voluntary,
and genuinely user-pays.
Goodbye to our Aussie intern, Declan
🦘🇦🇺
The best
thing about the Taxpayers' Union is the stream of bright
young people who come through as interns.
Last
weekend, we said a fond farewell to our Aussie intern Declan, who has
been working in the Wellington office on scholarship from the Mannkal
Economic Education Foundation in Perth.
Declan is a
law student with a strong interest in fiscal responsibility and public
law, making him a great fit for the Taxpayers’ Union. You
can read his blog post about his experience with us here (we
may have bribed him with a chocolate fish to say some nice
things...)
During his time here, Declan was instrumental in
developing our Councillor
Pay Rise Dashboard and revealed that while ratepayers
faced further unaffordable rates hikes, on average, councillors had
their pay packets increased by 9.81 percent between 2025 and 2026,
while mayors saw an 8.53 percent boost to their pay.
He’s also
been developing a new briefing paper comparing fiscal management
strategies at town halls across the country – more on that
soon...
We’ve loved
having Declan in the office and can’t wait to see what he goes on to
do when he completes his studies.
Thanks for
making it possible ❤️
None of our work, waste investigations,
campaigns, or internships would be possible without the generous
financial support of tens of thousands of New Zealanders who back our
mission of Lower Taxes, Less Waste, More Accountability.
To each and everyone of you, thank you for
all that you do.
Have a
great long weekend!
