Let's get into it...

🚨🚨🚨 Government Wakeup Call 🚨🚨🚨

New Poll: NZ First tumble as February Poll predicts hung Parliament  ⚖️

The Government has lost its lead in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll, which now predicts a hung Parliament.

Looking at the party vote first, the two major parties haven't moved much (Labour drop a tiny 0.3 points to 34.1 percent while National drops 0.2 points to 31.3 percent). 

But the big movers are New Zealand First – dropping 1.4 points to 10.5 percent – and the Greens – who have climbed 2.6 points to 10.3 percent.

ACT continues its recent slide, dropping 0.3 points to 6.7 percent, while Te Pāti Māori drop 0.1 points to 2.9 percent.

Given the party's state of, errr, civil war, Te Pāti Māori would surely be happy with that?! 

As always with political polls, it's the trends that matter:

A Parliament that is neck-and-neck 🗳️

On these numbers, the Centre-Right would hold 60 seats (down three since last month), while the Centre-Left bloc gains three seats to 60 too.

This would mean a hung Parliament, where neither bloc could govern alone.

The other big shift: even more voters say "cost of living" is the most pressing issue 💸💥

The other big shift this month is the increase in the number of voters more worried about the cost of living than they have been in a long time. This is significant as it is counter to much of the media headlines and talking heads' commentary about the recovering economy. 

As this poll shows, clearly, people aren't feeling it.

34.9 percent (+7.4 points) of voters now say 'cost of living' is their number one priority, which is the highest result since May 2024.  

The economy more broadly follows on 12 percent (-2.8 points), and health is third on 9.2 percent (+0.4 points). 

Head over to our website for more info. 

As part of this month's poll, we also asked voters about their impression of Labour's finance team. Those results too are a major surprise, and will no doubt hit the media later this week... 🤫

$55,000 for Oxford but MBIE won’t say who they sent 🎓

Last week, your humble Taxpayers' Union broke the story of MBIE spending $55,000 to send a staffer on a "leadership course" at Oxford.

That's a huuuge study entitlement/bonus – so we asked the very obvious question: who did they send? 

We wanted to know whether the staffer is bonded, whether they've actually hung around at MBIE, and even just whether they've stayed in New Zealand (or jetted abroad with their new – taxpayer funded – certificate).

But we get the sneaking suspicion MBIE is hiding something...

Despite these sorts of perks, sorry, mid-career "study entitlements" usually being publicly disclosed, MBIE is refusing to say who went or even the job title.

Our Investigations Coordinator, Rhys, spoke with BusinessDesk on why the secrecy is unacceptable.

Of course, personal development and training do matter, but these are already senior officials on executive-level salaries. At last count, 56 staffers at MBIE are paid more than $250,000 - and one of those lucky sods got a $55k Oxford cherry on the top.

It's only fair for those covering the costs (i.e. you and me) to know who it was, and whether we'll actually see any benefit.

The secrecy is the red flag 🚩

Commonly, ministries and even local councils named participants in similar programmes without privacy concerns. But MBIE's making the exception... Why does this mega-ministry get to keep it private? Did the staffer even come home?

Watch this space...

Half of the 'loans' from Provincial Growth Fund in default... 🤦‍♂️🎰

From the colour-me-surprised file, Shane Jones pre-COVID 'Provincial Growth Fund' is proving to be a total dud!

This morning, the NZ Herald has revealed that more than half of Crown Regional Holdings’ (the legal vehicle for Shane Jones' pork-barrel scheme) $433 million loan book is at risk of default. 

The balance sheet is mostly a hangover from the previous Government's Provincial Growth Fund – effectively a political slush fund that sprayed cash at projects no private lender would touch.

But don't think the lesson has been learned. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the current Government – and the new and improved Shane Jones – has a new vehicle to play 'banker' with: the $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund (amounting to some $588 per household).

And just like the PGF, the RIF is just as meaty. It's handed out $79.9 million since Christmas. 

Friend, I know what you're thinking: it's not the spending amount per se, it's what the spending is on.  Anyone can see we need better regional infrastructure and this could well be the vehicle.

So let's check out the sorts of "regional infrastructure" the fund is being used for:

✅ There was the $950,000 cowshed in Taranaki – aptly described by the Beehive spin doctors as (and I'm not making this up) "on-farm infrastructure".

✅ a $10 million loan to develop a marae.

As you run over that pothole on your next trip North, we'd suggest these projects are not really what comes to mind when a politicians say 'regional infrastructure'... And given the news that half the loans are not expected to be paid back, not very much 'investment' either it seems. 

And this was the Government who promised to stop wasteful spending...

$25,000 for sculpting drag wigs in Samoa 🌈🇼🇸 

One of our favourite wasteful Government agencies, Creative NZ are once again living up to the ‘creative’ in their name. Creative waste, that is.

This time, they are funding workshops with fa’afafine in Sāmoa to teach "practical” skills like wig sculpting, stage performance, and drag as a business opportunity.  

In their own words:

Not that teaching wig sculpting is inherently bad. But why in Sāmoa? And should taxpayers' be funding this?

Apparently, no one at Creative NZ stopped to consider New Zealand’s own drag industry either. 

We can only hope these, errr, practical skills eventually make it back to the country that is funding it. 

Waste in Wellington 💩 70 million litres and still paying 

Slush funds aren’t the only thing that stinks in Wellington.  

The Moa Point wastewater plant is sending more than 70 million litres of raw sewage a day straight into the sea. For our friends at the Wellington Ratepayers' Alliance, raising serious questions about public health and how much crap ratepayers are expected to swallow (figuratively… hopefully).  

The usual critics are out saying that this shows councils are underfunded. But remember Moa Point was built using a special extra 2.6 percent rates ‘sludge levy’ on every ratepayers’ bill, which Wellingtonians are still paying off every year. All the council needed to pay out-of-pocket was enough to stop the plant from falling apart. 

Let’s be clear Friend , this isn’t an underfunding problem. It’s a governance problem.  

At the moment, Wellington Water has to go cap-in-hand begging Council for capital spending (i.e. investment) as part of each year's Council budget process. It's exactly why we need the Government’s ‘Local Water Done Well’ – based on your humble Taxpayers' Union's alternative to Labour's Three Waters, ASAP. That way, the investment decisions will be made by those charged with operating the infrastructure.

Quality regulation (similar to how electricity lines companies are regulated) will mean that water providers can’t let pipes crumble and rot as they have been. And on the other hand, price regulation means they can’t abuse their market power and rort residents out of their hard-earned cash.  

And on that... crappy note... 

Have a great week.