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Dear Supporter,

In the week where the government tax take reached a record high, the Taxpayers' Union has been hard at work. What is clear is that the current path of fiscal recklessness in Wellington is not sustainable. To protect New Zealand's prosperity, we simply must fight back. 

Higher taxes and higher debt mean you'll be paying even more for longer

The Government published the financial statements for 2021/2022 this week with much fanfare. Grant Robertson would have you believe they were a great triumph. He had managed to increase the size of the deficit to just $9.7 billion. That's a whopping $5,022 for every Kiwi household. 

That's more debt that you and your family will need to pay back over many years to come. We have updated our debt clock so you can see exactly how much the Government is borrowing on your behalf in real time. Those of a nervous disposition would be advised against viewing our official NZ Government Debt Clock.

And it's not as if the Government's revenue is down to justify the books being in the red. In fact, the Government's tax revenue has reached an all time high. Despite being awash with money, Mr. Robertson says there is no room for tax cuts for the rest of this parliamentary term. Clearly, he would rather spend your money on an even more bloated public service. 

Labour don't just want to introduce a jobs tax – they want you to pay GST on it too

This week we learned that Treasury's boffins have recommended to Ministers GST should be charged on Labour's new unemployment insurance scheme.

Some estimates have suggested that a couple will have to stump up over $200,000 for the unemployment insurance over their working lives while a single person will have to pay $120,000. But these figures were calculated before it emerged that the Government is likely to slap an extra 15 per cent GST on top.

Make no mistake: The new unemployment insurance scheme might be called "insurance" but it's just a tax with a catchy name.

You can't pick and choose which insurance provider you want to go with. It's compulsory and you can't opt out. That's why it is completely unacceptable to apply GST to payments. It's being set up to be a tax on a tax.

We have called on Grant Robertson to rule out this double whammy jobs tax and in the weeks ahead will be ramping up the pressure.

Road to Zero, or road to nowhere?

The Government’s "Road To Zero" campaign is sadly an expensive exercise in wishful thinking that ultimately sets itself up for failure.

Now that fancy TV ads and Michael-Wood-sized red zeroes haven’t reduced the road toll, the Government is looking to reduce maximum speed limits all over the country to 80km/h.

It seems the Government is willing to do practically anything except, well, fix the actual roads.

With this current approach, the Government will need to reduce the maximum speed limit to about 10km/h in order to get the road toll down to zero (although increased road rage could hamper that)...

We say the Government should divert all of the marketing and communications budget from its Road To Zero campaign to projects that make New Zealand’s roads physically more safe. The campaign is costing $197 million including $85 million on advertising.

In an ideal world there would be no road deaths and we should be mitigating risks where possible. However, our taxes should be spent strategically in ways that make a material difference, like fixing dangerous roads, not on big budget campaigns promoting unattainable goals.

The political merry-go-round: Kris Faafoi should know better  

It emerged this week that no sooner than he had resigned from Parliament, former justice minister Faafoi had been snapped up by a new lobbying and PR firm. There he will be offering clients the benefit of his relationships with those who were his colleagues just a few months ago: Ministers, officials, and political staff.

It is not acceptable for a former minister to profit from their political office so soon after leaving. In most respectable jurisdictions, this would be either unlawful, or require the explicit permission from the Government, such as is the case in the UK.

If the shoe were on the other foot, Labour would no doubt be labelling it as political sleaze. That is precisely what it is, and no matter how much of a nice guy Kris Faafoi is, it ought to be said. This is a stain on an otherwise respectable political career.

New Zealand needs to catch up, and prevent lobbying ‘jobs for the boys’, which corrode our democracy and inevitably turns Parliament into a quasi ‘cash for access’ racket.

This week on Taxpayer Talk with Peter Williams 🎙️🎧

This week, Peter Williams talks with Dr Christoph Schumacher, Professor of Innovation & Economics at Massey University, about the tool he has developed with the Knowledge Exchange Hub that tracks Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real time to monitor how the economy is performing and forecast future performance. Christoph also discusses his next project that will track inflation in real time potentially revolutionising the way we respond to inflationary pressures.

Also this week, Peter gives his thoughts on the proposed RNZ-TVNZ mega-merger and asks "what problem are we trying to fix?" As a veteran broadcaster, Peter knows a thing or two about media and fears this model may make our public broadcasting less independent and impose higher costs on hardworking taxpayers. 

Listen to the episode | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio

Thank you for your support.

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Media coverage:

1 News Nearly $500k in office rent paid after Auckland cycle crossing canned

Democracy Project Josh Van Veen: Efeso vs Wayne: a different kind of mayor? 

NZ Herald TVNZ says new public media entity gives ministers Muldoon-like control