Dear Supporter,

Ardern slams the door on scrutiny

At the Labour Party's annual retreat yesterday, Jacinda Ardern announced to waiting media that her Party would uphold “fiscal transparency” during this year’s election.

She then let slip that she has scrapped her promised policy costings unit within Treasury.

That's right! The unit, promised to voters last year, would have independently calculated the cost of 2020 election promises from each political party. Instead, Labour will now engage a pet private firm to cost the Party’s own policies.

This firm will have a vested interest in making the Labour Party look good. This is not fiscal transparency – it’s a cop out.

As a result of the Prime Minister’s u-turn, it looks like the Taxpayers’ Union will have to re-boot the popular ‘Bribe-O-Meter’ – our election policy cost tracker where independent economist critique policy costings and compile the total costs of each party's election manifestos.

Watch this space.

Why hasn't the Prime Minister challenged Shane Jones's behaviour?

In April, a forestry company applied for a $15 million grant from Shane Jones's Provincial Growth Fund.

The company in question has multiple connections to New Zealand First – its directors include Winston Peters' lawyer, and his partner.

Shane Jones even met with the company before they applied for the grant. So why did he wait until October to declare his conflict of interest? In fact, the conflict was only declared the very same day RNZ started asking questions of the Minister's office. So much for transparency.

This is turning into an absolute farce. As our Executive Director Jordan Williams told the NZ Herald:

It's time the Prime Minister stepped in or appointed someone to get to the truth of the matter. Taxpayers need confidence that the whole process isn't an old boys' slush fund.

The Remuneration Authority thinks it can discredit us

Last week, we slammed the Remuneration Authority's increased pay packet for West Coast Regional Council, which saw some councillors receive pay hikes of 41 percent.

A few days later, Authority Chair Fran Wilde released a very tetchy press statement saying that we were "grizzling", that we'd got it wrong, that funding for salaries had only increased by 11 percent, and that the reason some councillors recieved a 41 percent pay hike was because, until now, councils didn't have to use all of the funding.

We say this is a pathetic attempt by the Authority to shirk responsibility. The Authority sets the parameters for council pay, and is responsible for the change in formula and rules that resulted in such large pay rises.

The Remuneration Authority is one of the very few public agencies not accountable under freedom of information law. Chaired by a career politician, the Authority’s formulas and methodology are secret. No wonder they hate scrutiny.

The Authority has, however, agreed to meet with us. We'll be challenging them to explain why they think these sorts of cumulative annual pay hikes across local government are justified.

Why are taxpayers funding astrology?

In a comment to Stuff, the Ministry of Health says it is encouraging its Healthy Families providers to incorporate ‘maramataka’ into their services. Maramataka is the traditional study of lunar cycles.

The Ministry explains: “The work of Healthy Families NZ is part of the growing movement to place indigenous knowledge and practices on an equal level with western epistemologies.”

An example of this put into practice can be found on the Healthy Families website for Whanganui:

Healthy Families WRR are working with others in the community to bring back some of those practices that kept us connected and healthy.

One easy way that we can do this is by adjusting our activity levels according to the energy levels and pull of the moon.  Everything has an ebb and a flow, including us, so by allowing ourselves to rest during the low energy phases and amping it up on the high energy phases we are placing ourselves in a position for optimum benefits.

A brief search reveals this belief system is also promoted by Healthy Families in Rotorua, Waitakere, and the Far North.

The Healthy Families programme costs taxpayers around $9 million a year, and also advocates herbal remedies, massage, and prayer.

This approach to Māori health is not just ineffective, but actively harmful. There’s a risk that ill families will see these traditional techniques as a substitute for scientifically-backed measures. Moreover, every health dollar that is spent on astrology is a dollar that cannot be invested in core health services.

This programme also blurs the line between healthcare and religion. It might be well-meaning, but it’s certainly not value for money for the taxpayer and should be scrapped immediately.

A new piece of art for the Beehive?

Parliament has decided it wants a large new artwork in the Beehive entrance. The gimmick: they're asking for designs from the public.

Yesterday we made our submission: 

If our piece is chosen, we will save taxpayers money by refusing the $15,000 commission payment.

Our idea serves as a warning to would-be money-wasters in the heart of government. As we told Parliament's Artworks Committee:

For those New Zealanders not lucky enough to earn a politician’s salary, a five dollar note represents a meal, or the bus fare for a job interview. That small sheet of polypropylene can be the difference between hunger and happiness, poverty and opportunity.

Taxpayers understand the value of money, because they work for it. But too often, politicians take money from us only to fritter it away on pet projects, political fads, and minor extravagances. The taxpaying public can never be too firm in its opposition to government waste. It is in this spirit that we submit our proposal.

You can make your own submission by emailing [email protected] before 29 January.

If you copy in our address ([email protected]), we'll choose our favourite ideas and share them on our Facebook page.

Have a great weekend.

Louis Houlbrooke Communications Officer New Zealand Taxpayers' Union