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Hi Friend,

While World War Fee breaks out in the form of the biggest tax increase ever recorded (thank you Mr Trump!) it's otherwise been a pretty good week for New Zealand taxpayers. Some more great announcements by the Government on cutting red tape and regulatory taxes — including on health and safety. Great news for those of us who despise road cones!

We also have this month's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll, which bucks the recent trend of bad polls for the Government.

Tariffying 😱

But first, we can't ignore what's going on off-shore. And as much as the Trump Administration claim tariffs are a tax on foreigners, every economist will tell you that it's ultimately domestic consumers who pay more (or get an inferior, domestically produced, product). American cars anyone?

Obviously, New Zealand is too small to respond/retaliate against the US, without just making ourselves a bigger target, and it's good to hear that Luxon's Government has no plans doing so (as we'd called for).

But there is a real risk of wiser heads not prevailing. About three years ago, I attended an international taxpayer event in Australia where we compared pubilic support for (among other things) free trade. While the vast majority (about six to one) of New Zealand voters agreed with the statement "Free trade between countries benefits both country's economies" — we were, by far, the outlier of other anglosphere countries.

For example, in Australia, the question resulted in around only three to two support. And Australian voters on the centre-right were less supportive of free trade. In fact, the majority of supporters of the (mostly rural) Australian "Nationals Party" disagreed that countries benefit from free trade.

So the risks of even our friends "retaliating" and the shackles of trade restrictions consuming the economic benefits of open markets — which has pulled billions of people out of poverty in my lifetime — is real.

As the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is putting it: No one wins in a trade war.

Too many cones? Give Brooke a call ☎️

There's been a suite of changes this week from the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister that had a few of us in the office dialled in — some were good, some were more, errrr, 'novel'.

Brooke van Velden has made the call to bring in a nation-wide hotline for, of all things, road cones!

As part of her latest safety updates, the new hotline will supposedly allow you to call up and report ‘overzealous’ orange cone use on our roads.

Here at the Taxpayers' Union, we get a lot of complaints about the overzealous use of road cones. We get it. And so does Alex! After our recent exposé that NZTA spent more than $786 million in three years on road cones and lollipop signs, you can imagine Alex's frustration!

Here at the Taxpayers' Union, we initially thought Brook cone-not be serious.

Is a phone line to Wellington bureaucrats really the way to tackle it? Who would call such a taxpayer funded support line? The little old ladies having nightmares about cones in the middle of the night? Please. 🙄

A great gimmick, maybe, but a policy fix, no.

Is van Velden putting the cone before the horse? 🚧 🐎 The real reason behind NZ's cone-tastrophe

But let's not rush to criticise van Velden. Here's why: The reason for the invasion of road cones is totally rational when you consider our Health and Safety at Work Act.

Under that law, employers (such as roadworks contractors) are required to take “all reasonably practicable steps” to eliminate or minimise risks. That duty applies not just to workers but also to other persons who may be affected by the work.

And, since 2016, company directors and officers have been personally liable for breaches of the employer's duty (just ask the former boss of the Ports of Auckland)

Prior to 2016, directors and officers could be liable only if they were personally involved in a breach or knew about it and failed to act.

How Courts have interpreted the "all reasonably practicable steps” is a dog's breakfast. One of the factors is what is "industry standard" – i.e. the 50th percentile in the particular industry. Even worse, that factor is not determinant in defending a criminal charge but is commonly used in the prosecution against a company/its executives.

Cone-flation: The race to gold-plate health and safety 🦺

So, thanks to the current health and safety legal standard, arguably 50 percent (those not taking health and safety precautions that are the 'average') leaves officers and directors open to personal, criminal liability.

What results from this is predictable: a race to pile more and more safety precautions — even when they're costly! The public sees it in the explosion of road cones, but the problem is rife across the economy.

So, while Monday looked like a gimmick — all sizzle and no sausage — you can imagine our delight when this announcement hit our inboxes yesterday from the Beehive's press team:

Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) are practical guidelines to help people in specific sectors and industries to comply with their health and safety duties.

“Health and safety compliance is based on people doing what is ‘reasonably practicable’ to manage risks, yet I’ve heard time and time again that many people don’t know what ‘reasonably practicable’ actually looks like. There is a demand for more and better guidance,” says Ms van Velden.

“As part of my health and safety reform, I am making a change to the ACOP model to reassure people that if they comply with an ACOP, they have done enough to meet their health and safety duties.

“In the absence of clear regulations and guidance, an entire health and safety industry has developed, which comes at a cost to businesses, consumers and taxpayers. You should not have to hire a health and safety consultant just to understand whether or not you are compliant with the law. [...]

“ACOPs may be sector based but can also be used to help businesses know what ‘reasonably practicable’ means for specific issues that may occur across a range of sectors. They will likely be a useful tool for supporting innovation by responding to new and emerging industries where certainty about the risks would not yet warrant regulations. [continue reading on the Beehive website]

Brooke van Velden gets it!

And, maybe she was right with the cone 'hotline' after all? While the mainstream/taxpayer funded media have covered the 'sizzle' of the hotline, so far, there is zero coverage of the actual sausage — i.e. the law change Minister van Velden announced. 🤦

Of course, as always, the devil is in the detail, and your humble Taxpayers' Union will be following the issue closely when the proposed law is introduced to Parliament later in the year.

Centre-Left takes a tumble in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll 🧮

After months of bad polls, the Coalition Government has bounced back into the lead in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll.

National is now on 33.5 percent (down -0.1 points from last month), while Labour falls a whopping 4.3 points to 29.8 percent. The Greens are up 1.0 point to 11.0 percent, while ACT is up 2.3 points to 10.0 percent. New Zealand First also had a 2.3 point bump to 7.4 percent, while Te Pāti Māori is down to 4.3 percent (-2.2 points). 

The poll was largely taken prior to this weeks newsw🌀rthy events involving the Green Party. 

On these numbers, the projected seats for the Centre-Right is 64 – up 6 seats from last month. The combined seats for the Centre-Left is down 5 seats to 57. On these numbers, National and ACT would require the support of New Zealand First to form a Government. 

Some interesting movement in the Preferred Prime Minister stakes, as well. Christopher Luxon has squeaked back ahead of Chris Hipkins since our last poll, sitting at 21.9 percent (+1.6 points). Hipkins is down 1.8 points to 18.9 percent.

Winston Peters is at 12.8 percent (up 4.2 points). This is the first time Peters has polled over 10 percent as Preferred PM in our poll.

David Seymour is at 8.0 percent (+3.0 points) and Chlöe Swarbrick is at 4.2 percent (-0.6 points).

For more details on the poll, head over to our website.

• Clarify the role of the public service;
• streamline chief executive responsibilities;
• reinforce the principle of merit-based appointments;
• improve chief executive and agency performance management;
• utilise and improve tools to reduce silos; and
• better manage risk.

You can read more details over on the NZ Herald: Judith Collins wants ‘performance management’ for public service chief executives or on the Beehive website: Back to basics for the public service.

And more good news: A cut to red tape that will literally save lives 💊

Kiwis needing life-saving medicines that are already available in countries like the US, UK, and Australia are being forced to wait for a local rubber-stamp from Medsafe. In some tragic cases, that wait has cost lives. It’s not because the medicines are unsafe—it’s because Wellington insists on duplicating assessments already completed by trusted international regulators.

Bureaucracy at its worst. But it's finally changing. 

David Seymour has announced the “Rule of Two”: if a medicine has been approved by two trusted overseas regulators (such as those in Australia, the US, or Europe), New Zealand will fast-track its own approval within 30 days. No more dawdling while officials recheck what others have already signed off.

We say it’s a win for patients, a win for efficiency, and a long-overdue victory over red tape. It should also justify a serious downsizing of Medsafe—freeing up taxpayer dollars to fund life-saving treatments instead of paying bureaucrats to re-mark the FDA’s homework.

Yet another bailout buoy thrown to Kiwirail's Interislander 🛟

Minister for Ferries, Winston Peters, has announced plans to replace the Interislander fleet with two new ferries by 2029.

Our spies in Wellington tell us that the Maritime Union are the real winners (close to New Zealand First), who want bigger toys ships that are rail enabled (meaning more complexity). 

From Kiwirail's perspective, this was supposed to be all about 'resilience' – prompted by issues faced after the Kaikoura earthquake, and multiple breakdowns.

But, for reasons still unexplained, replacing three ferries with two (albeit larger) ferries achieves that. Riiiight.

There’s still no price tag, but let’s not forget the $400 million already sunk into Labour’s iReX ferry fiasco. Now, Peters wants to drag taxpayers into yet another whirlpool of cash.

Taxpayers don’t buy planes for Jetstar - so why are we buying ferries? Private operator Bluebridge has reliably crossed the Cook Strait for decades. It’s profitable, unsubsidised, and doesn’t ask taxpayers for a cent.

Meanwhile, the Interislander is the nautical version of your uncle’s 1994 Commodore: once iconic, but now held together with duct tape and hope. Even the "best" ferry, the Aratere, tried to end its own misery ran aground last year. Enough.

If the Government really cared about value for money, it would sell the Interislander. Bluebridge proves the private model works, as do hundreds of large-scale ferry operations around the world (including for rail!). New Zealand does not need a poorly run government-owned ferry service any more than it needs a Ministry for Ham Sandwiches.

There's no such thing as a free lunch 🥪 

Speaking of ham sandwiches, a great big fuss has been made over the Government’s school lunch programme, so we thought we might ask voters whether they're as concerned as the media clearly are about 'yucky' school lunches.

Of course, no child should sit at school hungry. But the real question is, whose job is it to provide a school kid with lunch? Well, we asked it.

As part of this month's Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll we asked: Who do you think should have the primary responsibility for making sure a child has lunch to eat at school?

72 percent said "parents". Just 16 percent said "the government". 12 percent were "unsure". 

Friend, clearly the school lunch programme isn’t working the way it should, and it has actually turned into a complete political liability for this Government.

With so much going to waste (and even reports that the lunches are being fed to a school pig) we can’t help but wonder if it’s time to ditch the programme and target only the kids who are actually in need of it.

If you agree, use our email tool to send a message to Mr Luxon and Mr Seymour, asking them to only supply lunches to kids who need them — and put the hundreds of millions saved each year into things like health and education to benefit us all — not the school pigs.

>>> Send an email to Luxon and Seymour here 📧

Queenstown Council's $60.7 million bloat 🤯  

This week, our local government investigations team exposed a ratepayer-funded boondoggle in Queenstown Lakes. What was originally pitched as a $51 million consolidation of four modest council offices has blown out by nearly $10 million, and construction hasn’t even started!

Council bosses claim the project is about 'efficiency' and 'modernisation' (we've heard this before!). In reality, supporters on the ground tell us that a lavish new palace for bureaucrats at a time when services are increasingly shifting online is what's really in the pipeline. Ratepayers aren’t getting a better experience — they’re just getting the bill.

And what the media won't tell you is the Council's cooked up a cosy deal with Ngāi Tahu Property to co-own the building. This isn’t about Treaty obligations or delivering for Māori — it was a smoke filled backroom cosy deal,  an untendered property play dressed up in feel-good language (see below). It needs scrutiny.

Residents have spoken out against the decision, yet the Council is ploughing ahead regardless — all while hiking rates by a staggering 15.8 per cent.

The Council says this is about "community spirit." But you don’t build community by draining wallets to build monuments to yourself.

More to come.

What Kiwirail spent 18 months trying to keep secret 🤫

When the current Government were sworn in, they weren't just shocked with the cost blowouts at iRex/the Interislander, Nicola Willis publicly criticised Kiwirail for it's out of control spending on consultants.

And, for 18 months, the NZ Herald and your humble Taxpayers' Union have been in a fight with Kiwirail to find out what it was.

Well, now we know: $8 million on McKinsey Consultants alone.

Of course, Kiwirail tried to cry 'commercial sensitivity' as their justification for refusing to release the information. But when we pushed them to explain what prejudice release of the information would result, they came up short. Let's speak truth to power: the only 'commercial sensitivity' here is the sensitivity of the reputation of Kiwirail's executive team and board.

Doubling down on the trolling, we understand that Kiwirail even got a crisis communications firm in to help them (at your taxpayer expense, of course!).  Their spin is that the consultants were necessary for KiwiRail to save money.

So, taking them at their word, Kiwirail's logic is that in order to find $30 million of savings in the an organisation bringing in $1.04 billion, they needed to spend $8 million on globalist consultants to find it using PowerPoints.

But let's put the $8 million into perspective. We looked up the McKinsey Australia/New Zealand and guess how many staffers they have in their "transport" team... Two.

$8 million for two experts!? Nice one, Kiwifail! 👍

Taxpayer Talk: Dr Eric Crampton on Nicola Willis' Supermarket Shakeup 🎙️

This week on Taxpayer Talk, I sat down with the NZ Initiative's Chief Economist, Dr Eric Crampton on Nicola Willis' announcement on Sunday about the possible splitting up of the supermarket industry.

In the podcast, we unpack what's on the table, the risks, and what Dr Crampton argues is the real reason New Zealand lacks competition at the checkout. 

You can listen to the episode on our website, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and other good podcast apps. 

Enjoy the rest of this wet Friday, ,

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

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