|
📌 View
Online | 🚀 Share
on Facebook
Hi Friend,
NEW POLL:
National up, ACT down, centre-left could form Govt 📊
Our latest
Taxpayers’ Union–Curia Poll is out, and it’s mixed news for
the centre-right. While Christopher Luxon's personal numbers are up,
overall, it's bad news for the Government.
Labour hold
on to its spot as the largest party, up 0.2 points from last month to
33.8 percent. National gained 1.3 points to 33.1
percent.
The Greens gain 0.9 points to 10.7 percent, while New
Zealand First gains 0.3 points to 8.1 percent. ACT drop 1.9 points to
6.7 percent, while Te Pāti Māori gains 1.1 point to 4.3
percent.
On these
numbers, the centre-left bloc would hold 61 seats – just enough to
form a government – while the centre-right is out of Government
dropping to 60 seats. Labour and National are now deadlocked on 42
seats each after ACT drop three seats.
With this close result, and last month's poll showing a
hung Parliament, the only takeaway can be: next year's election is
going to be a nail-biter.
As for the
issues, the cost of living remains voters’ top concern, climbing 3.1
points to 27.5 percent. The broader economy follows on 16.1 percent,
with health, employment, and taxes rounding out the top
five.
More information
about the poll, including preferred PM numbers, are available
here.
2025
Mayoral Debates: Coming to a town hall near you 🗳️🎤
After
the success of the Wellington Mayoral Debate, hosted by our student
leaders at Generation Screwed, we're now undertaking a series
ratepayer debates across the country.
Come along
and hear your mayoral candidates grilled on rates, spending,
accountability, and questions from local Taxpayers' Union
supporters.
The
Hastings Mayoral Debate kicks off tonight at
7 pm (at the Havelock North Community Centre), and we'll be in
Dunedin this Wednesday (the 10th), Queenstown
Thursday (the 11th - hosted by Peter Williams), New
Plymouth on the same night (Thursday 11th - in conjunction
with our sister-group, the New
Plymouth Ratepayers' Alliance), and Hamilton this
Friday (the 12th) hosted by Waikato University's branch of
Generation Screwed.
The events are free
– just register online or turn up on the night (details
here).
Jordan will
be moderating in Hastings, Peter Williams in Queenstown, and in both
places, we’ll be releasing exclusive polling. Dunedin and Hamilton are
hosted by our youth group, Generation Screwed, while New Plymouth is
in partnership with the New Plymouth Ratepayers’ Alliance.
These aren’t boring meet-and-greets
– expect sharp questions and straight answers. If you care
about what your next mayor plans to do with your rates bill, don’t
miss it.
👉 Full
event details and registration here.
End the
Ministerial Maze: Time to Cut Cabinet Down to Size ✂️🏛️
A new
report from our friends at the New Zealand Initiative think tank has
laid bare just how bloated Cabinet has become – and why it’s costing
taxpayers dearly.
New
Zealand currently has 81 portfolios, 28 ministers, and 43 departments.
That’s about three times as
many portfolios as comparable countries like Ireland or Singapore,
which manage to govern effectively with far fewer
ministers.
The real
problem is accountability. When a giant ministry like MBIE answers to
20 different ministers, no one is clearly responsible. That
means delays, finger-pointing, and wasted money while taxpayers pick
up the bill.
The boffins
at the NZ Initiative say their report is a blueprint for reform. They
say the Government should be setting a clear target to reduce the size
of Cabinet, publishing a timeline, and making ministers properly
accountable again. Until it does, New Zealanders will keep paying for
a system where everyone is in charge of something, but no one is in
charge of anything.
Right now,
the Government has no real pathway back to surplus. And
according to the Public Service Commission are more bureaucrats now
than there were at the last election (Nicola
Willis says otherwise, but she uses March-to-March numbers to make
things look better than they actually are). 🙄
The only
way to cut costs and rebuild accountability is to rein in the
ministerial maze and get the bureaucratic beast under
control.
Labour Party
finally announce a policy! Handouts for their funders 🤦♂️
Friend, as
the results from the by-election over the weekend showed, Labour are
playing their cards close to their chest in terms of policy
announcements.
But what
little we've had shows where its loyalties lie – and it’s not with
taxpayers.
The Labour has endorced a Council
of Trade Union policy that would see a taxpayer-funded agency set up
to train Labour Party
fundraisers and activists union delegates.
In other
words, Chris Hipkins is shamelessly trying to funnel taxpayer money
straight into the pockets of the very unions that bankroll his
political campaigns.
It's
taxpayer funding of the Labour Party by another
name.
We’ve seen
this playbook before. Last year, we revealed that MBIE staff were
being paid at least $871,000 a year to do union work on taxpayer time.
Now Labour is doubling down with a plan to create a new agency
to run training for unions, further blurring the line between
government resources and party political
interests.
But it
doesn’t stop there, Friend. The Public Service Administration’s recent
antics – contacting foreign embassies in a clumsy attempt to smear New
Zealand’s meat inspection standards – show just how much damage these
unions can cause. Rather than holding them to account, Labour wants to
reward them.
This is a clear conflict of interest. Instead of putting
taxpayers first, Labour is prioritising its big union backers and
expecting taxpayers to foot the bill.
It’s
wasteful, politically sleazy, and self-serving. It must be
stopped.
No
Labour-Party taxpayer funded subsidies here: How
a real union does it 🧢🪧
Unlike our
"friends" at the Council of Trade Unions, the Taxpayers' Union
merchandise doesn't want a cent of taxpayer funded subsidies.
Alongside
classics, we’ve just added Cap Rates Now merch so you can demonstrate
your support for ratepayers loud and clear.
From "I'm not a mug, I'm a taxpayer" tea cups,
T-shirts, yard signs, and banners, every purchase fuels the fight for
more accountable government – including against wasteful councils and
higher rates.
➡️ Check out the full
range here ⬅️
How to
vote - and how to vote guide: keep an eye on your mailbox, and your
inbox 📨
 We've
had hundreds of mayoral and council candidates sign the 2025 Ratepayer
Protection Pledge – and they are still flying
in.
Our team
are putting the final touches on the official Ratepayers' How
to Vote Guide.
Keep an eye
on your inbox this week – we'll let you know as soon as it's
ready...
British
politics update: Taxpayer Talk with the UK’s TaxPayers’ Alliance
🎙️🇬🇧
This week
on the podcast, our Chief Policy Nerd James sits down with John
O’Connell, Chief Executive of our British sister-group, the TaxPayers’
Alliance.
James
and John dig into some big issues: rates caps, the so-called death
tax, and of course, the infamous Westminster MPs’ expenses
scandal – the one that forced every British MP and
peer to open their expense reports to public scrutiny, after six of
them went to jail and hundreds more were caught out.
What’s
surprising is that nothing similar has happened in New
Zealand. Despite the lessons from overseas, our politicians
still aren’t required to open their books in the same way.
It’s yet another reason why our Open the Books campaign remains so
important.
👉 Listen
to the full conversation here or wherever good podcasts are
shared.
Have a
great week - hopefully I'll see you at one of the Mayoral
debates!
 |
Tory Relf
New Zealand
Taxpayers’ Union
|
Ps. Our
debate series is only possible thanks to the generous support of our
donors like you. Support
our debates and the Local Government Fighting Fund. Every dollar
goes towards the fight for lower rates and more
accountability.
|
