New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

New Zealand Taxpayers' Union
AbbreviationNZTU
FormationOctober 2013
TypePressure group
Legal statusIncorporated society
HeadquartersWellington
Executive Director
Jordan Williams
Budget$3 million+ per year
Staff18 (2023)
Websitewww.taxpayers.org.nz

The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is a taxpayer pressure group founded in 2013 to scrutinise government spending, publicise government waste, and promote an efficient tax system.[1] The Union was founded among conservative figures, and is often regarded as a right-wing pressure group.[2][3][4]

The group has also been accused of astroturfing.[5]

Leadership

The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union was founded on 30 October 2013.[6] The group was first chaired for four years by John Bishop,[7] a former Television New Zealand political editor, and father of National Party list MP Chris Bishop. He was succeeded by Barrie Saunders, who held the chair for three years from 2017[7] to 2021. Ashley Church, a director of the Israel Institute of New Zealand[8] and a former CEO of the Property Institute of New Zealand, was invited onto the Board in 2020[9] and became its chairperson in 2021, but stepped down after five months.

The group's co-founder and Executive Director is Wellington lawyer Jordan Williams. Williams is known for fronting the 'Vote for Change' campaign during the 2011 referendum on New Zealand's voting system. Williams previously worked at the law firm of former ACT MP Stephen Franks.[6] Williams was involved in a series of lawsuits over defamation with the then leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand Colin Craig. In 2019 Williams apologised to Craig for defamation and Williams dropped his counter-suit.[10]

David Farrar co-founded the group and was a board member for ten years, resigning in July 2023.[11][6] Farrar describes himself as "very pro economic liberalism", and has stated that the Taxpayers' Union is not "anti-left or right", and "I suspect we will somewhat annoy whoever is in government at the time".[12]

Activities

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The Taxpayers' Union initiatives include public relations campaigns and paid advertising. Campaigns are intended to generate media interest and greater public involvement and support for fiscally conservative causes.

Its major campaigns have included reports on corporate welfare by the John Key-led government, commissioning independent costings of the election promises of all the major political parties during the 2014 election, and league tables comparing the performance of local government organisations.

In January 2014, the group released internal ACC documents suggesting that $19 million awarded to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand to provide a workplace health and safety training programme had been wasted.[13] Soon afterward the scheme was scrapped.[14]

In June 2014 the group partnered with Fairfax Media to produce local government league tables, labelled "The Ratepayers' Report".[15]

The group operates a confidential 'tip line' for members of the public and government officials to report examples of government waste.[16]

The Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance describes itself as a "Taxpayers' Union supported project". Its activities, which focus on Auckland Council rates and spending, were folded into the Taxpayers' Union in 2021.[17] Before then, it had been a company founded (in 2015) and directed by Jordan Williams, registered at the Taxpayers' Union Wellington address.[18][19][20] In the year to 30 June 2017, the Taxpayers' Union was responsible for 5.4% of all the official information requests received by Auckland Council. The Council estimated that to respond to all 64 requests cost $39,100.[21]

Between 2021 and 2023, the Taxpayers' Union opposed the Sixth Labour Government's Three Waters and co-governance policies.[6]

In 2024 a Taxpayers' Union representative travelled to Panama to oppose the 10th conference of parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. A group of taxpayer groups from around the world gathered with the aim of preventing increased prohibition of vaping.[22]

Networking

Executive Director Jordan Williams attended an Atlas Network training session in 2015, and later received a fellowship grant from Atlas in 2018 to support the growth of the Taxpayers' Union.[23] As of 2020, the Taxpayers Union is an official partner of the Atlas Network, alongside the New Zealand Initiative think-tank.[24][25][26] According to Jordan Williams, the Atlas Network has accounted for up to one or two percent of its budget including awards and travel scholarships.[6]

The Taxpayers' Union shares a close relationship with the New Zealand Free Speech Union. Jordan Williams founded the FSU's predecessor, and both the Taxpayers' Union and FSU's offices are located next to each other.[27]

Controversies

Use of false identities

In October 2018, The New Zealand Herald revealed the results of an investigation into the Taxpayers' Union, showing that staff members acting on behalf of the organisation (and in an organised campaign) assumed false identities to lodge Official Information Act requests with the New Zealand Government's science research agency. After refusing to comment for two days, representatives from the Union admitted they had used false identities in this way. The Herald investigation found that all of the email accounts used for the requests were linked to one particular email address of a Taxpayers' Union staff member by way of account recovery processes.[28]

The Union claimed the reason for the use of the email accounts was to successfully obtain information from the science agency, which they said "de-prioritised" requests from them, and defended its actions as justified and in the public interest.[29] However, in the interview with Guyon Espiner where Union head Jordan Williams made that claim, and also claimed that the information came from "within Callaghan Innovation", he provided no supporting evidence for either claim. During the response segment of the same interview, Chair of Callaghan Innovation Pete Hodgson pointed out that in the year ending June 2018 Callaghan Innovation received 26 requests they knew to be from the Union, and 14 they suspected were from the Union but that did not use the Union's name. All of these were responded to within the legal time limits. Hodgson pointed out that Callaghan met these legal time limits 94% of the time for general requests in the same year, so the Union received slightly better service than New Zealand as a whole.

In response to a direct question from Espiner about whether Callaghan had ever stalled the Taxpayer's Union on a request they had made, Hodgson responded "No the opposite, we met the request on every occasion at some considerable expense. Our running cost for this...is just over $103,000. There has been a huge effort by Callaghan to respond to this blizzard of requests and it's all been done within the legal time."

Promotion of the use of nicotine products

The Union has regularly opposed tobacco control measures and launched a campaign called "Clear The Air" to promote the use of e-cigarettes.[30] They have been accused of "echoing tobacco industry arguments", and have had previous financial donations from British American Tobacco.[31][32]

References

  1. ^ "Lower Taxes, Less Waste, More Accountability". Taxpayers' Union. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  2. ^ Jones, Nicholas (26 March 2017). "Taxing times: Kiwis pay $483 too much". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  3. ^ Fisher, David (13 November 2015). "The Big Read: So what's this Taxpayers' Union, which purports to represent us all?". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  4. ^ Manhire, Toby (18 July 2017). "An invoice to the Taxpayers' Union on behalf of annoyed New Zealanders". The Spinoff. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Ex-ACT staffer Grant McLachlan says party created fake grassroots groups". Radio New Zealand. 7 April 2021. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e Wiliams, David (31 October 2023). "Chiding in plain sight". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Barrie Saunders new Chair of Taxpayers' Union" (Press release). New Zealand Taxpayers' Union. Scoop. 15 December 2017. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Israel Institute of New Zealand – About". Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Taxpayers' Union – Our Team". Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Colin Craig receives apology, compensation from Jordan Williams". Stuff. 3 December 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  11. ^ New Zealand Taxpayers' Union (7 July 2023). "Press Release: Taxpayers' Union Co-founder Retiring After 10 Years". Scoop. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  12. ^ Stuart, Sarah (31 October 2013). "Twelve Questions: David Farrar". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  13. ^ "ACC admits programme poor value". RNZ. 14 January 2014. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. ^ "ACC to can training after $19m spent". NZ Herald. 14 January 2014. Archived from the original on 26 November 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  15. ^ "Balancing the council books". Stuff. 11 June 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  16. ^ "Grassroots group takes aim at Government spending (4:08)". TVNZ. 30 October 2013. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  17. ^ "About". Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance. Archived from the original on 18 August 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  18. ^ Fisher, David (13 November 2015). "The Big Read: So what's this Taxpayers' Union, which purports to represent us all?". New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  19. ^ "New Company Incorporation - AUCKLAND RATEPAYERS' ALLIANCE LIMITED". Companies Register. New Zealand Companies Office. 15 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  20. ^ Niall, Todd (7 March 2022). "Taxpayers' Union society wrongly listed as 'dissolved' after alleged hack". Stuff. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  21. ^ Manhire, Toby (25 January 2018). "Revealed: the outfit making more than one in every 20 OIAs to Auckland Council". The Spinoff. Archived from the original on 21 August 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  22. ^ "Jordan Williams on why the Taxpayers' Union went to Panama to debate vaping". RNZ. 22 May 2024. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  23. ^ Baxter, Cindy (21 October 2020). "Who the hell is Gideon Rozner, anyway?". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 24 December 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  24. ^ Brad Lips (31 January 2020). "The Freedom Movement: Its Past, Present, and Future" (PDF). Atlas Network. p. 38. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  25. ^ Cindy Baxter (21 October 2020). "Who the hell is Gideon Rozner, anyway?". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  26. ^ David Williams (2 November 2023). "Chiding in plain sight, Part II". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  27. ^ Van Dongen, Yvonne (October 2022). "Voice Control". North and South. pp. 24–33. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  28. ^ Fisher, David (2 October 2018). "How right-wing lobby group NZ Taxpayers' Union used false identities to make OIA request – and how it got caught". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  29. ^ "OIA requests cost Callaghan Innovation $103k'". Radio New Zealand. 5 October 2018. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  30. ^ "Clear The Air". Taxpayers' Union. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  31. ^ "Taxpayers' Union backed by tobacco giant'". Newsroom. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  32. ^ "Free-market groups and the tobacco industry – full database". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.