We’ve known this for many years.

The one federal agency no one has even tried to reform is also the most powerful: CIA. Jim Erdman just resigned after a long career as an operations officer. He says the agency is completely out of control and dangerous.

0:00 The CIA's Obstruction of Justice
17:54 CIA Secrecy… pic.twitter.com/44qt96QkqR

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 27, 2026

It’s a basic feature of not just autocracy but top-down management. KCDC is the same.

As is often the case, the council has stated these works are going to last longer than was previous stated and may continue for a couple more months. 🙁 The developer is paying the cost.

Reader Gerard Black comments:

Apparently the new deadline is October despite the fact that the TTM (Temporary Traffic Management) Plan expired on 26 April 2026.

The contractors didn’t even start on the roundabout until early April and so they completely botched up their permitted TTM plan as it was approved for construction during the dry summer months!

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny: "Don’t fall for the fear campaign… what is MEASLES?… a fever, a cough, a rash, runny eyes & runny nose."

"The measles vaccine came out in 1963. In 1962, the death rate from measles was two in a million.”

"So it was not even deadly BEFORE we had a… pic.twitter.com/8E7FD7dcYK

— Valerie Anne Smith (@ValerieAnne1970) July 27, 2026

By Roger Childs

The 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider crossed the line on Paris’ Champs-Elysees in the peloton, to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the endurance event’s most successful male riders. Matt Warwick, BBC Sport

Pogacar unbeatable

All the world’s cycling experts picked the Slovenian to win and he duly obliged to join four legends in picking up a fifth victory. This year’s Tour de France started in Barcelona and covered 3230km in 21 stages before finishing in Paris last weekend.

 One of the big unknowns is always survival, especially as crashes and pile-ups are common, and top riders can be forced out because of injury. This year 2022 and 2023 champion Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark was forced to abandon the Tour in the third week. Pogacar was quite upset:  “It’s a shame Jonas crashed out this time and many others. I hope they have a quick recovery and next year we fight again.”

Tadej Pogacar had his anticipated successful tour and always seemed able to catch the leaders if he got behind, especially on the massive mountain climbs. “Victory is really special,” said Pogacar. “Thank you to all the fans and my team. But the biggest thanks goes to all my family who support me all my life. My parents – without them I would not be standing here five times already.

“Seven Tours and seven times on the podium, and five wins, is something you wouldn’t even … write in a story book, and it’s unbelievable for me.”

The battle on the streets of Paris

The final 21^st stage was reduced from 133km to 89km because some emergency services from the capital were needed to help tackle wild fires in south-west France.

Organisers introduced a circuit which took on a cobbled climb over the city’s famous Montmartre hill and passed the iconic Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, changing the route enough to allow the heavier, more powerful riders to challenge for victory. The finish was the usual desparate race on the Champs Elysees, but this year it was not a bunch sprint. 

Pogacar was clearly keen to win the final dash, but for once the Slovenian wasn’t quite up to it. After a thrilling battle through the huge crowds in the narrow city streets notably in Montmatre where some fans had cell phones knocked out of their hands, Belgian Mathieu van der Poel got away from Pogacar in the last kilometre to take the coveted final sprint from a fast finishing Jasper Philipsen.

Worthy champions

The top three riders in the overall Tour’ general classification were

1. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia 73hrs 56mins 26secs

2. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium +6mins 26secs

3. Isaac del Toro, Mexico +9mins 42secs

One of the most entertaining riders in theTour was Ecuador’s Richard Carapas. He struggled early in the race before coming into great form in the last few stages to claim the king of the mountains’ polka dot jersey. He won stage 18 and Saturday’s stage 20 after topping the race’s highest point in the French Alps – the legendary Alp d’Huez first, after 5,450km of climbing and 21 hairpin bends.

The green points jersey was won by Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, after tenacious riding on climbs he is not typically strong on to sweep up mid-stage points, alongside winning stage four.

He beat a number of top sprinters to the jersey, including Belgian Jasper Philipsen. The Belgian won stage 17 and fellow countryman Tim Merlier won three bunch sprint stages.

Still as popular as ever

Millions watched the race from the sides of roads, footpaths, and mountain sides, and on television, and there was the usual huge trade in the famed yellow, green and white jerseys. However, the most popular top is always the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey.

The big political story in the last 24 hours has been Christopher Luxon ruling out TOP. But there’s a more important story this morning that’s been largely missed – Luxon appears to be no longer ruling out increasing your taxes!

Our new report out today also exposes local councils for sitting on a fortune! (Of art, that is.) And, worse still, only a measly one third of it is even on display.

Let’s jump in.

Luxon embraces the inflation tax 

Christopher Luxon spent his years in Opposition warning that inflation was silently dragging hard-working Kiwis into higher income tax brackets. Stopping this ‘bracket creep’ was even part of his 2023 election pledge.

But now Luxon is Prime Minister, the policy has been quietly dropped. And this morning, he declared it was “not on our radar”.

Funny how quickly a politician’s “radar” changes once they’re the tax collector.

In January we found that, on average, Kiwis have lost $238 each to bracket creep since the 2024 thresholds were introduced. That is a bill most of us cannot afford to pay – and it will keep growing if the Government does nothing.

Here is how the inflation tax works:

A worker gets a pay rise to keep up with rising prices. They are not actually any better off in real terms, but more of their income is pushed into a higher tax bracket.

The Government collects more tax without announcing a tax rise, passing a law, or having to defend the decision.

It’s sneaky, nasty, tax increases by stealth. Failing to deal with it makes a mockery of National’s claim to be the party of ‘lower taxes’.

“No taxation without indexation!” 

National cannot credibly claim to be the party of lower taxes while relying on inflation to hike them.

And indexation of income tax thresholds is not some radical new tax cut.

It simply stops the Government from collecting a larger share of someone’s income when their wages have only risen to keep pace with inflation.

Super, benefits, and Working for Families are all adjusted to reflect rising prices. We say taxpayers are entitled to the same protection.

National made the case for tax indexation in Opposition. Now they ought to deliver it in Government.

EXPOSED: MBIE officials waste $35m on botched IT project – then lied to Ministers to cover it up! 

MBIE have been caught red-handed running amok, lying misleading successive Governments and Ministers about an immigration IT project failing and blowing through $35 million of taxpayers’ money to get nothing. 

In short, officials withheld information from Ministers, deliberately avoided Cabinet scrutiny, and kept pouring taxpayer money into a project that was doomed and eventually abandoned.

RNZ captured the omnishambles here:

Senior Immigration New Zealand officials repeatedly ignored requests from the minister’s office and progressed work on a project the minister hadn’t agreed to extra funding for, according to new documents released to RNZ.

The hundreds of pages of correspondence paint a picture of the processes the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), which the Immigration department sits within, used to pursue a now abandoned IT upgrade.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has appointed Michael Heron KC to investigate “integrity concerns” after Immigration Minister Erica Stanford revealed last month her officials “deliberately withheld” information from both her and the previous government.

That and accusations of “creative accounting” were laid out in a damning review into the department’s handling of the project.

At least $35 million of taxpayers’ money was wasted after the biometric capability upgrade (BCU) was ultimately stopped in 2025 after years of red flags, delays, and missed milestones.

In an unusual move Stanford has released documents to RNZ she would normally withhold under the “free and frank” provision, given the “significant public interest considerations and the fact that my recollections of the conversations are consistent with what is noted in the timeframe”.

One of those documents, a timeline developed by her specialist ministerial advisor, Kara Isaac, clearly lays out the many emails, conversations, and meetings between the minister’s office and her ministry officials, including the chief executive, between 21 February and 30 April 2024.

The timing is interesting. Just last month, the MBIE boss referred to above was rewarded a gong as part of the King’s Birthday Honours!

You couldn’t make it up! At the very same time the Government is exposing the rot under the leadership of Carolyn Tremain (pictured) she was made a Companion of the King’s Service Order!

If someone in the private sector misled their boss (and blew $35 million) they would be shown the door.

But this boss gets a gong.

Remember the rule in the public service: every failure is a success, and every success is well rewarded… 

Porky the Waste-Hater joins the MBIE picket line 

While the research team here at the Taxpayers’ Union were digging into the MBIE story (literally reviewing the material released by the Minister) we noticed that we received a media alert that MBIE workers were walking off the job to demand [checks notes] more money! 

That’s right, while officials should be red-faced with embarrassment, their trade union – the ironically-named “Public Service Association” was literally picketing 100 metres from our office. 

Now, normally we’d be all for MBIE staff walking off the job (most business owners would agree having the Ministry’s offices closed greatly assists with New Zealand’s business, innovation, and employment) but we thought the timing was misjudged.

We worked out that had the $35 million on the failed immigration IT project been saved – the equivalent of more than $6,000 would be available for every MBIE employee!

So your humble Taxpayers’ Union headed down to MBIE’s Wellington headquarters with Porky the Waste-Hater to join the picket line.

But there was a problem, Geoffrey. With so many of MBIE’s officials still working from home there was almost no one in the office to “walk off the job”!

Apparently, even the picket line was working from home. 

Only the Public Service Association (the union for bureaucrats) would announce a picket line to the media – and then fail to deliver.

Thank God for the Taxpayers’ Union! 

Nicola Willis cements taxpayers with $60m corporate welfare bill 

The Government has agreed to hand Golden Bay Cement up to $60 million to keep a cement plant operating in Whangārei.

Fletcher Building had been considering shutting down local clinker production and switching to imported cement as operating costs rose.

What’s driving those costs, you ask? Well, Nicola Willis needs to save Golden Bay Cement from Nicola Willis’s policies.

The Government is imposing carbon costs that make New Zealand industry uncompetitive, so is now taking money from taxpayers to stop the uncompetitive industry from closing.

Take with one hand, give back with the other – and send taxpayers the bill for both.

As we said when the deal was announced, the ETS should reduce emissions without sacrificing local industry at the altar of net zero — only for taxpayers to fund the rescue.

Golden Bay Cement competes against overseas producers facing different carbon costs.

If the result of New Zealand’s settings is to shut an efficient local plant, import the same cement from overseas, and export the jobs and emissions from our own ledger, that is not serious climate or fiscal policy.

Lack of transparency: What did taxpayers buy? 

Then there is the matter of the agreement itself. As yet, the full terms of the corporate welfare “deal” have not been released.

We say that if taxpayers are footing the bill, they should know what they’re getting. We’ve called for Willis to publicly release the deal.

Failure to deal with the problem: Why have an ETS when other countries aren’t pricing emissions? 

Jordan joined Duncan Garner’s Editor-in-Chief and let rip.

As Jordan said, taking carbon charges from a company with one hand, then handing it a taxpayer-funded rescue package with the other, is a false economy.

The Government cannot fix every company made uncompetitive by its own policies with an individual taxpayer-funded rescue package. A cheque for Golden Bay (i.e. Fletcher Building) politically papers over the much larger crack.

The question politicians should really be asking is whether the Emissions Trading Scheme is still fit for purpose given that it was based on the assumption our trading partners would soon follow and price emissions (which is clearly not happening).

>> Watch the interview on YouTube here   <<

Ratepayers’ billion-dollar art collection 

It turns out ratepayers have unknowingly become the owners of New Zealand’s largest art collection.

Our new report, The Art of the State, reveals that councils collectively own more than $1.12 billion worth of art — but almost two-thirds of it is hidden away in storage, offices, or other places the public cannot access.

And we are not talking about a few dusty prints hanging in the town hall.

Auckland owns a Salvador Dalí. Dunedin owns a Claude Monet. Wellington owns a Pablo Picasso.

And as exposed on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, even Rotorua Council owns some Goldies!

Auckland displays less than 2 percent of its collection, while Hamilton manages just 2.5 percent. Thirteen councils reported having none of their collections on public display at all.

Quite the public collection… if you are lucky enough to work in the storeroom.

To find out what your council owns, what it is worth, and how much of it you are actually allowed to see, click here to read the report over on our website.

Generation Screwed: asking young workers to pay twice? 

Last month, National announced plans to make KiwiSaver compulsory for everyone in work from 2028, automatically enrol every newborn, and steadily increase contribution rates.

Meanwhile, Chris Hipkins has ruled out reforming NZ Super – just two months after claiming Labour was open to a bipartisan conversation about it.

So young New Zealanders are being told to save more for their own retirement while continuing to fund an increasingly expensive universal pension for everyone ahead of them.

Our campus youth group, Generation Screwed felt, well… well and truly screwed.

There is a reasonable argument for encouraging people to save more for retirement.

But you cannot call it retirement reform while refusing to reform the taxpayer-funded pension young workers will also be expected to pay for.

Our Gen Screwed spokesperson Tyler Groenewald argued in The Post that KiwiSaver reform and superannuation reform cannot be treated as separate conversations.

Kicking the NZ Super can down the road might be politically convenient in an election year, but it does not make the cost disappear.

It simply hands a bigger bill to young New Zealanders already dealing with high rents, student debt, and a tax system tilted towards funding promises made long before they entered the workforce.

When Super was set up, there was one recipient for every seven workers. By 2060, when our Gen Screwed kids will be looking to their imminent retirement, that ratio will be just two workers to every recipient.

It’s not unreasonable to expect them to be concerned about what, exactly, will be waiting for them.

Tyler then took the argument to RNZ’s The Panel, explaining why politicians cannot force young people to save more while pretending the looming superannuation crunch does not exist.

Delightfully, one of the RNZ guest panellists is none other than a former Taxpayers’ Union intern! Hi Ev

e 

Taxpayer Talk: Is compulsory KiwiSaver a trap? 

The same question is at the heart of this week’s episode of Taxpayer Talk.

Peter Williams is joined by our Board Chair and former Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, alongside Eric Crampton from the New Zealand Initiative, to unpack National’s compulsory KiwiSaver proposal and New Zealand’s looming superannuation crunch.

Is forcing New Zealanders to save more really the answer?

Or is it simply a way for politicians to avoid the much harder argument about whether universal NZ Super can continue in its current form?

Watch Peter Williams, Ruth Richardson, and Eric Crampton unpack the KiwiSaver trap in this week’s episode of Taxpayer Talk.

That’s all for today, have a great week!

Tory Relf Head of Comms New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

video on Bitchute

and on the topic of that substance–

🚨Study involving 1.7 million children has found that Myocarditis & Pericarditis only appeared in children who had received COVID mRNA vaccines.

Not a single unvaccinated child in the group suffered from these heart-related problems. pic.twitter.com/qa7LWipXkb

— Valerie Anne Smith (@ValerieAnne1970) July 25, 2026

We’ve seen many examples of Leftists waving Islamist flags thinking that they support LGBTQIA+ people when the opposite is the case. Islamists will see them as useful idiots for some of their objectives, but that’s all.

the BBC says

In Germany there is grief, shock and, increasingly, anger about the attack at Berlin Pride on Saturday night which left one Polish woman dead and injured at least 29 others.

The main suspect, Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese heritage, was shot and killed by police on Sunday.

Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Ballout “had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene.”

As details emerge about his criminal convictions, many are asking why Ballout was not in prison.

See more

And there’s this astonishing statement from a LGBT rally participant:

LGBTQ+ activist speaks at a vigil in Berlin a day after the Islamist car-ramming attack against the Berlin Gay Pride Parade:

“I had hoped that the attacker was not a foreigner, but a white Christian person” pic.twitter.com/RlNMDERjFD

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 26, 2026

““When I heard the news that a car had plowed into the Berlin Gay Pride Parade… a man in a car, and what was also shocking to me was that the first thing I thought was: ‘Hopefully it’s not a Kanake, hopefully it’s a white Christian person.’ But it wasn’t. Intersectionality comes into play again. We don’t all face the [same things] inoments like these.”

Vote National, get Labour light?