Good on the Herald for publishing this — the Stuffers certainly wouldn’t.
Derek Cheng, senior journalist at the NZ Herald has “unearthed” a Cabinet paper from March 2022 that reveals that HIPKINS knew the ‘unnecessary risk’ for teens getting the Covid jab – as early as 20 December 2021.
Why? Because Hipkins WROTE the paper, and it was shared with his Cabinet colleagues in a Cabinet Social Wellbeing Committee meeting.
[NB. Derek Cheng is the reporter who asked THAT “yip yip” question – noted on page 110 of Heart of the Protest]
Derek asked Hipkins for an interview, he declined.
Derek asked Ashley Bloomfield for an interview, and whether he “recalled the CV TAG’s December advice.” Bloomfield also declined to answer, saying: “I’m not doing any interviews in response to the [Royal Commission’s] report.” Is Sir Ashley too busy meditating away guilty thoughts?
The current government Ministers did speak to Derek though, and are asking why the FAILED Royal Commission Phase 2 did not catch this paper themselves? Good question!
Simon Watts says “You get paid to read your Cabinet papers”. He said parents should be very upset. And that Hipkins is “accountable.” So the question is: What does ACCOUNTABILITY look like when you are talking about injured children, Simon???
Hipkins knew: “The risk of transmission among under 18 year olds were insufficient to justify mandating a two dose schedule in order to work in any environment.”
Not just the ‘work environment.’ Why do they always conveniently forget about the VACCINE PASS which prevented unjabbed teenagers from going to sports, gyms, libraries, pools, camps, going out with their friends.
Derek reports a little bit on the fraction of children that were injured, despited it being known they were at ZERO risk of hospitalisation or death, nor were they little vectors of transmission:
“For the 10-19 age group, there were 33 cases over this period following a second or third dose of the Covid vaccine: 17 for myocarditis, 16 for pericarditis (inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart).”
Share the article, subscribe even, let NZ Herald know you approve of keeping these stories alive with some almost decent investigation — Derek still hasn’t gone far enough though,
It’s been another busy week in the Wellington bubble: the fuel crisis has dominated, but, unfortunately, we’ve yet again uncovered more creative ways they’re wasting your tax dollar.
And just to add to the drama, a new Fiscal Reality Check for New Zealand. Buckle in.
The $30k taxpayer-funded pro-Palestinian campaign in Christchurch
Our Investigations Coordinator Rhys has uncovered that $30,000 of taxpayer money was used to fund pro-Palestinian billboards in Christchurch accusing Israel of genocide.
Now, it’s not the role of the Taxpayers’ Union to take a view on international affairs – we know our supporters will have varied views on this complex issue! But there’s one thing that unites us all: the apolitical Ethnic Communities Development Fund should absolutely NOT be funding blatantly political billboards like these…
“The fund’s own rules say it does not support political objectives, yet this application was approved within days, with a Ministry advisor even helping tweak it to get over the line.”
The story was listed in the Jerusalem Post’s Antisemitism section – although crickets from the New Zealand media…
As I said, taxpayers’ views will certainly differ on the Palestine issue. But do taxpayers really fund Wellington to funnel money into foreign affairs-related political campaigns? We think not.
And there’s more…
The deeper we dug, the more bizarre the spending. The same “Ethnic Communities Development Fund” is as loose as a goose.
Given the Government already has multiple agencies funding and advising on community development, social cohesion, and diversity, why not simply wind up these demographic ministries?
It means you can see what’s actually happening, not just what Government officials want you to be told.
Right now, diesel stocks are sitting a few days above the Government’s “Minimum Stock Obligation” threshold. That’s reassuring — but far from comfortable.
MBIE does mea culpa on fuel stock misinformation screw-up ️
On Thursday the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) had a real nightmare, putting out three different versions, sorry, “clarifications” of the data released the previous day!
Fortunately, we didn’t rely on MBIE’s wayward website updates – we could see they were wrong as we have been using live AIS (GPS tracking) data of shipping to inform our models.
And so we were proved right! The highly respected political insider (subscriber only) Politik Newsletter by veteran Wellington journalist Richard Harman didn’t hold back:
The role of the Taxpayers’ Union is to promote transparency and accountability.
Right now, the fuel supply chain information is by far the most important economic statistic for businesses and households to plan ahead.
A lesson from COVID was not to ignore “The Wisdom of Crowds“. In this case, the crowds (like our Fuel Clock) have been more accurate and transparent than the government source.
Every household now carries a staggering $140,000 share of central government debt, up from just $29,000 in 2008.
And it’s still climbing…
And worse still, there isn’t a single surplus forecast for the rest of the 2020s.
Not one.
Wellington is borrowing year after year just to keep the lights on, with no credible plan to bring the books back into balance.
More debt, less prosperity
This isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; it’s hitting New Zealanders’ standard of living.
New Zealand hasn’t balanced the books since 2019, and instead of recovering after COVID, the Government has kept spending more than it earns.
At the same time, the economy is going backwards, with Kiwis now worse off than they were just two years ago.
So while the country racks up more debt, households are getting poorer. The most immediate impact of these numbers is on interest.
In just five years, the average household’s share of government interest costs has jumped from about $1,000 to over $4,200 a year — and that too is still rising.
By 2030, the government will be spending more on interest than on schools, Police, and justice combined.
Meanwhile, the size of government has ballooned and borrowing is increasingly being used to fund day-to-day spending.
Our chief policy wonk James danced a jig this week (not literally, although I do think it would make a good fundraiser) because the amendment canning the Nosey Parker clause finally passed in Parliament.
The excitingly-named Section 17GB allowed IRD to demand information from taxpayers (regardless of how private or personal) for purposes well beyond working out someone’s tax liability.
We’ve been fighting the provision since 2022: it allowed the tax department to go on fishing expeditions and demand information even if it had nothing to do with working out someone’s tax liability.
After thousands of taxpayers signed our petition to can the clause, we’re delighted that it’s finally, officially off the statute books. IRD is there to administer tax – no more, no less.
Nice one, Revenue Minister Simon Watts.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Tory Relf Head of Comms New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union
These can be inspected/downloaded as pdf files here.
By far the biggest spender was Mayor Holborow (above) who spent nearly 4 times what the runner-up in the mayoral race, Rob McCann, did. The next biggest spender was Liz Koh, who only came third, below.
Her total didn’t translate so much into votes, however, showing that some investigation into what works best is needed. It also shows that name recognition itself isn’t enough, you need to convince voters by what you want to do.
Some candidates spent nothing and others very little.
As everyone knows, she’s not very bright, was out of her depth nearly the whole time she was making any public statement and was on the booze. It would have been easy for the Deep State War Machine to have convinced her — just as they have Trump — to go ahead with this hare-brained war.
We were told the vaccine would stop COVID. It didn't. Billions of people took it based on that promise. My End the Vaccine Carveout Act strips Big Pharma of its special liability shield, so Americans who were harmed can finally hold Big Pharma accountable in court. https://t.co/ieKlKhWwWE
There is a creeping trend that should concern every New Zealander — and I need your help to do something about it.
Government agencies, and the public servants who staff them, are abandoning political neutrality — making communication decisions based on ideology rather than independent analysis. In an election year, this isn’t just poor judgment — it’s a threat to democratic accountability.
The Courts of New Zealand had 6,200 followers on X. They walked away, set up on Bluesky, and now have around 300. That’s a 95% drop in reach for official court information.
No explanation. No cost-benefit analysis. No ministerial sign-off.
And they’re not the only ones. A growing number of government agencies have quietly abandoned X, a platform used by over half a million New Zealanders, without telling anyone why.
“I call on the New Zealand Government to commit to politically neutral, transparent, and accountable government communications. Government agencies should meet New Zealanders where they are, not where public servants prefer them to be.”
This isn’t about X, it’s about political neutrality in an election year.
This isn’t about X. And it isn’t about Elon Musk. It isn’t about whether you personally like or dislike any platform.
This is about a fundamental principle: government agencies must be politically neutral.
Public servants don’t get to choose their audience based on which platform feels ideologically comfortable.
Their job is to reach all New Zealanders — not just the ones on platforms Wellington approves of.
Look at the pattern. The Labour Party left X. The Greens left X. National, ACT and NZ First stayed. And now, one by one, government agencies — agencies that are supposed to be impartial – are following the same political trend. The courts, of all institutions, should not be seen picking sides.
When an agency walks away from a major platform, the vacuum doesn’t stay empty. It fills with unofficial commentary, misinformation, and mischaracterisation.
Withdrawal doesn’t protect the public. It abandons them.
And here’s the kicker — emergency services still use X. Because it works. So why do other agencies think they can do less?
We’re in an election year. New Zealanders go to the polls on 7 November. Access to accurate, neutral government information has never mattered more. This is exactly the wrong time for agencies to be retreating from where people actually are.
Here’s what we’re doing about it.
We’re not just talking. We’re acting:
We’ve written to the Minister for Courts, Hon. Nicole McKee, demanding to know who authorised this decision and on what basis. We’re lodging Official Information Act requests with key agencies – asking when the decision was made, who signed off, what analysis was done, and whether political risk was a factor. And we’ve launched a petition calling on the Government to commit to politically neutral, transparent, and accountable communications.
2. Share it. Forward this email. Post the link on socials. Send it to anyone who believes the public service should serve the public — all of it.
This is a line-in-the-sand moment.Either government agencies answer to the people who fund them, or they answer to the political preferences of whoever happens to be running the comms team. We know which one it should be.
Public servants don’t get to pick their audience. Let’s make sure they hear that — loud and clear.
Ersatz: (German) substitute, replacement, but it is frequently used in English to describe lower-quality alternatives like synthetic food or fake materials.
“NZ may soon need to use ersatz petrol and diesel if the Iran war doesn’t end quickly.”
