Taxpayer Talk

Jordan Williams sits down with Simon Watts, Minister of Local Government, for a frank conversation on the Government’s local government reforms.

From scrapping Three Waters and introducing rates caps to co-governance in water entities, councillor access to information, unelected committee members, and council amalgamations, this episode puts the Minister under pressure on whether National has really delivered the accountabilit...

This week, Jordan is joined by Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform and the man behind the original Taxpayer Protection Pledge, to talk about how a simple promise not to raise taxes became one of the most powerful forces in American conservative politics.

With both National and ACT campaigning on no new taxes, Grover explains how voters can turn a slogan into a commitment politicians are afraid to break. From George ...

Te Pāti Māori’s call for supporters to split their votes has put one of MMP’s strangest quirks back in the spotlight: overhang seats, strategic voting, and whether parties can game the system to change who forms the next government.

Jordan Williams is joined by Oliver Hartwich from the New Zealand Initiative to unpack what it all means, why the strategy could backfire, and whether New Zealand’s electoral system is ...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by broadcaster-turned-ACT candidate Paul Henry for a lively, wide-ranging conversation on the campaign, the state of the centre-right, and why he thinks this election is too important to sit out.

From ACT’s push for smaller government and lower taxes to superannuation reform, Treaty politics, immigration, and the future of taxpayer-funded media, Henry makes the case fo...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by ACT’s infrastructure and resource management spokesman Simon Court to take aim at the planning rules he says are stopping New Zealand from building the homes, roads, ports, quarries, power lines, and infrastructure we desperately need.

From eye-watering consent costs and “cultural shakedowns” to lizard surveys, gold-plated planning rules, and councils bl...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by ACT Leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour for a wide-ranging pre-election interview on coalition tensions, regulatory overreach, free speech, KiwiSaver, Treaty politics, and ACT’s record in Government.

From “political neutrality” rules for regulators and the Ministry of Regulation’s war on red tape, to compulsory savings, bond markets, the...

Jordan is fresh out of the Budget 2026 lockup and joined by economist Cam Bagrie to unpack whether the Government’s numbers really stack up.

They warn the Budget is heavy on promises, light on proof, and may rely too much on inflation, backloaded savings, and heroic assumptions to get back to surplus. From rising borrowing costs and “promise-enomics” to the demographic time bomb of superannuation and healthcare, th...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by Nick Clark from the New Zealand Initiative and Jordan Williams (Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director) to break down the Government’s plan to slash New Zealand’s 78 local authorities down to as few as 15.

They explain why bigger councils do not necessarily mean lower rates, better services, or fewer bureaucrats — and why amalgamation could actually m...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by former Finance Minister and Taxpayers’ Union Chair Ruth Richardson for a no-holds-barred warning about New Zealand’s worsening fiscal mess.

From exploding debt and runaway interest costs to bloated bureaucracy, superannuation reform, and a Government that still hasn’t found its “brave pills”, Ruth lays out why the country may be sleepwalking ...

Why did New Zealand’s education system "turn to custard" in 1971? In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, host Peter Williams sits down with Professor Elizabeth Rata to explore how the nation moved from a world-class, knowledge-rich curriculum to one dominated by "social constructivism" and "learnification”.

Elizabeth also lifts the lid on how the rejection of liberalism and nation-building has failed several generations of Ki...

In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams sits down with Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of the New Zealand Initiative, to discuss why he believes the country’s public service is "fundamentally broken" and incompatible with implementing good policy.

Oliver explains how the 1988 reforms inadvertently created a  state where department heads are more beholden to the Public Service Commissioner than their own minis...

What if the world is actually getting better — and we just can't see it? In this episode, host Jordan Williams sits down with Marian Tupy, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and founder of HumanProgress.org, to challenge the doom and gloom dominating today's headlines. Drawing on his books Super Abundance and 10 Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know, Tupy makes a data-driven case that life expectancy, poverty, child m...

Our latest Taxpayers’ Union–Curia poll sent Wellington into a frenzy at the beginning of March. But in this week’s Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams sits down with Curia founder - and Taxpayers’ Union co-founder - David Farrar to separate the signal from the spin.

Are polls actually driving political decisions, or just measuring them? And why do politicians pay attention, even when they ignore the results?

David l...

The New Zealand Initiative Chair Roger Partridge joins Taxpayer Talk with Peter Williams to discuss a new report arguing New Zealand could unlock more than $24 billion for essential infrastructure by recycling mature Crown-owned commercial assets.

Roger explains how redirecting capital tied up in government-owned companies such as Air New Zealand, Kiwibank and the mixed ownership electricity generators could help fund hospitals, sch...

Federated Farmers National Board member Mark Hooper joins Taxpayer Talk with Peter Williams to critique the government’s "deeply flawed" replacement of the Resource Management Act with the Natural Environment Bill and the Planning Bill.

Mark walks Peter through why the new framework fails to deliver a faster, cheaper, better system, arguing that a predicted 46% reduction in consents is insufficient and warning that farmers cou...

Author David Cohen joins Jordan Williams for a no-holds-barred chat about his new book, Jacinda: The Untold Story. Billed as a refreshingly un-mushy take on Jacinda Ardern’s premiership, David drew on hundreds of interviews to cut through the PR gloss and media fawning. His verdict? Ardern was a talented brand manager, powered by what he calls a “missionary zeal” — but that communications-first style came at...

This week on Taxpayer Talk, Jordan is joined by international consultant Rowan Pike, a former Australian Federal Police officer and Customs and Border Force expert, to unpack the explosive rise of illicit tobacco in Australia.

With around half of all cigarettes now sourced from the black market, Rowan reveals how sky-high excise taxes have fuelled organised crime, gang violence, and a thriving underground trade. Drawing on his front...