Thread by @StrayDogNZ

Many people discovered The Taxpayers' Union today after they attempted to criticize the government funding of @davidfarrier & @DylanReeve's critically acclaimed and financially profitable documentary 'Tickled.'

So for the initiated, here's a primer on The TPU.
Thread 🧵

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According to co-founder David Farrer, the 'Union' was established to push back against groups requesting taxpayer money such as The Nurses Organisation, Post Primary Teachers' Association and Amnesty International.

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Co-founder Jordan Williams grew up alongside several ACT MPs including Dr. Don Brash and Stephen Franks.

Political commentator Dr. Bryce Edwards has called The Taxpayers' Union "the ACT Party in drag."

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Despite their ongoing refusal to reveal the sources of their financial backing, British American Tobacco have confirmed they have been paying "a standard annual corporate membership fee" to the TPU for several years.

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TPU have repeatedly opposed increased taxes to cigarettes and pain packaging laws.

Despite this, TPU spokesman Louis Houlbrooke claimed it was not hypocritical to criticize conflicts of interest in the public service because public entities were held to a "special standard."

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Despite vowing they would never take taxpayer support, last year the TPU applied for and received $60,437 from the wage subsidy scheme.

This February, Williams agreed they would pay the subsidy back over a 24 month period.

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Soon after they accepted the wage subsidy, the TPU spent nearly $12,000 on an advertisement allegedly exposing the Auckland Council staff who earn over $250k.

The Council responded calling the list inaccurate and outdated as many of the names had already left.

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Hamilton Councillor Dave Macpherson discovered that over 3 years his Council had received 58 OIA requests from TPU costing $61,364 in staff time.

Macpherson speculated that with nearly 70 councils receiving these "inane or irrelevant" requests, the cost could near 7 figures.

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It's not the first time OIA requests have gotten TPU into trouble.

The lobby group were discovered to have been using false identities to make OIA requests including the name 'Raquel Ray.'

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'Raquel Ray' was a name that had previously been connected to Williams.

The name was used to set up a website backing Judith Collins for the National Party leadership.

The password recovery account linked to Raquel Ray was Williams personal email.

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*uninitiated 🤦

Like Collins, Jordan Williams was also the subject of Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics book, due to his relationship with WhaleOil blogger Cameron Slater.

Williams provided Slater with private information that had been shared in confidence by Colin Craig's press secretary.

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Here are just two of the Taxpayers' Unions' social media posts that have made the news for being insensitive.

The first for appearing to compare the trauma of the Christchurch terror attack with the Ute tax, the second for allegedly making fun of stroke victims.

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TPU co-founder Jordan Williams is also one of the founding council members of the Free Speech Union, set up the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance and appears to be connected to Democracy Action, a pressure group concerned with the amount of "consultation with Māori."

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Despite his position on the council of the Free Speech Union, Lisa Te Morenga claims Williams attempted to get her fired from her work place at the University of Auckland over comments she made against him on Twitter.

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In a (now deleted) tweet, Williams acknowledged he'd had support from Atlas Network, a US NPO that has received funding from Koch family foundations, tobacco company Philip Morris & ExxonMobil.

(Thanks to @Biddy_Sue for this!)

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In April, former ACT Party electoral agent Grant McLachlan lifted the veil on how ACT use astroturfs like the Taxpayers' Union to "masquerade as groups of concerned citizens... while actually pushing the interests of large corporates."

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Ruth Hill's piece on McLachlan looks at the many connections between the Taxpayers' Union and the ACT Party, the latter of which was also once an astroturf, created as a pressure-group to promote Rogernomics in the early 90s.

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Williams argues the TPU isn't a mouthpiece for any party & their funding is from "smaller dollar donations." As of 2019 their coffers stood at $831,848.

Meanwhile they continue to fight tobacco taxes; a position no doubt
favourable to their sponsor British American Tobacco.

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Here's a thread where I've explored the significant number of Taxpayers' Union posts that target government spending on Māori:

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https://twitter.com/StrayDogNZ/status/1399659476471345154?s=19

The Taxpayers' Union have been connected to the Groundswell NZ farmers protest by @nickofnz who revealed that their Mother Of All Protests domain was registered to the TPU.

Just hours after the discovery it was updated to Jordan Williams' The Campaign Company Ltd.

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Like TPU, Groundswell have been criticised for racist anti-Māori messaging.

Ross Townsend, who resigned from Tatua after posting a racist image of Nanaia Mahuta, was the Hamilton co-ordinator for Groundswell protests.

July's protest was overshadowed by racist placards.

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Williams is an Atlas fellowship recipient. Funded by RW donors such as the Koch bros, Atlas give grants to libertarian thinktanks to influence politics.

A key Atlas strategy involves creating networks of groups who can generate a “constant river of commentary” in the news

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An Atlas Network press release claims their NZ partner, The Taxpayers' Union, was instrumental in getting Prime Minister Ardern to dump the idea of a capital gains tax through their #AxeThisTax campaign in 2019.



/23 atlasnetwork.org/articles/nztu-…

Taxpayers' Union co-founder Jordan Williams is accused of a conflict of interest for his role in Leo Molloy's mayoral campaign.

Williams' The Campaign Company is producing Molloy's social media content while TPU's David Farrar owns the Curia market research company Molloy uses.

TPU is soliciting donations through racist dog-whistles about Three Waters:

"[In] an attempt to gaslight you, Mahuta's Panel literally claim that these recommendations are to "strengthen democracy". Imposing co-governance does not increase democracy."

https://twitter.com/AotearoaSam/status/1586875689428320257?t=GRGUw2CZO9F9NBg9nHhvPw&s=19