Responding to news that the State Services Commissioner will be examining Inland Revenue’s inclusion of political questions in a public survey, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says:

“This is a strong response from the Minister, and ought to send a message to all taxpayer-funded agencies. Bureaucrats shouldn’t use public money to play politics.”

“The Commissioner’s investigation of Inland Revenue must also examine the agency’s decision to pay urban lifestyle blog The Spinoff $40,000 to for the ‘Tax Heroes’ article series, which advocated for a capital gains tax and argued that ‘tax is love’. Inland Revenue is in a unique constitutional position that requires it to live up to a higher than usual apolitical standard. Clearly it is failing.”

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