The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union has congratulated Todd Muller on his successful bid for the National Party leadership.

Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, "It is to Todd Muller’s credit that he is one of the few MPs to have taken a pay cut – in his case of over $600,000 a year – to enter Parliament, having left a high-powered position at Fonterra. He is a person who is clearly motivated by public service rather than raiding the taxpayer’s wallet."

"He is one of the few MPs who has paid more tax in this life than he has taken out of the system, unlike most Labour MPs and sadly many National MPs."

"We will be seeking a meeting with Mr Muller to get a sense of his policy priorities, particularly with respect to taxation and spending. Under Simon Bridges, National made a number of taxpayer-friendly policy commitments and we are keen to ensure these commitments remain in place."

Co-incidentally, the Taxpayers' Union sat down with Todd Muller for a podcast interview just a few days before he announced his leadership bid. He described himself as "broadly socially conservative, and from an economic perspective reasonably liberal", and discussed his upbringing, career, and the political challenges of bridging the urban-rural divide.

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Gordon Campbell: On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza

Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...

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