increase font size
OPINION: Your canine crusader was staggered to learn that an investigation by the Taxpayers' Union has revealed that taxpayers and Otago ratepayers have forked out more than $2.76 million to kill just... 18 wallabies!
That's a kill cost of $153,000 per wallaby and it's taken 26,000 hours of work.
An OIA by the Taxpayers Union revealed this was just one of the 'Jobs for Nature' projects funded by the Government's Covid slush fund.
Labour dreamt up the 'Jobs for Nature' scheme - and allocated it $1.2 billion in funding - as a 'make work' programme when it feared NZ would see mass job losses as a result of the pandemic.
According to the Taxpayers Union, 'Jobs for Nature' has continued to dish out taxpayer money to ineffective 'conservation' projects at an average cost of around $200,000 per 'job'.
No wonder the country is facing massive fiscal problems when the Government develops silly ideas like this!
OPINION: Your canine crusader believes the Taxpayers Union is on to a good thing with its latest campaign to get media outlets who took the previous Labour Government’s ‘bribe’ – sorry taxpayer handout – via the highly controversial and discredited Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF) to pay it back.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is copping flak over its decision to carpet 800 small and remote rural schools with synthetic tiles rather than wool.
The Taxpayers' Union is calling on the Government to prioritise reducing what it calls unnecessary and costly regulations for growers, farmers and businesses impacted by severe weather events earlier this year instead of providing taxpayer-funded handouts.
Environmental work on-farm helps native fish return to streams, that’s what Aparima dairy farmer Ewen Mathieson is discovering.
An Otago farmer has been fined $12,000 and banned from owning cattle for a range of welfare problems contributing to the death of over a dozen cattle.
New Zealand dairy processors are welcoming the Government’s commitment to continuing to push for Canada to honour its trade commitments.
An educational programme, set up by Beef + Land New Zealand, to connect farmers virtually with primary and intermediate school students has reported the successful completion of its second year.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed a resolution adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to declare 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Waikato herd health veterinarian Katrina Roberts is the 2024 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
