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Wellington taxpayers have spent $ 92,000 to make their council a member of a libertarian think tank that has argued against everything from child-centered learning to raising the minimum wage.
It was most recently in the news that its editor-in-chief, who has since left, was revealed to be running a far-right blog targeting Muslims and Jews.
Wellington City Council was a member of the New Zealand Initiative (NZI) until March 2020, when Barbara McKerrow became the council’s executive director and decided that the think tank did not align with the current administration’s policy, she said. council spokeswoman Victoria Barton. -Chapter.
The last annual installments were $ 23,000.
NZI CEO Oliver Hartwich said the council had been a member of former council executive director Kevin Lavery, who signed up for membership in 2016. He confirmed that it was the only council in the country to be a member.
With an annual fee of $ 23,000, the council spent $ 92,000 on membership.
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The council kept its membership for the current year, but was given a year off to pay annual dues, Hartwich said.
Barton-Chapple said that was wrong: “We are not members.”
This news comes as Wellington taxpayers face steep increases as his council faces millions of dollars in costs to repair old and faulty pipes, work to update the central library and the Let’s Get Wellington Moving project.
Rosa Woods / Stuff
Kevin Lavery signed on to the council as a member in the mid-2010s, says the NZ Initiative.
Hartwich said Lavery liked the work the NZI was doing on “localism,” arguing that the central government was collecting a disproportionate amount of taxes compared to city councils, which were bundled with an unfair cost burden.
NZI was formed after the 2012 merger of the Business Roundtable and the New Zealand Institute.
He was recently in trouble over his editor-in-chief’s racist blog posts. The Newsroom website reported that Nathan Smith ran a far-right blog attacking Muslims and Jews and upholding the incel ideology, which refers to someone who is “unintentionally celibate” and is often associated with hateful views of women. .
Robert Kitchin
Former Mayor Justin Lester confirmed he was not aware of the NZ Initiative members.
Hartwich said he and his colleagues were stunned by the discovery, and that he had not been aware of the blog, which was written under a pseudonym. Smith had since resigned.
Justin Lester, whose Wellington mayoralty began in late 2016, said he was unaware of NZI membership and felt that it is “not a good use of taxpayer funds.”
Her predecessor, Celia Wade-Brown, said that enrollment would have been within Lavery’s authority, but the majority of the memberships were voted on by the council.
“I don’t think elected members have ever been asked about the NZ Initiative,” he said.
Councilor Rebecca Matthews learned of the membership when NZI’s 2019 annual report was released in December.
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Councilwoman Rebecca Matthews said it was strange that it was decided just this year that the Institute’s views did not align with those of the council.
He said he was told the council was abandoning its membership because NZI’s right-wing stance did not align with that of the current administration.
But the timing made little sense, he said: Lester was with the Labor Party and Wade-Brown was aligned with the Green Party, although he ran as an independent.
It was unusual for a council to be a member of any grassroots organization, regardless of its position on the political spectrum, he said. “I would not expect us to join the [socialist] Fabians. “
Councilwoman Fleur Fitzsimons said the council should not belong to private interest think tanks. “Our duty is to listen to the residents and weigh what is best for Wellington.”
Lavery declined to comment. Mayor Andy Foster could not be reached for comment.
