Atlas Network - Plunket, Act and the Tax Payers Union

Yesterday we covered how Oliver Sean Plunket began asking Barry Brill ( Climate denial, Big oil ) if he had ever been part of the Alas Network and how Barry said he had heard of it but he had never been part of it.

Barry chaired a Climate denying think tank founded by several Atlas Network linked people, plus it had directly taken money from one of the Atlas Network funders - the Heartland Institute. Barry had stood for National - and later Act - who had also been involved with Atlas on many levels.

Today Plunket carried on with the denial but with a bigger performance.

On the Platform the Atlas Network is now a massive laugh - a crazy conspiracy theory from the left - now subject to long periods of laughter.

Today Plunket invited David Farrar, co-founder of the Taxpayers Union ( Atlas Network affiliate member ) to talk about that lonely Taxpayers Union Curia poll but first he needed to clear this conspiracy theory up as soon after he had framed a bogus narrative about what the poll told us.

Plunket began by stating that the Curia Taxpayers Atlas Network Poll showed us a significant increase in support for the Act party and how Seymour had knocked the ball out of the park over the Treaty Principles Bill - but then Plunket also added that there have been accusations the poll is part of the Atlas Network - the new conspiracy for left wingers.

If ominous music ever played it would have played then, but it didn’t. Instead it was time for Plunket to commence what looked like a rehearsed fit of forced laughter - HO HO HO.

“Oh I always laugh at this bit “, said Plunket as he overacted the laughter, on and on, yes he nearly wept with tears of laughter.

Finally after the staged operatic theatrics, Plunket asked David Farrar if he was ever part of something called the Atlas Network?

Farrar said individuals don’t join but these conspiracy theories are hilarious, and he went onto minimise the influence by saying Atlas only spent $75,000 in the Asia Pacific last year while Plunket remarked sarcastically that seventy five thousand, that’s a lot of influence.

Farrar continued that Atlas are a federation of think tanks but at the time he setup the Taxpayers Union he had not heard of the Atlas Network and his only reason to do so was cos he heard 100 press releases everyday saying the government was spending more money.

Farrar also said he’d attended one meeting with Atlas in Australia and that they don’t get involved in local issues - like the Voice in Australia.

So this was quite a statement by Farrar trying to maintain his legitimacy and down play the Atlas Network here.

So let’s unpack some of this. On page 103 of Dirty Politics Nicky Hager wrote :

“The Taxpayers union was an idea Farrar got through his IDU ( International Democracy Union ) contacts. He wrote in the National Business Review on the day of the launch that he had been on the youth executive on the IDU where he got to know a British Conservative party activist named Matthew Elliot who cofounded the UK Taxpayers Alliance. Over the years I saw the Taxpayers alliance go from being a volunteer effort to a major political force in the United Kingdom, he wrote. ”

The TPA co-founded by Elliot is part of the Atlas Network and here was Farrar meeting him about setting up the TPU here in NZ. It’s notable that Elliot went onto be at the very nexus of the Vote No campaign in Britain’s Brexit - and Elliott was nominated by Liz Truss for a life peerage in her list of resignation honours....but back to the Taxpayers Union in New Zealand, which kicked off on 30 October 2013.

John Bishop, the father of National Party MP and campaign strategist Chris Bishop, was founding chairman, and Farrar was a board member.

It should be noted Chris Bishop is former lobbyist for Philip Morris, and surprise surprise, the NZ Taxpayers Union accepted funding from British American Tobacco (BAT). In an investigation into the ties between "free-market think tanks" and the tobacco industry, right-wing lobbying group, the NZ Taxpayers’ Union, was identified as being supported by multinational firm British American Tobacco back in 2019.

As you know Casey Costello was a chair for a while at the TPU and the whole thing gets murkier around smoke free, with …Don Brash ( Act ) and her at Hobson’s Pledge. ( side note - The bankroller of Nigel Farage’s Brexit campaign spent most of 2020 in New Zealand, where he became an ardent supporter of Winston Peters and the NZ First Party )

So Act and the TPU are so closely connected …anyway…I digress…but the IDU where all this started was also funded by Big Tobacco and if you look at the dairy and vape campaigns last year, you won’t have to dig far. Don’t forget Luxon’s sister in law.

Jordan Williams, a lawyer, was named executive director of the TPU. He was enmeshed at different times with Act party politics – working as an intern for leader Don Brash, and for Act MP Stephen Franks’ 2008 election campaign. Some commentators like Bryce Edwards have said that basically the TPU is the Act Party in drag…

Stephen Franks appears to be the driving force within Act to change the principles of the Treaty and he wrote about this and participated in panels and voted for deleting the principles around 2005. So there’s close links to Jordan Williams here…on this very topic that his latest poll, and Plunket’s creative wishful narrative is promoting.

On 31 October 2023, David Williams wrote in Newsroom about Jordan Williams and Farrar that …”As a free-market think tank, the Taxpayers’ Union’s principles are clear, and it has declared its association with the global Atlas Network umbrella group.”

Though the Taxpayers’ Union’s accounts are public, its funding sources are not. They typically hide behind an opaque pie chart claiming this big slice is from thousands of small donations…etc.

Its financial statements from last year, made public last month on the Incorporated Societies website, show its income was $2.8 million, $2.6 million of which was from donations.

But wait there’s more, I looked up the money spent in the South Asia Region by the Atlas network in 2021, 2022 and 2023 - and remember how Farrar said it was $75K - well in 2021 it was $436,434 ( East Asian Pacific Oceania ), In 2022 it was $307,750 and in 2023 it was $225,097 plus $75K in NZ and Aussie…which had been separated out last year.

So again things were opaque again - deliberately.

When it comes to when Farrar attended a meeting with the Atlas Network in Australia I am not sure and these matters are for another article.

Usually when Farrar is questioned about polls someone aligned will say he is subject to a code of practice and has a reputation for being among, if not the best pollster in New Zealand.

Plunket trod that ground today.

Today when asked by Plunket about the trend around the Treaty Principles Bill - Farrar referred to his own January poll rather than anyone else's poll - which showed Act rose from 6.3 per cent in December 2023 to 7.8 per cent in January 2024….but now Act is suddenly on 13.7% ha ha.

Oh my it's almost as if Act ran their own poll and made up a cool story.

So in summary, the Atlas Network TPU who are virtually the ACT Party in drag - declared their own favourite party had surged in the polls over a selected issue without any real broader statistical trend, and compared the result to no others except their own.

Jordan Williams who once worked for Act's Stephen Franks, the architect of Act’s position on the Treaty Principals Bill commissioned Farrar to run the poll and Plunket accepted everything Farrar said - as they both laughed at how these conspiracy theories are so hilarious.

The idea Nicky Hager might have written a book on this scared the TPU out of their minds before the election....and even I was sent a message from one of their trolls - saying "we are watching you".

Atlas Network - Plunket, Act and the Tax Payers Union

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