The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that the Ministry for the Environment has handed out $3,839,094 (exc. GST) to environmental NGOs over the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years—without a single report measuring its effectiveness.

Amongst the big winners are the Environmental Defence Society ($377,743) and Forest & Bird ($200,000)—groups that have spent the last two years attacking the Government’s policies in court and the media.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator Rhys Hurley said: “This isn’t environmental protection—it’s a taxpayer-funded activist slush fund.”

“Kiwis don’t fork out their hard-earned money so lobbyists can live off taxpayer handouts. If these groups have real public support, they should stand on their own two feet.”

“The Minister has put a stop to some of this funding—but the real problem is MfE itself. It’s ballooned from 360 staff in 2017 to 939 today. Clearly, they’ve got far too much time and money on their hands.”

“These activist handouts are just the tip of the iceberg. Nicola Willis needs to take an axe to MfE’s funding in the May Budget and slash this bloated bureaucracy back to size.”

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