Dirty Work: What Nicky Hager Claims About the Taxpayers' Union
Nicky Hager has released Dirty Work, an investigation into the Taxpayers' Union, weeks before the 2026 general election.
The full title is Dirty Work: The Taxpayers' Union and New Zealand's Hard Right, as reported at its Wellington launch The Post. Hager described the Taxpayers' Union as "the latest front for New Zealand's radical right" RNZ.
Hager argues the group used anti-Māori rhetoric to win political support, especially in its Stop Three Waters campaign. He links that campaign to a wider plan on the right. He also describes Hobson's Pledge, set up by Don Brash, as a sister organisation to the Taxpayers' Union. The Taxpayers' Union was founded by Jordan Williams and David Farrar.
At the centre of the book is a claim about the 2023 election. Hager claims the Taxpayers' Union ran a multi-million-dollar campaign that helped push the 2023 election to the right. In his account, ACT leader David Seymour and National leader Christopher Luxon turned toward anti-Māori rhetoric to pick up votes.
Hager called Dirty Work the third part of a trilogy that began with The Hollow Men. It has also been described as a follow-up to his 2014 book. The title and topic were kept secret before the launch Stuff. The launch was held in Wellington on a Tuesday. Hundreds of people attended the launch event NZ Herald. The timing was flagged in advance as weeks before the 2026 general election.
Taxpayers' Union co-founder Jordan Williams said Hager did not put the allegations to the group or ask for an interview before publication. That response was reported on 22 September 2026. The central claims have not been tested against the organisation's account.
The broader context here is timing and process. Under MMP — our proportional system where parties often need partners to govern — a Hager book in the last weeks is a familiar test for the Press Gallery. Campaigns by third parties, groups that try to influence voters without standing candidates themselves, and long book investigations leave little time for checking, reply and scrutiny by MPs. Party leaders must decide quickly whether to respond or dismiss them.
Looking at what this means for the campaign, much will turn on documents. Hager's past books have stood or fallen on leaked papers and paper trails. On the facts released so far, the argument rests on the size of the spending, the claimed coordination around Stop Three Waters and Hobson's Pledge, and the claimed link to how Seymour and Luxon positioned themselves in 2023. Those are questions of electoral law, party strategy and internal records. They call for close reading rather than quick judgment. The lack of pre-publication reply, as described by Williams, will also shape how newsrooms handle the claims. It puts weight on independent checks before polling day.
