Journalist Nicky Hager releases latest book Dirty Work on Taxpayers’ Union

British American Tobacco executives secretly directed campaign work carried out through the Taxpayers’ Union and a company linked to its executive director Jordan Williams, journalist Nicky Hager’s new book alleges.Hager’s latest book, called Dirty Work, focuses on the lobby group the Taxpayers’ Union.Hager told a crowd of hundreds of people who gathered at a launch event in Wellington tonight that the book was an exposé of the “latest front for New Zealand’s hard right”.‘We will not be bullied’In an email to members following the release of Hager’s book, the Taxpayers’ Union wrote that it was “under attack”.The release, attributed to Williams, said Hager’s book directly targeted him and the organisation’s other co-founder David Farrar.Williams alleged Hager failed to put the book’s allegations to them, seek an interview, or give them a chance to respond before publication.Williams said Hager’s book had used “smears, innuendo and private material” to vilify the Taxpayers’ Union for what was ordinary political campaigning.“It is an attempt to do through character assassination what they have failed to do through democratic debate.“We will not be bullied. We will not be silenced. And we will not let them cheat New Zealanders out of hearing our side of the story.”Tobacco campaignIn Dirty Work, Hager claims British American Tobacco external affairs managers Elliot Steel and later Stu Mullin met Taxpayers’ Union (TPU) staff privately, gave instructions and discussed campaign plans.Those involved included Williams and successive TPU campaign managers Louis Houlbrooke, Connor Molloy and, Hager claims, probably Callum Purves. Hager says BAT paid the TPU, which in turn paid Williams’ Campaign Company to produce campaign messages, petitions, advertisements and websites.Molloy later travelled to Panama for the WHO’s 2024 tobacco-control conference, where he promoted lighter regulation of alternative nicotine products and joined the US Taxpayers Protection Alliance at its GoodCOP counter-event.Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams. / Andrew WarnerHoulbrooke later became an Act senior press secretary, Purves is Act’s general manager and party secretary, and Molloy is now Act’s deputy campaign director.Hager told those at the launch event at Unity Books in Wellington that Dirty Work was largely based on insiders; former TPU staffers and National Party members who were “unhappy about the state of New Zealand politics”.Hager pointed to some stories in the book, which included recounting Act leader David Seymour’s becoming what Hager described as “Mr anti-Treaty” and on what he said was a “hit-job” on former 1News political editor Maiki Sherman, who resigned earlier this year.One of the key allegations of Hager’s comments was that the TPU public statements opposing government waste did not reveal the group’s main purpose.He challenged claims that the group had a wide-ranging supporter base, which he alleged were “angry old men in their 70s and 80s and sometimes their late 60s who have bought into their idea and believed their untruths” about the threat of evolving Māori rights.Asking himself why publish a book before the election, Hager said there were two reasons; the first being elections were the time we should be thinking about politics: “What better time?”He then claimed coalition ministers had benefited from the work of groups like the TPU.“They should be held accountable by the public.”Asked during a media stand-up how the book showed links between political parties and lobby groups, Hager claimed there are politicians in all the main right-wing parties that tolerate or collaborate with the TPU.“I don’t think they even realise what a terrible decision they’re making.”Asked what made the TPU’s relationship with parties distinct from other lobby groups’ relationships with parties, Hager claimed there was a “phony, fake, misleading network, a spider’s web” of groups that were “filling up the political space”.“I think that if the Taxpayers’ Union and its key members were looked at critically a lot of their power would disappear.”Hager said he didn’t find explicit instruction from the National Party to TPU over any matters but then claimed it wasn’t necessary because they were aligned.Williams, who also featured in Hager’s 2014 work, Dirty Politics, said the organisation had been targeted specifically because of its success, noting they have built “the largest taxpayer movement in the English-speaking world”.He said in his email to members about two-thirds of donations come from grassroots donors, while less than 3% came from “industry memberships and donations (including alcohol and nictonie) [sic]”.The email repeatedly asked supporters to donate.“The next few days are going to be hard. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But we can’t let him win,” the email ends.Crowds gather at a Wellington book store ahead of the release of investigative journalist Nicky Hager's new book Dirty Work. Photo / Marty MelvilleSpeaking on Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive before the book’s launch, Williams said it’s anyone’s guess as to what Hager’s new book will be about.“This has just snowballed,” Williams said.Conceding that while “it could be” about him or the Taxpayers’ Union, Williams said Hager “has a fixation on anyone who’s successful on the centre-right”.“Who knows? I mean, to be frank, there must be bigger fish to fry, surely.”Crowds gather at Unity Books in Wellington ahead of the release of Nicky Hager's new book.Hacking & Hollow MenIn 2018, the police apologised and paid “substantial damages” to Hager after unlawfully searching his home during the investigation into the hacking that led to the Dirty Politics book.The settlement came almost four years after the publication of Dirty Politics, which alleged the office of former Prime Minister Sir John Key ran a dirty tricks campaign through right-wing bloggers.Hager wrote the book after an anonymous source known only as Rawshark provided information said to have been hacked from Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater. Police launched an investigation into the identity of Rawshark after Slater complained about being a victim of hacking.That complaint led detectives to search Hager’s home on October 2, 2014, taking computers, paperwork and other material. In the settlement that followed, police apologised for a range of breaches of Hager’s rights, including wrongly using an exception in the Privacy Act to access 10 months of Hager’s banking data from Westpac.“This sends a vital message that people can share important information with journalists with confidence that their identities will be protected,” Hager said.Hager’s publications also include 2006’s The Hollow Men and 2011’s Other People’s Wars.Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.