Austerity salesman Jordan Williams stumbles over donors as Nicky Hager’s mystery book looms

Video: Jack Tame questions Jordan Williams about Nicky Hager’s new mystery book, international donations and the Taxpayers’ Union’s funding transparency. (Courtesy of Q+A / TVNZ)

OPINION: Nicky Hager’s new mystery book launches September 22, and Jordan Williams has already faced the question hanging over his organisation. Does he have reason to believe he or the Taxpayers’ Union will be its subject?

On Q+A, Jack Tame put that question directly. Williams replied, “I think your guess is as good as mine,” before moving into a defence of the Union’s effectiveness and its campaign for smaller government.

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Image: Before Nicky Hager's new mystery book lands, the questions were put to Jordan Williams. Jack Tame pressured Williams on whether the Taxpayers’ Union could feature in Hager’s mystery release on September 22. (Q+A / TVNZ)

When Tame asked whether Hager had contacted him, Williams answered, “No, no, no, no.” He said he understood Hager had contacted former staff and insisted he was not worried.

Those answers do not establish what Hager has written.

Unity Books says copies and interviews will be unavailable until the launch in Wellington. Any claim that Williams faces a particular revelation would outrun the evidence.

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What we can judge is the accountability offered during the interview, including the donor discussion preceding the Hager questions.

Image: Jordan Williams introduces Atlas Network during Jack Tame’s questions about overseas donors, then qualifies his answer on corporate support with “as far as I’m aware” (Q+A / TVNZ)

Asked generally about international donors, Williams brought up Atlas Network himself without question. After, Tame made clear he was asking generally. Williams then said he was unaware of non-New Zealand donors before identifying one with a Queenstown house, whose contribution he described as immaterial.

On international corporations, repeated denials became an assurance that corporate or industry members had New Zealand operations, qualified by “as far as I’m aware”. That answers a different question from whether those organisations are internationally owned.

The repetitions, qualifications and backtracking read as a fumbling defence. They do not prove dishonesty, but they leave his accountability claims open to challenge.

Williams said most funding came from small donations, defended donor privacy and promised voluntary transparency. Those expectations do not make further scrutiny unreasonable.

The questionable position is demanding searching accountability from government while asking the public to accept limited disclosure about those financing a campaign to reshape it.

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Working people should reject the assumption that a lobby group’s priorities represent every taxpayer. Nurses, teachers and pensioners also pay tax, and their stake in properly funded services deserves more weight than slogans about shrinking the hostile state.

Anyone with critical thinking skills should demand disclosure of Taxpayers’ Union donors and challenge spending cuts on their consequences for ordinary households.

Political influence warrants scrutiny even when no unlawful conduct is alleged.

Hager’s mystery book must stand or fall on its evidence. The interview already supplies a clear test for Williams.

If the Union wants authority in debates over our collective wealth, it should give the public clearer information about the financial support behind its arguments and political campaigns.

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