I think what is most shocking about the revelations in Nicky Hager’s new book, Dirty Work, is the way he describes the Taxpayers’ Union triggering a wave of racism through its anti-3 Waters campaign, and then becoming so addicted to the money and subscriptions that followed that it couldn’t stop playing up to that racism. Nicky highlights how the political narrative gets set by the right and the terrible racism that they reward. He dives into the behind-the-scenes incentives that he says were driving the Taxpayers’ Union’s frenetic and race-baiting 3 Waters campaign. According to Nicky’s book, whenever the Taxpayers’ Union published an unflattering image of Nanaia Mahuta alongside claims about Māori “stealing the water”, it received huge donations and subscriptions. For much of its existence, no one had cared about the Taxpayer's Union. They were a bunch of right wing rich kids putting out press releases about overspending on arts that no one cared about. They were a joke looking for a punchline. But Nicky’s book, based on testimony from insiders at the Taxpayers’ Union, argues that when they leaned into attacks on Nanaia and race-based rhetoric, they triggered a wave of support that they became addicted to. Nicky’s book connects the dots. I’m the first to acknowledge Labour didn’t do a good enough job of selling 3 Waters. We just didn’t believe people genuinely thought 3 Waters was some secret plot to steal the water. We knew the cost of water infrastructure would be high for ratepayers, that's why we tried to universalise and lower those costs. The irony that people are now being hit with costs higher than what our 3 Waters reforms would have cost is bitter for everyone. The Taxpayers' Union built its influence on playing to racism, and that type of pandering to the worst parts of our psyche should be shunned and called out, it shouldn't be rewarded! 3 Waters wasn’t a secret agenda for Māori to steal the water. It was a way of recognising Māori interests in water while lowering the cost of water infrastructure. But Nicky’s book argues that the Taxpayers’ Union made so much money from frightening older, rural Pākehā voters with images of Nanaia that it couldn’t stop returning to the same prejudice over and over again. We need to see the Taxpayers' Union for what they really are.