Former Taxpayers’ Union Youth Leader Seeks University Council Seat

Despite his right-wing political connections, Arie Joe’s campaign for a seat on the University Council prominently features the branding of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Joe’s candidacy has also brought attention to his Save Our Clubs campaign, his admitted use of pirated analysis software, and a domain registration bearing his name for an invite-only men’s club.

Arie Joe, a former Wellington president of the Taxpayers’ Union youth wing (Generation Screwed) is running for a vacant seat on Te Herenga Waka’s governing University Council. 

Joe is best known for leading Save Our Clubs, a campaign opposed to VUWSA administering university clubs.

As part of the Save Our Clubs campaign, Joe says he pirated the i2 Analyst’s Notebook (alongside other software), which is marketed as a visual-analysis tool for crime and fraud investigations and estimated to cost over thousands of dollars per year. Joe used this software to extract the VUW email addresses of students involved in clubs without their knowledge.

Joe started the Save Our Clubs campaign while president of Generation Screwed Wellington, the youth wing of the Taxpayers’ Union. 

While it describes itself as “grass-roots,” the Taxpayers’ Union is widely considered to be a right-wing pressure group, which in recent years has spearheaded political campaigns against the Three Waters reforms and co-governance among other issues. 

In his 2014 book Dirty Politics, an expose of right-wing attack politics, investigative journalist Nicky Hager described the Taxpayers’ Union as operating “in effect, as an arm’s-length ally of the National Party,” and called it a “political tool.” 

It is headed by conservative lawyer and activist Jordan Williams, who himself featured prominently in Dirty Politics.

Generation Screwed was founded by and is “overseen” by the Taxpayers’ Union and its staff.

Joe has since stepped down from Generation Screwed. 

“A few weeks after I launched Save Our Clubs, I stepped down because I thought it was the right thing to do,” Joe said. “I didn't want to bring Save Our Clubs or Generation Screwed into re-dispute.” 

Despite serving as Wellington president, Joe characterised his role in the organisation as limited.

“I was only there for a few months. I just ran a few events and booked rooms for them [Generation Screwed] and whatnot. That was about it. That’s why I left, because I found it boring.”

Joe also previously contracted for Jordan Williams’ digital marketing firm The Campaign Company, but removed this from his LinkedIn profile after the start of his Council campaign. He says this removal was because his work for The Campaign Company wasn’t relevant.

“The project was generating handwriting using artificial intelligence so they could write christmas cards.

“I’ve worked on a number of AI models. Some of them aren’t public, but that one is. But I did that on a contract basis and I haven’t done any work for them since last year.” 

Despite his right-wing political connections, Joe’s University Council campaign has attracted attention for branding resembling that used by Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York City.

Joe said he encountered Mamdani’s campaign material while looking for design ideas and was not previously familiar with him.

“I found out about Mandami [sic] when I was going through banners to get design ideas from,” said Joe. “It’s actually the first time I found out about Mamdani [sic]. I don’t really follow American politics.”

“It wasn’t an outright copy. A lot of the colours are quite different, but the fonts are similar.” 

Mamdani and Joe’s branding both prominently feature blue and orange.

Asked if using the style of a well known socialist could confuse students as to what Joe’s views are, Joe rejected “the idea that a visual reference says anything about who I am or what I stand for.” 

Joe’s name also appears in the registration details for the website of the “Pipitea Club.” The invite-only organisation describes itself as “a private dining society for male students at Victoria University of Wellington.”

Although the club’s website does not list its members or organisers, the Domain Name Commission records listed the domain as belonging to an Arie Joe of Lower Hutt.

Joe initially refused to comment on what his affiliation with the Pipitea Club is. However he later contacted Salient to say the domain registration records had been updated. 

The pipitea.nz domain is now registered to an A. E. Joe based in Dorset, United Kingdom.  

In his candidate statement, Joe describes himself as “visible, prepared, and willing to challenge decisions that make student life harder.”

Voting for a student representative on the University Council is open from Monday 10 August to Friday 14 August.