NationBuilder

I wanted to touch base with you regarding yesterday’s appalling news. Grant Robertson wants you to believe that we should be breaking out the champagne to celebrate that he has only increased New Zealand’s deficit to $9.7 billion. That’s $4,830 amount per household – money we will need to pay back – for this year alone.

The General Election isn’t far away and Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson have already started their campaign to try and convince voters they are best to handle the economy during the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

, I’m emailing to ask for your support so the Taxpayers’ Union can hold the Government to account, build our election fund, and avoid this once-in-a-generation threat to New Zealand’s prosperity.

I’m sure you’ll agree with what the Taxpayers’ Union team pointed out in the media yesterday: Celebrating a $5.1 Billion increase on New Zealand’s deficit because it wasn’t quite as bad as expected, is like being grateful for a slap in the face because it wasn’t a punch! (I’ve copied the full media release below).

But Grant Robertson doesn’t get it

Instead of doing the fiscally responsible thing, he has decided to double down, and despite the lifting of pandemic, the New Zealand Government has spent $17 billion – $8,590 per household – more than in 2021!

Most of that is borrowed money from hard-working New Zealanders. Unless we act now, , it’ll be our children and future generations who will be burdened with Grant’s debt and will have no choice but to pick up the pieces.

Only a strong Taxpayers’ Union are prepared and ready to do what the media (and Opposition) ought to be and hold this fiscally irresponsible Government to account.

, are you able to support the Taxpayers’ Union in holding this Government to account?

Continuing to expose Government waste is the only way to expose what’s really going on

As our friends in the United Kingdom have discovered: it is very difficult to cut taxes until you tackle out of control spending. That’s why I’m counting on you, , to invest in the Taxpayers’ Union to fight on your behalf for smarter, efficient and transparent government spending.

With no sense of irony Mr Robertson attacks National and ACT for so-called ‘unfunded tax cuts’. But the media fail to mention that he is the architect of debt, overseeing record unfunded spending.

Here are some examples that could be used to ease our record debt right now:

Scrapping the health reforms creating a separate “Māori Health Authority” – rearranging and employing more bureaucrats never resulted in better health outcomes.
Scrapping Three Waters. It’s becoming blindingly obvious that the proposed co-governed Three Water entities are going to be even worse than the councils they replace.
Scrap the new ‘super media’ entity to merge Radio NZ and TVNZ – where the government proposes to spend $327m to merge two entities worth just $363m!

, unlike Grant Robertson, the Taxpayers’ Union cannot print money and leave our children’s generation to deal with the mess, that’s why the Taxpayers’ Union is counting on your support today, to continue its work shining a light on wasteful government spending, advocating for fiscal responsibility and fighting for hard-working taxpayers like you.

Every dollar you donate will help us with that work to hold this hypocritical government to account.

Thank you for your support.

PS. In case you missed it, the Taxpayers’ Union was calling out the elephant in the room while the media lapped up the Government’s spin about the Government books released yesterday.

Addicted to spending? Government taking and spending more

“To celebrate a $5.1 Billion increase on New Zealand’s deficit because it wasn’t quite as bad as expected, is like being grateful for a slap in the face because it wasn’t a punch,” says Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager Callum Purves.

“The Government’s increased spending is concerning enough given the impact it has on inflation and cost of living, but when you take into account that they taxed New Zealanders an additional $10.5 Billion on top of that the picture gets even worse.”

“Life is tough at the moment for many New Zealanders so for the Government to be raking in more of Kiwis’ cash via taxes and then spending it in an inflationary manner, is a double kick in the guts.”

“Covid-19 presented governments with increased spending pressures and we don’t begrudge the necessary spending that occurred. However, we don’t need to whip out the receipts from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund to remind Kiwis that a lot of that extra spending was utterly wasteful.”

“Rather than spending Kiwis’ hard-earned money on wasteful projects such as Three Waters and the new public media entity, New Zealanders deserve tax relief. Tax cuts are less inflationary than government spending so Kiwis benefit not only from having more money in their pockets but also from easing the cost of living crisis that Labour seems determined to fuel.”