National, Greens Big Movers on Bribe-O-Meter

15 SEPTEMBER 2014

The Taxpayers’ Union has updated its election policy 'Bribe-O-Meter’ to reflect the cost of recent campaign promises. The update takes into account Labour’s new fiscal tables and all announcements up to Friday and is based on numbers provided by an independent expert, Dr Michael Dunn.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says:

“The big movers are National and the Greens, as they continue to announce policies with new spending.”

“The Green Party remain in first place, with policy announcements amounting to $6.5 billion, or $3,840 per household. Labour are not far behind at $5.9 billion, or $3,500 per household.”

“The National Party’s spending commitments have shot up considerably in the last fortnight with recently announced spending commitments such as new money for ultra-fast broadband bringing its total to $1.3 billion. That represents new spending of $760 per household.”

The minor parties included in the Bribe-O-Meter generally have smaller, targeted policies with correspondingly smaller price-tags than the larger parties. United Future ($2.1 billion), the Conservative Party ($400 million) and ACT (negative $11.7 billion) all remain unchanged.

New Zealand First is the only mainstream party not included in the Bribe-O-Meter, having failed to provide Dr Dunn or the Taxpayers’ Union sufficient detail on its policies to enable them to be costed.

"It is likely that New Zealand First’s promises, if taken at face value, would amount to a vastly more expensive package than Labour and the Greens combined," says Williams. "Even our expert, who used to lead the team at IRD that costs social policy, can’t make sense of precisely what Mr Peters is promising and what it would cost."

"New Zealand First's 1996 coalition deal with the National Party cost taxpayers $5 billion, or $2,950 per household. Taxpayers will be hoping that in 2014 Mr Peters' support won't be that expensive."

ENDS

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