Prime Minister's Corporate Welfare: Safari Company Hits the Jackpot

7 November 2014

The Taxpayers’ Union is labelling the latest example of tourism corporate welfare announced by the Prime Minister today as ridiculous and impossible to justify. Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:

“It isn’t a loan, it isn’t R&D research; it’s not even tourism promotion. This is a $112,950 of taxpayer money given to a company to do what it does anyway.”

“Our recent report on corporate welfare is aptly titled Monopoly Money. This tour company just landed on chance and won first prize in a beauty contest. They’ve picked up a $112,950 taxpayer funded pat on the back."

Monopoly Money, by Jim Rose, a former principal advisor at the Treasury, found John Key’s Government is spending between six and eight hundred dollars per household a year in corporate welfare.

“In contrast to today’s media reports of people in pain waiting to get onto elective surgery waiting lists, how is this grant to assist a majority-owned foreign travel company a fiscal priority?"

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is an independent activist group, dedicated to being the voice for Kiwi taxpayers in the corridors of power. It’s here to fight government waste and make sure New Zealanders get value for money from their tax dollar.

ENDS

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