Extraordinary Admission From Callaghan Innovation

Callaghan Innovation’s admission that it has no idea whether any of the hundreds of million of dollars being spent on R&D grants are actually benefiting New Zealand is terrifying but unsurprising, according to theTaxpayers’ Union.

Following recent controversial grants to SAP and a subsidiary of Oracle Racing, the Labour Party have questioned whether any valuable intellectual property which results from the taxpayer-funded research subsidies will simply head straight offshore. Responding to this morning’s Radio NZ report, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:

“We’ve been banging on for months about the economic evidence that little, if any, benefits will flow back into the economy from the Government's corporate welfare programme.”

“Corporate welfare is bad enough without giving millions to foreign companies to ship any resulting intellectual property off-shore.”

“The minister responsible, Steven Joyce, is supposed to be a steward of taxpayer money. Instead he’s gambling with it, picking winners, and letting any fruits that do result rest in the hands of foreign own companies. It is a gross misuse of taxpayer money."

The Taxpayers’ Union report, Monopoly Money, the cost of corporate welfare since 2008, shows that if the Government abolished corporate welfare, the company tax rate could be reduced from 28% to 22.5%.

ENDS

© Scoop Media