Brouhaha Over PPL Costs Show Need for Independent Policy Costing Unit

20 JUNE 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union says that the political toing and froing over Sue Moroney’s Members Bill for 26 weeks paid parental leave shows the need for an independent policy costing office. Jordan Williams, the Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, says:

“How can the public judge a policy if there is no credible and independent estimate of the costs? While Bill English and Sue Moroney slug it out over numbers, the voting public are left none the wiser."

“Seldom does the Taxpayers’ Union call for new spending of taxpayers’ money but here we think the benefits to transparency and democracy far outweigh the cost. An independent expert officer of Parliament dedicated to costing political policies would make it harder for MPs to fudge the costs of their wish-lists and equally stop the Government from claiming policies are unaffordable by inflating the costs.”

During the 2014 general election, and the Northland by-election the Taxpayers’ Union commissioned independent economic advice on the cost of each major political party’s election manifesto and included it in an election “Bribe-O-Meter”.

ENDS

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