ActionStation should front up on taxpayer funding
The New
Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the left-wing
campaign group “ActionStation” to front up and be
transparent about how much taxpayer funding it takes from
the Government to underwrite its activism
activities. Earlier in the month, the
Taxpayers’ Union exposed the group as having received a
$15,000 taxpayer funded grant from Netsafe to call people
out for online ‘hate’. It appears the group is targeting
conservative views it portrays as hateful or uneducated,
such as those supporting equality of citizenship and civil
rights. The funding contradicts ActionStation’s claims that it receives no government
funding, and Netsafe’s policy not to fund political
campaign groups. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman
Jordan Williams says: “I commend the efforts of
campaign groups like ActionStation that strive to make New
Zealand a better place. But sneakily using government
funding to campaign is immoral.” The Union
is also highlighting the group’s lack of financial
transparency. “Although the group is an
incorporated society, it hides all of its donations and
expenditure inside a company structure. There is just no way
for the public – or even donors – to know what it spends
money on, where donations and government funding end up. For
a group taking government money, this is all very
underhand.”
16 SEPTEMBER 2019
ENDS