The Government needs to stop mulling over the idea of giving taxpayer funding to political parties, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union after the Prime Minister refused to rule out the idea today.

Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Make no mistake, the Green Party is cynically exploiting the National Party’s crisis to secure taxpayer cash for its election campaigns, and give itself an unfair advantage over political start-ups and community voices. Labour needs to prove that it's better than its support party by ruling out this opportunistic idea.”

“The most objectionable part of this proposal is that taxpayers would be forced to fund political causes that they might find completely reprehensible. We pay taxes to fund universal services, like health and education. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Admittedly, the Taxpayers’ Union has a self-interested reason to oppose this policy: a taxpayer-funded subsidy will help political parties dominate public debate, drowning out the voices of independent, donation-funded groups like us.”

© Scoop Media