Regional Development Fund recipe for pork-barrelling

24 October 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
In response to the just announced $1 billion per year “Regional Development Fund” as part of the Labour-NZ First coalition agreement, Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Union said:

“We’ll be keeping a very close eye on this fund to ensure that economic rigour – cost benefit analysis and value for money – is prioritised over political expediency.”

“Without discipline and oversight, ‘economic development’ very quickly turns into pork-barrelling and corporate welfare. Of course, this was the very thing Labour rightly accused the National-led Government of, when it came to regional farming and irrigation initiatives.”

ENDS