Taxpayers Fund CTU Propaganda

ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman Deborah Coddington today condemned the use of taxpayer funds to finance the Council of Trade Unions' efforts to peddle union-biased propaganda in the country's secondary schools.

"Answers to my written Parliamentary Questions have revealed that the CTU received $224,087 in 2000/01, and $105,520 in 2002/03, from the Employment Relations Education Contestable Fund. These grants were to fund `a range of youth focussed ERE initiatives', including developing information for secondary school students about the role of unions," Miss Coddington said.

"It doesn't stop there. A further $2,648 was dished out to the Young Workers Resource Centre to help the Centre deliver `workshops' to schools and other institutions.

"The Labour Government's funding of the CTU raises very important questions. Firstly, why does the CTU - an organisation flush with cash - require taxpayer funds to push its propaganda into our schools? And secondly, why is the Government allowing union dinosaurs to poison the minds of young New Zealanders with their warped views on labour relations? The passage of the union-dictated Employment Relations Act was supposed to lead to a union renaissance. It has not happened. Instead, workers have stayed away from unions in droves.

"This organisation enjoys a close relationship with the Government, and counts among its staff a failed Labour candidate and current member of the Labour Party Council. That such an organisation is given the means to promote Labour's failed, backward-looking policies to our children is outrageous - especially when they should be focussing on the subjects that will get them a job in the future.

"This Government should re-examine its priorities and put an end to these politically-motivated backhanders to its union mates," Miss Coddington said.

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