“Minister for Corporate Welfare Stuart Nash should tell New Zealanders the full story about what results $3,000,000,000 in taxpayers’ money funnelled through the Provincial Growth Fund has achieved” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Launching the PGF, Shane Jones said: ‘We are being bold and we are being ambitious because this Government is committed to ending the years of neglect…the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is open for business and has the potential to make a real difference to the people of provincial New Zealand.’

“But how many meaningful jobs has the PGF really created?

“The 16,000 figure trumpeted by Nash, and the 8,416 figure quoted in today’s report, are both nonsense.

“That’s because many jobs will have last just a few weeks. Counting a job pulling weeds for a few weeks as a job created is dishonest.

“It’s also not bold, ambitious, or likely to end years of neglect.

“When ACT asked Nash last year how many people were in permanent full-time employment because of the PGF, the answer was just 2,863.

“What is that figure today? Nash won’t say.

“The PGF a slush fund of taxpayers’ money to try and buy votes.

“It has been a failure. It hasn’t created the jobs that the Government promised and the money has to come from somewhere. New Zealanders are smart enough to work out it’s from their taxes.

“The PGF might have created some jobs, but that’s offset by fewer jobs being created in the private sector because of the higher taxes to pay for it. Factoring in the disincentives created by those taxes, the PGF has actually made New Zealanders poorer.

“ACT would cut spending and taxes because New Zealanders know better than politicians and bureaucrats how to spend their money.

“ACT’s Real Change Budget would dramatically simplify the income tax system so that it once again rewards success. It takes New Zealand from five tax rates on income down to two – 17.5 and 28 per cent. It reduces the incentive for tax avoidance and sends a message that if you work hard and do well, you get to keep more of your own money.”

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