Responding to Labour's announcement of a $50 million Plastics Innovation Fund, New Zealand Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says:

"A legacy of the previous Government was the litany of corporate welfare slush funds it set up, typically in the name of 'innovation'. Labour is continuing this with its 'Plastics Innovation Fund'."

"We don't need to spend $50 million on this. Businesses already have a powerful incentive to reduce their plastic waste. The ones using unnecessary plastic get hammered by increasingly waste-conscious consumers."

"Having bureaucrats dole out taxpayer cash to help businesses do what they're doing already will mean waste of the fiscal kind. Businesses that would have happily shouldered the cost of ditching plastics will instead fob the bill off onto taxpayers."

"In the time of COVID-19, these precious millions could be far better used on public health, or paying down debt, or on growth-focused tax relief."

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