The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling out the Ombudsman for ignoring the public fracas over the Climate Change Commission’s refusal to release economic modelling (that no one can replicate) which, it claims, suggests its wholesale intervention into the economy will cost only 1% of GDP. Earlier today the Taxpayers’ Union wrote to the Ombudsman to raise the significance of these issues.

“Two weeks ago 15 of New Zealand’s major industry groups signed a public letter calling on the Commission to release the modelling – so it can be examined as part of the current submissions process, but as far as we can tell the Ombudsman has done nothing,” says Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams.

“The whole basis of the Official Information Act is to enable transparency. If transparent decision making of what the Climate Commission calls the biggest economic and social reforms since the 1980s isn’t what the Ombudsman is tasked to protect, then there’s no point in having him.”

“We understand that requesters of the information didn’t even bother to engage with the Ombudsman as in their experience it takes too long for his office to resolve complaints. When the stakes are this high, that’s just not good enough.”

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