The Taxpayers’ Union is congratulating Judith Collins for rejecting further corporate welfare for the space industry via the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre that, despite promises of 1300 high-paying jobs and $2.4 billion in economic benefits, has seriously underperformed.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“The failure of the aerospace site to attract international investors, despite $30 million in taxpayer funding demonstrates that it’s never a good idea to let politicians and bureaucrats gamble taxpayer money on private ventures.

“If the Government wants to support the space industry, they should focus on cutting the red tape that makes it so challenging to launch a rocket into space in the first place, and encouraging councils to do the same.

“Rocket Lab originally considered building a launch site in Kaitorete but found getting a consent to be too challenging, made worse by the Green Party at the time raising concerns about the impact it would have on ‘threatened lizards, rare invertebrates and threatened plants’. Who would have thought getting a consent was more complicated than rocket science?

“It makes a mockery of taxpayers that the government then went on to subsidise that very same site to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. It can be difficult for politicians to stand up against well-connected space industry lobbyists and the potential for cool photo opportunities but that is exactly what Minister Collins has done and so we congratulate her.”

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