“New Zealanders don’t need Treasury bureaucrats to tell them their hard-earned money is being wasted – ACT has already found it”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“While National is right that it’s good to identify wasteful spending, ACT has already done it. This morning we released an Alternative Budget which found $38 billion of wasteful spending that could be saved right here, right now.
“We don’t need bureaucrats or consultants to tell us there’s wasteful spending happening. We know it is. Let’s get on with it scrapping it.
“New Zealand cannot afford another cycle of retaining left-wing policies so Labour and the Greens can pick up where they left off. What is needed is real, clear-sighted and specific change in Government.
“Issuing taxpayers’ a receipt for what they pay is a good idea, too. It is also an idea with an interesting history. 25 years ago, ACT proposed this exact policy, but the-then National Finance Minister used a financial veto to stop it. We can only hope it doesn’t take a quarter of a century for our colleagues to adopt all of our ideas.
“ACT says the next Government should zero base Government. That means asking ourselves, would we establish this department and or program today if it did not already exist? We need to stop spending money thanks to inertia instead of value provided.
“National and Labour Governments have bought voters off at election time for decades. They are too afraid to save money on programmes and departments that are no longer producing value for taxpayers. Year after year, the same government departments continue with bigger budgets for the same goals they fail to meet. Layers of handouts, built-up like lasagne, one bribe at a time, will continue without ACT.
“In 2023, we need real change, driven by ACT.”