Show me the money: Government must explain where Pharmac funding has come from

The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming today’s announcement of additional funding for Pharmac but is calling on the government to explain where the savings have come from to fund it.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Show me the money. The Government has lazily kicked funding for these drugs into the long grass, labelling it as a ‘pre-commitment against next year’s Budget’ rather than taking advantage of the ample savings opportunities in front of it. Is the Government really that soft that they can’t find the money now? Nicola Willis must set the record straight.

“An obvious area for this funding to come from is scrapping costly corporate welfare like handouts to the film and video game sectors. This spending does not deliver value for taxpayers and is certainly not as important as funding lifesaving medicines.

“Future budgets will need to find greater savings than what has been forecast in order to sort out the dire financial situation we are currently in. The Government must provide that clarity and certainty now rather than continuing the spend, borrow and hope approach of the previous Government.

“It is pleasing to see that the Government has held firm and decided against breaking the Pharmac model which would end up costing taxpayers significantly more and ruin our ability to successfully negotiate for medicines in the future. The earlier proposal would have cost lives in the long term. It is heartwarming to see commonsense prevail.”