Labour should be stealing taxpayer-friendly policies from opposition parties

Reacting to today’s policy announcements from National and the alternative budget from ACT, the Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Labour Party to copy the best parts of these proposals and show some fiscal restraint.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:

“We congratulate the opposition parties for putting forward taxpayer-friendly policies and urge Labour to treat these changes as a shopping list of good ideas for fiscal discipline. Just because the opposition announced these policies doesn’t mean they own them.

“Proposals such as linking the pay of public sector chief executives to performance, targeting policies such as the winter energy payment to those most in need and providing ‘taxpayer receipts’ are likely to be politically popular among the electorate and at the same time would deliver better value for money for the taxpayer.

“At a time when the number of managers in the public service is growing at twice the rate of front-line staff, it is more important than ever that we work on improving our public sector productivity rather than throwing more money at the bureaucratic black hole. No party has a monopoly on good ideas so, when one comes up, other parties should adopt them as their own."