The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the Ministry for Regulation’s new report The State of New Zealand’s Regulatory Systems, saying it confirms what taxpayers and businesses have long suspected: New Zealand’s public service has become an tangle of regulators, legislation, and bureaucracy.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Tory Relf, said:

“The challenge now is whether the Government act on it under their plans for the public service, or whether this becomes just another report gathering dust.”

“Having at least 267 organisations involved in regulation is an obscene number for a country of New Zealand’s size, and shows just how far the Wellington bureaucracy has been allowed to sprawl. Even ministerial oversight has become absurd, with Simeon Brown alone responsible for 32 regulatory organisations across his portfolios. ”

“The creation of MCERT must learn from the mistakes of MBIE. Mergers should eliminate duplication, simplify legislation, have clear Ministerial responsibility and reduce staffing numbers - not simply create even larger bureaucratic empires.”

The Taxpayers' Union is correcting David Seymour's reported comments that a temporary cut to fuel tax - as called for by the Taxpayers' Union - would necessarily widen the deficit and result in more borrowing.

"With the greatest respect to David, the Taxpayers' Union is not calling for unfunded tax relief," said Taxpayers' Union Executive Director Jordan Williams.

"What we called for was scrapping the successor to the wasteful 'Provincial Growth Fund' and for those funds to be redirected into the National Land Transport Fund. That would deliver temporary tax relief at the pump without it affecting the deficit, or reducing investment in transport infrastructure.”

“Currently, taxes and levies make up more than 44 percent of the price you pay at the pump. But the only true tax cut is to reduce spending. The Regional Infrastructure Fund has proven wasteful with grants for things such as $10 million to a Bay of Plenty Marae. It is precisely the sort of low priority spending that should be scrapped."

In this episode, Islay Aitchison talks to ACT leader David Seymour about his party's proposed tax cuts, public debt and cutting red tape.

You can subscribe to Taxpayer Talk via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and all good podcast apps.

Taxpayer Talk is back. This week Jordan and Joe interview Act MP David Seymour on the worrying signs of the politicisation of the Reserve Bank, and Grant Robertson's suggestion of monetising the Government's debt. 

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