Time to end taxpayer funding of political parties

Responding to Todd Stephenson MP’s calls for an end to taxpayer funding of political parties, James Ross of the Taxpayers’ Union said:

“As we said to the Justice Committee back in August, not a single Kiwi should be forced to fund a political party they disagree with against their will.”

“Ending the Broadcast Allocation would go a long way to solving this, and put $4m-per-cycle back into taxpayers’ pockets. But that only solves half the problem.”

“We’ve all heard about party-related spending like conference travel going straight on MPs’ expenses accounts. And you only need to look at a few party-political ads before you’ll spot the ‘funded by the Parliamentary Service’ banner. The rort goes much deeper than just the Broadcast Allocation.”

“Taxpayer funding of political parties won’t actually end as long as the Parliamentary Service isn’t covered by the OIA. 18,397 Kiwis submitted to Parliament demanding we open the books on MPs’ expenses, and the calls for transparency aren’t going away.”