INDEPENDENT NEWS

Govt Pays Union Kickbacks

Published: Wed 27 Nov 2002 12:15 AM
Govt Pays Union Kickbacks
ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that it was outrageous that Helen Clark was using taxpayers' money to bribe civil servants to join the PSA union.
The PSA is one of the Labour Party's major funders and boosters and here is the Government now using taxpayers' money to pay civil servants to join the PSA. The lump sum payments range from $300 to $900 a membership.
These union bounties have cost taxpayers $1,693,000 at Inland Revenue; $349,000 at Corrections; $242,700 at Internal Affairs; $168,436 at Land and Information; and $2,478,000 at Social Development.
Helen Clark in opposition used to rail against staff bonuses. But at least they had to produce something to get a bonus.
Now all they need do is join a government lackey union. These payments aren't bonuses but simply bounties for signing up to the PSA. PSA money is then used to support the New Zealand Labour Party. Taxpayers' money is being laundered through the Union movement back to support the Labour Party.
New Zealanders don't pay their taxes to bribe civil servants to join a union. They pay their taxes to have police on the street, their children well educated, and a health system that fixes them up when they are sick.
That's not Helen Clark's view. She views the tax take as hers to sprinkle around to win herself support. Hence her handouts to big business and to big Unions. She pays out taxpayers' money to The Warehouse one week, and to the PSA the next.
If the PSA was any good, they wouldn't need to be bribing people to join.

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