In an unusual move, the Taxpayers’ Union is standing with comrades at the Council of Trade Unions following Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ petty decision to have Treasury officials ensure CTU Economist Craig Rennie could not attend today’s Half Year Fiscal and Economic Update.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said, “We don’t agree with the CTU on much, but it’s outrageous that the Minister has had Treasury impose a ban on peak bodies, think tanks, unions, universities and large corporates to justify the uninviting of a single left-wing economist the Minister does not like.”

“The worst kept secret in Wellington is that today’s opening of the books will show that Nicola Willis has not done her job in getting Government spending under control. She makes the claim that she does 'not want to be a slave to surplus’ but as a result will soon have the whole country slave to her debt.”

“Banning the CTU, the Taxpayers’ Union, and groups like Business NZ and the Federated Farmers is not a strategy to get back to surplus. At best, it’s a cheap PR ploy to attempt to control the media narrative. At worst, it’s a petty and vindictive move to exclude a left-wing economist the Minister has taken umbrage at.”

“We think the media should make the point of going to talk to Craig Rennie and the CTU this afternoon after the lock-up to ensure the Minister’s ploy to suppress commentary she does not like does not work.”

Yesterday, the CTU wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury which is available on its website. In a joint letter with The New Zealand Initiative, the Taxpayers’ Union has backed up the CTU, making the same points.

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Groups affected by the new guidelines regularly provide their analysis of budget figures to their own readers, who number in the hundreds of thousands, and provide expert analysis to journalists attending the restricted briefings. Both functions assist in transparency and accountability to the public, which are purposes of the restricted briefings.

Mr Williams asks, “How does it promote the interests of ‘transparency and accountability to the public’ or assist public understanding when Bloomberg will be able to tell foreign investors what’s in the Government books, and provide considered analysis, faster than organisations representing New Zealand workers, business, and taxpayers?”

The joint letter points out that substantial errors in previous Budget Economic and Fiscal Updates have been uncovered by the very analysts that will now be prevented from attending future budget lock-ups.

“Make no mistake, the move to ban the likes of Business NZ and the CTU’s expert economists from budget and financial briefings does nothing to enhance public understanding in public finance. It is a cynical and unbecoming move by a Minister who, clearly, needs a summer holiday,” concludes Mr Williams.

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