Source: Taxpayers Union
7 NOVEMBER 2020FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Not content with just building multi-million-dollar horse racetracks in order to combat COVID-19, the Government’s new taxpayer funded pandemic response now includes badminton, downhill luge, and Sea Scouts.The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Louis Houlbrooke said: “Sports and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson is doling out $15 million to over 2,000 sporting organisations as part of phase 2 of the Community Resilience Fund. How this helps fight the pandemic is not explained anywhere in the 48-page Cabinet document.”“The rationale of increasing the funding from $10 million to $15 million ‘due to the demand for the fund in the initial three weeks’ is simply terrible public policy – there will always be demand for free money.””To the extent that these organisations contribute to the economy, they’ll have been eligible for the wage subsidy. Why is the sports sector getting extra special treatment?”“New Zealanders who are losing their jobs or having their hours cut must wonder why they are less worthy of Government support than the Whitby Bowling Club ($10,012), Wanganui Croquet Club ($3,390.00), the Auckland Table Tennis Association ($19,694.78), Taiaotea Air Scout Group ($4,819.05), or Rolleston Softball Club ($17,362.00).”“In addition, there are literally hundreds of grants to scouts, sea scouts, and air scouts, organisations the Union was previously unaware of, far less their sporting credentials.”“We can only be relieved that Underwater Hockey New Zealand and the World Kabaddi Council of NZ were among the few to be turned down. This package is not an effective use of taxpayers money in a pandemic.”
