Latest / Best of Business / James Ross: Taxpayers' Union spokesperson voices disapproval with the Government's plan to invest more into the Elevate fund

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James Ross: Taxpayers' Union spokesperson voices disapproval with the Government's plan to invest more into the Elevate fund · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks B Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: The Financement has just given a pre budget speech today
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  Speaker 2: and revealed that she is putting an extra one hundred
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  Speaker 2: million dollars into the Elevate Venture Fund, which invests in startups. Now,
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  Speaker 2: James Ross is from the Taxpayer's Union with us right now, Hey, James,
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  Speaker 2: I have you don't like this idea?
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  Speaker 3: Do you No, we don't like this idea at all.
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  Speaker 1: Why.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's two big issues that we see with this.
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  Speaker 3: The first is that, you know, a week out from
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  Speaker 3: the budget, we are still seeing a government who thinks
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  Speaker 3: that the key to growth is taxing more, spending more,
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  Speaker 3: and picking winners. The second half is that, frankly, you know,
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  Speaker 3: this is its venture capital. It's high risk by design,
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  Speaker 3: it's gambling with taxpayers money and it's all going on
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  Speaker 3: the credit card. It's money we don't have.
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  Speaker 2: The point that she's made, though, is that this particular
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  Speaker 2: fund has actually backed successful companies in the past, like
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  Speaker 2: Dawn Aerospace.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's I mean the nature, it's high risk,
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  Speaker 3: it pays off until it doesn't. You know, if we
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  Speaker 3: compare this to something like the New Zealand Green Investment
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  Speaker 3: Finance Fund, which was a very similar scheme. You know,
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  Speaker 3: it paid off until they made one hundred and forty
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  Speaker 3: five million dollar loan to settler zero, which went broken.
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  Speaker 3: Then it very quickly didn't. It's just it's the nature
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  Speaker 3: of the sort of gambling that it is going to
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  Speaker 3: backfire on texpayers.
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  Speaker 1: Do so.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, one of the arguments is that any of
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  Speaker 2: these businesses would actually be able to attract investment without
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  Speaker 2: having to go to the government if they were good.
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  Speaker 2: Do you subscribe to that idea?
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  Speaker 3: Look, if they were, if they were commercially violable, then
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  Speaker 3: they would be able to attract that finance and they
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't need the government to prop up these essentially prop
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  Speaker 3: up these other venture capital firms. The fact that the
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  Speaker 3: government is having to do that just proves how high
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  Speaker 3: risk these investments are and it proves the risk that
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  Speaker 3: taxpayers are being exposed to.
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  Speaker 2: James, why should we lit the taxpayers Union into the
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  Speaker 2: budget lockup?
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  Speaker 3: We should let the Taxpairs Union into the budget lock
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  Speaker 3: up because we're there to cut through the spin. And frankly,
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  Speaker 3: it's this sort of spin that we're there to cut through.
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  Speaker 2: Jason Walls edacies he doesn't need anyone to tell them
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  Speaker 2: to go to the back of the budget and look
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  Speaker 2: at the numbers.
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  Speaker 1: Do you do more than that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. You know we're I mean, we've
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  Speaker 3: been in there before. We've actually found mistakes and pointed
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: to the match Treasury officials which have subsequently been corrected.
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  Speaker 3: We do this day in day out. We are we
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  Speaker 3: are I hesitate to say experts, but frankly we spend
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  Speaker 3: far too much time with our heads in these books.
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  Speaker 3: We know these numbers inside and out. The public have
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  Speaker 3: a right to know what those numbers are without the spin.
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  Speaker 2: James, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. James Ross,
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  Speaker 2: the Taxpayers Union.
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• 2:48
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