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Jordan Williams: Taxpayers' Union Executive Director on the government quietly setting aside the money from next year's budget · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, here's one to raise a few eyebrows. The government's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: quietly pre committed more than a billion dollars from next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: year's budget, but is refusing to say where this money
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is going. So that's a sizable chunk of the two
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: point four billion spending allowance Nichola Willis has set for
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: budget twenty twenty seven. Jordan Williams, Taxpayers Union executive director
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: joins me, Now, good morning, Jordan.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Is this a bit unusual?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It's pretty outrageous, but we have some s of they
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: with later calling it out. How do you expect us
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: to review books when you're not saying such a way
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: at such a significant amount of money it's being spent. However,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the last election year, Labored did something pretty similar and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: locking and higher spending in various areas and then claiming
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the nets were quote unquote cussing which was only promised
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: for future projective spending. It's pretty unusual. It's a high
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: bar not to include it. It looks to be done
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: here for political rather than the commercially censored of more
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: security reasons. But what's interesting is that Nichola Willis is saying, look,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I can't include it because it's still under Act of consideration.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: But as we've seen with lots of other disclosures, is
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: that it's a high bar for Treasury to include it
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: in there. It's specically saying or Treasury is basically saying
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the decisions already being made, but we're not going to
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: tell you where the money's going.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Because budget government's budget for a four year forecast period.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So how is this different to sort of budgeting, you know,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: pre committing funding.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Well, what Nikola Willis is doing is a little bit
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: of a fudge, is that she's saying, look how virtuous
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I am. Look how I'm reducing the increased size of spendings.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But what she's doing is because it's an election year,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: is she's bringing forward next year's spending or she wants
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  Speaker 2: the political capital for whatever promise or trinket this is
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: going to be. We're hearing around the traps that the
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: government likely to announce something very significant in the solar space.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: If I was a betting man, I'd say that's what.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: This is, okay. So it is most unusual about this
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is the fact that there's no transparency. We just don't
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: know where it's going.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the whole Root's Fiscal Responsibility Act back in
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  Speaker 2: the early nineties was set out to prevent the sort
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: of surprise for income governments. Nichola Willis rightly complained about
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  Speaker 2: some of the things that were hidden from her, or
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: she says were hidden from her by the last government.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: It's a great shame that she's effectively doing the same
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: thing all over again.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So why do you think they aren't telling us where
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: it's going? Do you do you believe the call that
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: maybe they just haven't got their bits in a row
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: yet and they're just trying to sort things out.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Well, that's my point. The fact that it's separately disclosed
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: by Treasury shows that it is a phase complete that
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: will have managed to convince Treasury Okay, it's going to happen. However,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Nikola Willis wants the political surprise. She wants the ability
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: to keep its secret, to announce it at the most
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: political opportune time.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Well, it is a year, isn't it, Jordan. What you
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: do what you can. This is what politicking is all about,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: isn't it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: It's political skull deggery at its very best. But as
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: a taxpay group, you know, we want the transparency if
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the decision has been made unless this sort of commercial
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: sensitivity or a genuine national security reason, which clearly here
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: it's not. It's the National Party wanting to keep their
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: power dry for the election, and that's not how good
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: transparency should work. Jordan.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Why do governments preallocate money when the next election could
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: potentially change it all anyway?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Well, here it'll be because they want to go to
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the elector and say, look what we've got coming, don't
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: put it all at risk. For the last Labor government,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I think it was they were trying to lock in
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: massive increases to various areas of spending so that they
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: had to stick to whack national with where they increased
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: it a bit slower and call that cuts. It's classic
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: just spin doctoring what actually should be. You know that
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: we don't don't have money at the moment, you know,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the cupboard is bere Now is the time we ought
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to be very transparent.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Jordan Williams, thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
• 4:10
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• 4:14
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• 4:17
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