Government rejection of official advice to pay $2000-a-day private purchase advisers like Graeme Scott out of ministerial funds shows how far National is down the track of politicising the public service, says Labour Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins. Read the rest of this entry »

Bill English needs to release in full all details around the contracting of his private purchase advisors, Labours Internal Affairs Spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. Read the rest of this entry »

Government Ministers need to front up and come clean about how much their special advisors are being paid, Labour Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. Read the rest of this entry »

Minister of Finance Bill English has arrogantly used the Public Service to fund jobs for the Government’s friends, Labour Party Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. Read the rest of this entry »

National Ministers are continuing to pump up staff levels and salaries in their private offices with Government departments picking up the bill , Labour Party Internal Affairs spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. Read the rest of this entry »

There aren’t many issues that have dominated political discussion in recent years as often as tax cuts. It seems in these tougher economic times we’re all keen to keep a little bit more in our own pockets. That’s understandable, but as recent weeks have shown, the money to pay for tax cuts has to come from somewhere.

Throughout the election campaign the National Party promised New Zealanders that it could deliver much larger tax cuts than Labour had promised without cutting public services and without leaving anyone worse off. Their track record to date suggests that was a promise they had no intention of keeping. Read the rest of this entry »