Greens announce $1B economic policy
The Green Party will
inject $1 billion in new Government funding for research and development
should it get into power after the election.
The party launched its economic policy this morning,
which also involves a partnership with the private sector including
research and development funding made up of tax credits and grants.
Companies that go into overseas ownership will be
required to pay the grants back. A new voluntary option for large grants
will entail businesses which get significant taxpayer funding to agree
the Government will get an equity stake in the company.
Greens co-leader Russel Norman believes economies which innovate do better over the long-term and also create good jobs.
"Our economy is on the wrong track. We invest
roughly only half what most other developed countries do on research and
development," he says.
"National plans to make this bad situation worse by
cutting research investment in real terms by 10.2 percent over the next
three years and by 21.0 percent out to 2023/24."
He says the party has placed more priority on research and development than the Government or even the Labour Party.
"We think you need to increase the quantum, and
that's a hard thing because that's taxpayers' money and so it's not
something we've taken lightly in doing our fiscals. Taking a billion
dollars and investing it into R&D is a big call, but if we as a
country aren't willing to make that big call then we'll continue to go
backward compared to other countries because our value-add is just too
low," he says.
Dr Norman hasn't spoken to Labour's finance
spokesman David Parker about the policy, but has passed on the
documents. He believes it could be compatible with Labour's policy.
"I think there's quite a good synergy," he says.
More investment is needed in research and development, not cuts, Dr Norman says.
The third prong of the
policy includes enhancing the incentives to study and teach engineering,
mathematics, computer and physical sciences.
Under the policy, the party will fund 1000 places at tertiary institutes for those subjects at a cost of $50 million a year.
He
claims Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce has "strapped
innovation in a straitjacket" and the party would change the
Government's "web of opaque grants" for a system which mixes tax breaks
and direct grants to "steer the economy in a smarter, greener
direction".
An expert working group will look
into the best way to deliver the additional funding and remove the
current level of ministerial interference, the party says.
"We
are committed to working with experts to design the exact distribution
system. Unlike Steven Joyce, we don't think politicians should have
their fingers in everyone's pie. That just delivers bad results," Dr
Norman says.
A new grant criterion to ensure
greater investment in new paths in ICT, renewable energy and
manufacturing sectors would also be added.
Mr Joyce tweeted the Greens needed to "update their rhetoric & read up what's already happening in innovation".
He
described the party's analysis of the economy as being from 2008, and
its policy announcement as endorsing what the Government is already
doing.
Meanwhile, the Taxpayers' Union says the
Greens' policy is the "lesser of two evils" and is taking a cautiously
optimistic approach.
"Although the Greens' policy
still leaves room for picking winners, on balance it is better than the
existing corporate welfare scheme operated by Science and Innovation
Minister Steven Joyce," executive director Jordan Williams says.
The
union is concerned tax credits could be vulnerable to businesses
manipulating what they do to qualify for new research and development
funding.
3 News
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Greens-announce-1B-economic-policy/tabid/1607/articleID/352877/Default.aspx#ixzz38YnqISeW
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