An appalling decision by Treasury

Treasury has banned from the Budget lockup numerous organisations that have been attending for many years. These include the Taxpayers’ Union, the CTU, Business NZ and the NZ Initiative.

This is the exact opposite of transparent and accountable government. It means that all these organisations will not be able to read, analyse and respond to the Budget until several hours after it has been released. In a fast moving media cycle, this makes a difference.

Being able to access the Budget lockup, means that organisations can do the following:

• Have time to read, analyse and prepare their responses
• Ask questions of Treasury officials, to explain details
• Be interviewed by media in the lockup
• Ask questions of the Minister
• Spot possible errors in the documents (as Eric Crampton has done)

There is no principled reason for this decision. It is not an issue of space. The Beehive banquet hall is huge, and there has been room for the last several decades.

The suspicion is that this is a result of the Government being angry at the CTU for misrepresenting the Minister after the last Budget. The full details are here. But if the issue is one person, it is idiotic to ban every advocacy organisation in New Zealand as a response.

Almost all the organisations banned have trained economists on their staff – something few media organisations have. In fact many media find it useful to be able to ask questions of the economists in the room.

Accountancy firms (who often do advocacy work also for clients) are still allowed in the room. But not organisations that have 200,000 supporters, or represents thousands of businesses.

Treasury should remove their unprincipled and undemocratic ban on Budget lockup attendance this week. And if they don’t, then the Minister of Finance and Opposition Spokesperson on Finance should write to them asking them to do so.