Labour's accusing the government of secretly spending $1 billion from next year's budget. The Taxpayers' Union has chimed in too, accusing the government of political skulduggery over the billion dollars in undisclosed future spending.

It amounts to $22 million in '27, '28 before ramping up over a four year period. Heather du Plessis Allan asked the Prime Minister about it this morning and he said there's nothing to see here.

"It's not actually that super exciting to be honest, Heather, because it's an issue that blew up as we were finalising the budget. It's about an accounting provision for an existing transport related issue."
"CRL?"
"No, no, no. And it's just, but generally an accounting provision."

So an accounting provision. And if it's not the CRL, it's bound to be the ferries surely. But why can't it be disclosed?

Why, why even give Labour ammunition?

And what's better, and I ask this as a genuine question, to have a secret stash of dosh under the mattress to spend at will later on transport issues, or to promise to pay for things and then work out how you'll get the money later?

Like with Labour, they promised pay equity, which was going to cost billions and billions of dollars, school lunches, light rail.

They promised all this in 2023 and said, oh, we'll find the money later, we'll make cuts and we'll find the money. So when National came in in '23 they inherited these promises that would be difficult to withdraw from, but the money wasn't there to pay for it. 

I'm getting really, really sick of governments, successive governments and government departments using money and then using boring paragraphs to try and hide where that money's gone, given that it's our money. And given that there doesn't seem to be a single sole source of truth.

Nobody seems to agree on the figures and given that it's our money that they're spending, I really want to know.

Like you put to Labour, and I would have put it to Labour, but they're announcing their list MPs today, so that's a step. Where's your policies?

We were promised them after the budget, but maybe after the list MPs have been announced we'll see the policies.

But you know, you put to Labour, you promised pay equity, you had no idea how to pay for it. You had no idea where the money was going to come from. And they'd say, oh well, and then they'd tell us how and it would be, you know, baffle them with bullshit.

And I was just reading about the spat between the former Kāinga Ora CEO and Nicola Willis.

She accused him of paying over the odds for property to the tune of $10 million. He was outraged, denied Willis's claim, said Kāinga Ora had not offered $10 million more than the next closest bid for a property.

He told Parliament's Social Services Committee the gap had been less than $2 million, only for it to be later revealed it was more than $8 million.

And I know that's a lot of numbers I'm throwing around, but bear with me because I think this stuff matters.

I find it absolutely outrageous that the taxpayers were funding a purchase that was $2 million above the nearest commercial bid.

So your average layman puts in a bid for this property and decides that that's what they think it's worth. Kāinga Ora using our money can go as high as it wants. But instead of going $100,000 higher, which they may have done if it was an auction, if it was a closed tender process, how are they so out of touch that they would offer what he thought was $2 million more and actually turned out to be $8 million more than what private buyers were thinking the property was worth? 

And everybody, I mean this is just kind of, I only found out about it reading a story on Newsroom. I didn't know about it. That's one deal. How many others have been done like this?

I mean, is this common practice among developers that you can be $5 million, $6 million, $8 million out? I mean, I don't move in those circles, I don't know. All I know is that what that looks like is an errant disregard for the taxpayer's dollars. Our money.

What you and I get up early for, to go to work for, to pay to the government and for the government to dole out to different government departments. How the hell can you pay $8 million more than the nearest bid for one property?

One property.

Where's the accountability and the financial scrutiny? Why don't we know what the $1 billion is being set aside for? Are there commercial sensitivities? How is Labour going to fund its promises given that it left the country nearly $7 billion in deficit and now we're even worse?

I am really, really, really sick of paying taxes. I mean, we saw a lot of this where work was being duplicated or work was being done in the wrong place and oh, silly us, oops, you know, let's do it again because they've got endless money from us.

Imagine the pay you could give to nurses.

Imagine the hospitals that could be built if we weren't making these sorts of egregious, as I see it, accounting errors.

But maybe in the rarefied atmosphere of commercial development, $8 million is neither here nor there. To me it is. It really is.

It's my money and your money and I want to know what we're spending it on, looking at you National.

I want to know how we're going to fund the promises you're making, looking at you Labour. And I want to know that you're being careful and judicious with my money, looking at you every single bloody government department. Who will ensure that this sort of financial insouciance will end?

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