Table of Contents
Peter MacDonald
Taxpayers are footing the bill without being asked, consulted, or given a say. It’s charity by compulsion. A Five-Finger Discount in reverse, not theft from a shop but from the pockets of every Kiwi, and handed offshore under the guise of goodwill. Meanwhile, those struggling at home are forced to tighten their belts.
The recent announcement by Prime Minister Luxon of yet another $16 million handout to Ukraine, bringing total NZ taxpayer contributions to over $130 million, should raise serious questions, not just about foreign policy but about priorities. The support will go towards two $4 million contributions to funds for lethal and non-lethal military support, including the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine fund and the UK and Latvia-led Drone Coalition for Ukraine.
New Zealand will also provide $7 million in further humanitarian aid for conflict-affected communities in Ukraine and $1 million for Ukrainians displaced in neighbouring countries.
This funding is being dropped, effectively, into a black hole. It’s not dissimilar to the charity collector who walks the neighbourhood with a smile, thrusts an envelope under the nose of a kind-hearted householder and walks away with a few notes and coins. The donor gets a feel-good moment a sense of doing something tangible without ever knowing where the money will truly end up.
That, in essence, is the game. That’s the scam. The further these donations travel up the international chain via intermediaries, banks, foreign ministries, NGOs and military alliances the less traceable they become. We’re told it’s for drones, training and displaced persons. But in reality, most of it is siphoned off; absorbed by foreign bureaucracies, contractors and corruption.
Meanwhile, New Zealand taxpayers are sold the illusion of moral virtue. The government pats itself on the back for ‘doing its part’ in the so-called ‘rules-based international order’, while those at home endure rising rates, unaffordable food, ballooning power bills and housing insecurity.
Let’s not forget the old saying: ‘Charity begins at home.’ We are told that part of this $16 million goes toward humanitarian relief for displaced Ukrainians: a noble goal, yes, but used as a moral shield to disarm any criticism. Those who question the handout are made to feel as if they’re lacking compassion.
But who is showing compassion to our own displaced, homeless and struggling families? Who’s standing up for the pensioners choosing between heating and groceries, or the young parents drowning under rent and insurance hikes? That $130 million could go a long way toward relieving the suffering of New Zealand’s own vulnerable citizens, victims of a for-profit system of PPPs, consultants and the double whammy of inflation and shrinkflation by the supermarket duopoly.
This political theatre playing out on the world stage is both a Greek tragedy for the New Zealand taxpayer and a moral tragedy for the innocents caught in a war of attrition, a conflict that increasingly appears to serve the interests of arms dealers, financiers and geopolitical strategists, rather than peace. As Shakespeare observed, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” In this drama, Christopher Luxon takes centre stage, playing the dutiful global citizen, and walks away with the golden Academy Award for international compliance. Meanwhile, the Kiwi public sits in the stalls watching, applauding or too worn down to protest, as their own needs are relegated to the backstage, behind the curtain of foreign diplomacy and theatrical gestures.
Until we start valuing our own people as much as we value our image on the world stage, these tokenistic taxpayer-funded foreign aid packages will remain what they are: political theatre performed at the taxpayer’s expense.
