Finance Minister Grant Robertson says under cuts proposed by the ACT Party, the FIFA Women's World Cup would not have been held in New Zealand.
It follows ACT's announcement on Sunday it would aim to halve the more than 6000 staff at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
It would also immediately shut down work on several government projects if elected to government, saying this could save more than $1 billion.
The projects included the major events fund, the games development sector rebate, and space policy.
Today, Robertson told 1News ACT's policies would be "economic vandalism".
"What you've got here are programmes that help grow our regions, that help make sure we attract film productions to New Zealand, that help make sure we keep talented people here who work in our game development sector. This would destroy whole sectors of our economy, let alone the jobs that would be lost in the public service in MBIE."
He said MBIE's major events fund brought the FIFA Women's World Cup - and the Women's Rugby World Cup - to New Zealand.
"These are events that generate tourism money and are important to our overall strategy as a Government. They'd be gone under this policy.
"If an ACT - National Government had been in place, there'd be no FIFA Women's World Cup. Let alone, no space industry, let alone no game development sector, let alone no films being produced in New Zealand. This would wreck the economy across the country."
ACT's MBIE announcement stated the major events fund justified its existence by stating that without its assistance internationally significant events may not realise their potential.
"That sounds rather grandiose given the niche interests it actually funds, including the Weightlifting Masters, the Jim Henson Retrospectacle, and the New Zealand White Water Invitational," it said.
Regarding space policy, it said there was a role for government in ensuring regulations are kept up to date to enable new ventures and activities such as Rocket Lab, and to ensure national security policy accommodates new developments.
"It is not the role of government to actively '[grow] an innovative and inclusive space sector'."
On Monday, MBIE immigration chief operating officer Stephen Vaughan said between July 15 and August 6, more than 19,000 USA nationals visited New Zealand.
Because of changes to how visas worked, he was unable to provide a comparison to the same time period in 2019.
The major events fund has also provided funds for V8 Supercars, the New Zealand Rugby League World Cup, RallyNZ, the Goldenshears competition and the Ellerslie Flower Show, among other things.
SHARE ME