Political debates are not new to the Bishop family. National MP Chris Bishop, on the left, and father John Bishop, to the right, pictured before a debate in 2006.

An increase in funding for various science and innovation programmes in the Hutt Valley has been lauded by National MP Chris Bishop.

Within hours of last Thursday's Budget announcements, Bishop said the $761.4 million "Innovative New Zealand" Budget package was a great follow-up to a public meeting he had organised on the Technology Valley campaign.

"The science increase includes funding for the Pre-Seed Accelerator Fund, which is about helping commercialise publicly-funded research, along with the Accelerators Programme to support the rapid formation of early-stage information technology and digital start-ups," he said.

The science funding was the centrepiece in Finance Minister Bill English's eighth budget.

But while it was praised by Chris Bishop, it was received poorly by others including Chris' father, John Bishop, the chairman of the Taxpayers' Union.

John Bishop said the budget was "a Labour-style 'more taxes, more spending' budget".

"While we welcome the extra money for health and infrastructure, taxpayers will be shocked that the Government is going to be putting even more money into corporate welfare," he said.

"Budget 2016 is a disappointment. It is politically defensive with nothing bold."

Even more scathing criticism came from Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams, who labelled a $100 million chunk of the 'Innovative New Zealand' funding "the definition of governments trying to pick winners".

"There is nothing innovative about corporate welfare, no matter what the politicians label it," Williams said.

That sentiment was echoed by Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard, who nevertheless suggested the Hutt Valley could pick up a fair share of new funding because of its history with DSIR and IRL.

Mallard was critical of the way the science funding was to be delivered.

"I've got no doubt that it is a slush fund that Steven Joyce uses for political purposes," Mallard said.

"I much prefer the idea of doing tax credits where it's not up to people appointed by the minister to pick the winners.

"The best people to make the direction are the people investing the money themselves, not Steven Joyce's flunkeys."

In Parliament it was ACT leader David Seymour leading the charge against the science and innovation 'corporate welfare'.

Seymour told The Hutt News that an obvious question was why the government couldn't just let people keep more of their own money and decide how to invest it.

"They seem to believe that the government has a better insight in to how you invest your money than the people who earned the money in the first place," Seymour said.

"I'd just ask, if you're a real entrepreneur, do you want to spend your time working out how to create a product that your customers want to buy or do you want to spend your time having your photos taken with politicians and filling out forms for grants?"

Seymour agreed with Chris Bishop that the Hutt Valley was in a great position to become a technology hub.

"It's got a great culture, it's got a lot of space much like Silicon Valley.

"It's an area where there's a lot of warehouse space, an area where costs are affordable and people can take the time and space to innovate.

"But you look at Chris Bishop, I don't think he believes in corporate welfare but of course he's part of a party so he's got to say he's in favour of it."