Dear Supporter,
We've had a big day hosting our third annual Jonesie Awards, celebrating the best of the worst of government waste from the last 12 months.
--> Click here to watch the full ceremony <-- <[link removed]>
If you just want to know who won, scroll down.
Behind the pomp and ceremony lies a serious message: politicians and bureaucrats fritter away your hard-earned money on bizarre pet projects and ill-planned schemes without fear of consequence.
The Jonesies serve as a shot across the bow for anyone in charge of a government chequebook: rein in the waste, or you'll see your name up in lights.
Thank you to everyone who turned up in person for the ceremony, and to Chris Penk MP, who kindly arranged to host us at Parliament.
Local government nominees
Dunedin City Council: Responding to COVID-19 with dots
Dunedin City Council responded to COVID-19 by spending $40,000 on red and blue dots for its main street. The dots were variously justified as a tool to assist social distancing, a way to attract people to the city, and as a “traffic calming” device. The Council also spent $145,000 on a new tourism slogan: “Dunedin, a pretty good plan D”.
Napier City Council: Golden handshake for a failed CEO
After a series of headline-grabbing failures, Napier City Council gave its CEO Wayne Jack a reported $1 million payout to leave before his contract expired. Mr Jack’s final official act was to throw himself a $4,000 farewell tea party. The Mayor complained that she was not invited.
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster for extraordinary leadership
When nine-term councillor Andy Foster was unexpectedly elected Mayor last year, he promptly enrolled himself in a $30,000 leadership course at Arrowtown’s Millbrook estate. However, he has refused to say what, if anything, he learned – and has since spent more money on a team facilitator to smooth over problems on his Council.
Auckland Council: Temporary cycleways for COVID-19
Auckland Council installed 17 kilometres of temporary cycleway in response to COVID-19. Like Dunedin’s dots, the initiative was intended to assist social distancing. All works had to be reversed in a matter of weeks. The total cost is estimated to be more than a million dollars.
Rotorua Lakes District Council: $743,000 for the Hemo Gorge sculpture
Rotorua’s 12-metre, 3D printed Hemo Gorge sculpture was initially planned to open in 2017 at a cost of $500,000. Three years later, it is still under construction, and costs have blown out to at least $743,000.
Local Government Jonesie Winner:
Central government nominees
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Responding to COVID-19 with horse tracks
The Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Party Leader led the Government’s COVID-19 response by announcing a $72 million funding package for the racing industry. This package included two synthetic horse tracks. No-one has been able to establish how horse tracks relate to coronavirus.
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard: $572,000 for a Parliamentary slide
As part of his initiative to make Parliament more “family-friendly”, the Speaker of the House commissioned the construction of a playground on Parliament’s lawn. The playground, which essentially consists of a slide and some stepping stones, was budgeted at $400,000, but ultimately cost $572,000.
Hon Chris Hipkins: $87 million for unwanted internet modems
An $87 million package to give students the means to study remotely during COVID-19 lockdown resulted in thousands of unwanted modems being sent to wealthy schools. Epsom’s Auckland Grammar alone received 137 unwanted modems, and even Mike Hosking’s child was a beneficiary of the policy.
Hon Shane Jones: Three train trips for $6.2 million
The Regional Economic Development Minister re-opened the Wairoa-Napier rail line last year, predicting that up to six train services would run per week. As of last month, only three services had run in total: a cost of more than $2 million per train trip.
Hon Kelvin Davis: $10 million for AJ Hackett Bungy
In response to a tourism downturn due to COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis singled out one of Queenstown’s most successful businesses – AJ Hackett Bungy – for a taxpayer handout. AJ Hackett received a $5.1 million grant, plus a potential $5.1 million loan, all on top of its substantial payout received under the COVID-19 wage subsidy scheme.
Central Government Jonesie Winner:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Hon Phil Twyford is this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner for excellence in government waste.
His promise to build 100,000 KiwiBuild homes in 10 years, cost taxpayers $2 billion. Two years into that period, KiwiBuild has delivered just 395 houses – fewer than the number of houses blocked by protestors at Ihumātao. At the current rate, Phil Twyford’s promise will be fulfilled in 436 years.
Even with the taxpayer subsidy, these homes are too expensive or located in places people don’t want to buy. As a result, many finished homes have sat on the market for six months or more, and the Government has promised to buy back homes that do not sell.
Last year, the Prime Minister finally removed Phil Twyford from the Housing portfolio. However, his record of waste continues.
As Transport Minister, Twyford blew out the cost of SkyPath – a cycleway across Auckland’s Harbour Bridge – from $67 million to $360 million, with more cost increases expected once construction actually begins.
Twyford has also increased fuel taxes by 12 cents per litre (and even more in Auckland) in three years.
This tax hike was meant to pay for light rail in Auckland. Last month, the light rail proposal was shelved, after two and a half years and $5 million was spent investigating it.
Despite the main justification for fuel tax hikes being void, Twyford has no plans to reverse his increases to the tax on commuters.
In his maiden speech in Parliament, he remarked: “At the end of our times here, some of us will be remembered, but most of us will not.”
He need not worry. Taxpayers will never forget Phillip Stoner Twyford.
In other news...
Judith Collins wasn't among our Jonesie nominees, but I'd be remiss not to acknowledge her elevation to the National Party leadership last night.
Obviously, it's too soon for her to make specific policy commitments, but she did send some signals. Here's what she had to say on tax:
The National Party is not the party of big taxes. What we are is we're the party of sensible spending. We're a party of infrastructure. We're a party who believes in investing, but we're not stupid with money because we always know somebody has to pay it back.
She also singled out reform of the Resource Management Act as a policy area of particular interest.
We'll be engaging with Judith Collins and her deputy, Gerry Brownlee, to get a sense of their strategies to bring our economy back to growth, and the Government books back to surplus.
Thanks for your support,
Louis Houlbrooke
Campaigns Manager
New Zealand Taxpayers' Union
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