If the allegation contained in today’s Sunday Star-Times is correct, the Prime Minister is breaking the law in using her taxpayer funded electorate secretary as a wedding
planner, says the Taxpayers' Union.
Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, “No one would object to officials ensuring appropriate security at the Prime Minister’s
wedding – but having an official involved in the venue and catering is totally unjustified.”
“This shows a real misjudgement by the Prime Minister and her staff. The electorate secretary's job is to assist Mount
Albert taxpayers with contituency issues. Sending electorate staff to Gisborne to negotiate a personal matter on the
taxpayer's time is unlawful.”
“Now that the venue owner has outed this dodgy deployment of the electorate secretary, Ardern owes taxpayers and her
consituents some answers. Why did she think this was an appropriate use of her staff? Did the flights and accomodation
come out of her taxpayer-funded electorate budget?”
“If the allegations are found to be correct, Ms Ardern needs to account for how many hours her staff have spent planning
the wedding and pay back those costs to the taxpayer. We’ll be writing to the Speaker and the Auditor General to ask
them to investigate this matter.”