MEDIA RELEASE
MBIE Head Retracts Offer to Meet Taxpayer Representatives
TUESDAY, 23 JUNE 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The head of the government department that spent $140,474 on a TV screen, $67,339 on a sign and $5,480 on an arts
consultant for its new Wellington offices, has retracted an offer made to the Taxpayers’ Union to meet about the
Ministry’s spending. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:
“After we expressed public concerns last week about the Ministry's spending, MBIE officials told us that the CEO, David
Smol, would be willing to meet and discuss the wasteful spending within the Ministry. Now the media heat has died down,
they refuse to talk.”
“We wanted to have a serious meeting away from the media to constructively engage on how the Ministry is spending
taxpayers’ money. Instead of keeping their word, the Ministry is once again running from accountability.”
Today the Taxpayers' Union released a short video of its mascot, Porky, presenting a government waste certificate of
achievement to the Ministry's Head of Communications. On the video he can clearly be heard saying that the CEO would
meet with theTaxpayers' Union to discuss wasteful use of taxpayers’ money.
ends