“Labour needs to explain how much was spent on the failed and disgraced media merger. Now they admit it was a harebrained mistake, they need to tell New Zealand how much Willie Jackson wasted. ACT predicts over $30 million was spent – that’s a lot of bread and butter,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Like the failed Auckland bike bridge, this latest harebrained idea is very expensive. Labour needs to explain how much it cost and how Willie Jackson can remain a Minister after wasting that much money.

“What is Labour’s acceptable standard for wasting money? Michael Wood wasted $50 million on a bike bridge that never got built. Has Willie Jackson met the threshold?

“Recent media reports were that the Government had spent $15 million on the failed and disgraced media merger. ACT has calculated how much has been wasted.

“$15 million is a lot of bread and butter. You can get a loaf of Nature’s Fresh for $3.50 at Countdown. They could have bought 4.3 million loaves of Nature’s Fresh for $15 million. They could have got 2.3 million 500g blocks of Anchor Butter. Either way, it’s a lot of bread and butter.

“That's just what we know of so far, we predict the full cost will be a lot more once the media merger is finally put to bed. There will be costs Labour can’t just stop immediately.

“Labour needs to tell New Zealanders what this little experiment has cost taxpayers.”

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