The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Ministry for the Environment has spent $822,362 dollars during just fiscal year 2023 on “internal events”. Since 2018/19, the ministry has spent more than $2 million. Yearly costs for internal events have gone up more than 8x since 2018/19 when annual costs were only $98,045. More details regarding spending details are available through the Taxpayers’ Union Official Information Act request.

Commenting on the exuberant costs, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes said:

“While every business dedicates some money towards events, the fact the ministry has been jacking up their events budget during a time when Kiwis were told to stay home is another example of rules for thee but not for me.

“With the money they decided to fork out on events, they could have instead planted more than 2000 hectares of trees. At least that would have been an attempt to do their actual job of helping the environment rather than playing around in workshops, retreats and lavish events.

“The Ministry needs to come clean on what has led to this latest budget blowout scandal, and how they plan to reign in their bloated event bills. The Taxpayer tab needs to end at all departments, and that includes the Ministry for the Environment.”

© Scoop Media