DownUnderSpin

Slowly buying every Tom Waits record in the world…

[NickMowbray @NMowbray23]

YOU'RE WEEKLY REMINDER OF WHERE YOUR MONEY WENT UNDER THE LAST GOV. ( a few of thousands of examples)

1. Wallaby eradication — $2.7 million to kill 18 wallabies. $153,000 per wallaby and 26,000 labour hours. Cheaper to fly them home business class.

2. Virtual job expos — $835,000. 126 people attended. $6,626 per Zoom attendee.

3. Global health recruitment campaign — $514,000. Result: 3 interviews. $171,000 per interview.

4. Let's Get Wellington Moving — $35m on consultants. Just $250k on actual construction. You read that right.

5. Auckland Light Rail — $229 million. Six years. Not one metre of track. Burning $1.2m/week on consultants at peak.

6. Three Waters — ~$1.2 billion torched on a policy nobody wanted, scrapped before delivering a single pipe. Included $14,500 to write a job description for a CEO who never existed.

7. iReX ferries — $500m+ sunk. Ballooned from $551m to a projected $3 billion+ before cancellation. (NZ First also had fingerprints on the original deal — worth being upfront about.)

8. RAT tests — $531 million sitting in warehouses. Storage at $100,000/day. Approved over a year late.

9. Mongrel Mob meth rehab — $2.75 million. $239k catering. $157k marae hire. $100k hiring a van.

10. Shorter shower campaign — $2.8 million. Printed in 7 languages. To tell you to take shorter showers.

11. Auckland Harbour cycle/walking bridge — $51 million on planning before scrapped. No bridge.

12. Lake Onslow pumped hydro — ~$100 million on feasibility studies. Not a shovel in the ground.

13. Workforce Development Councils — $65 million/year for bodies critics said delivered little tangible value. Disestablished.

14. RNZ/TVNZ merger — $20 million. Abandoned by Labour themselves.

15. Ethnic women in politics research — $842,000. A university grant could've done it for a fraction.

16. "Ulu Cavu Wig Tour" — $73,000 in taxpayer funding for the Arts Minister's husband's tour.

17. Abandoned China immigration office — ~$3 million in rent on an office closed for over a year.

18. Promoting Australian citizenship to Kiwis already in Australia — $10,000. Funding the brain drain with our money.

…and we could keep going.

We should never FORGET Labour. Just a small fraction of their wasteful ways.
@NZNationalParty @actparty

[NickMowbray @NMowbray23]

Do we think there will ever be a labour policy without the word free in it ?

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@truereckons1 That grey paint is really expensive…

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@FullTwatforward @Julie_nzkiwi @_AAAP_ @1NewsNZ Not shopping at Farmers then…?

[Jack Reacher @justinb24448577]

@Maddyson2021 If this is true...? SFO need to be informed

[Te Pigeōn Juliē @Julie_nzkiwi]

Just arrived into the office at my bureaucrat job in Wellington.

They've run out of oat milk. Sent an email to HR with my they them pronouns in email signature.

I'm now having a mental health break for an hour, before the trans Maori treaty karakia hui begins.

[NickMowbray @NMowbray23]

WILD.

Comparing the NZ government structure to Finland’s. A picture says 1000 words !!

Both countries have similar populations (5.5M). The structures behind are very different.

Finland:
• 12 core ministries
• Clear vertical accountability
• Defined ownership
• Built for speed, clarity, and execution

New Zealand:
• 40+ departments
• 80+ ministerial portfolios
• Layers of overlapping responsibility
• Super-ministries reporting across multiple ministers

The result? Accountability blur. No improvement. Massive waste.

In any high-performing organisation, if everyone is responsible, no one is.

NZ has exceptional people. But we need systems designed to deliver outcomes, not a birds-nest structure that creates no improvement or efficiency.

Fixing this will be a HUGE unlock on NZ long term. All parties should come together in a bi partisan way to sort this out.@actparty @NZNationalParty @nzfirst @nzlabour

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@GlobeEyeNews BS.

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@GolfChannel Adare Manor?

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@truereckons1 @EricaStanfordMP For the record, my son goes to Marl
Boys and he definitely demands to be called Commander by his students. He’s dreaming of he thinks those medals are actually his…

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@GOLF_com It would change the approach to the Ryder Cup which would be a good thing.

[NickMowbray @NMowbray23]

We should never FORGET labour. Just a small fraction of their wasteful ways. @NZNationalParty @actparty

1. 18 wallabies — $2.7 million
A eradication programme costing $153,000 per wallaby and 26,000 hours of labour. Cheaper to fly each one business class back to Australia.
2. Three Waters — $1.2 billion torched
Spent on a policy nobody wanted, that was immediately scrapped. Included $14,500 to write a single job description for a CEO who never existed.
3. RAT tests — $531 million sitting in warehouses
Costing $100,000 per day just to store. Most never used. Private businesses could have managed this themselves. RATS were also approved over a year too late.
4. Mongrel Mob meth rehab — $2.75 million
Including $239K on catering, $157K on Marae hire, and $100K hiring a van.
5. Virtual job expos — $835,000
Over two years. 126 people attended. That’s $6,626 per person to attend a Zoom call.
6. Shorter shower campaign — $2.8 million
Printed in 7 languages. To tell people to have shorter showers.
7. Health recruitment ad campaign — $514,000
Launched globally to attract health professionals. Result: 3 interviews.
8. Overseas recruitment ad for Kiwis — $10,000
Spent promoting Australian citizenship to Kiwis already living in Australia.
9. Wig tour — $73,000
Taxpayer money to fund the Arts Minister’s husband’s “Ulu Cavu Wig Tour of New Zealand.”
10. Abandoned China immigration office — $3 million
Kept paying rent on an office that had been closed for over a year.
11.) 2.Auckland Harbour cycling/walking bridge — more than $50 million spent before the project was cancelled
12.) Auckland light rail 229 million spent wjth not a single meter of track put in the ground before scrapped. ( over 1 mil a week )
13.Workforce Development Councils 65 million a year for bodies critics said delivered little tangible value; subsequently disestablished.
14.)RNZ/TVNZ public media merger — about $20 million spent before the merger was abandoned
15.)Let’s Get Wellington Moving — around $35 million spent on consultant fees while only about $250,000 went to actual construction before the programme was wound down
16.The Taliban publicly praised the NZ Labour government after receiving a $3 million donation framed as humanitarian aid.
17.)11. $842,000 to research ethnic women in NZ politics
Nearly a million dollars to study the experiences of ethnic women as politicians within NZ’s political system. A topic that could’ve been handled with a university research grant for a fraction of that
18.).... could keep going and going.

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@Bushra1Shaikh Enjoying your posts, thank you for showing the Iranian side.

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@truereckons1 A mortgage as a pensioner? Madness…

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@truereckons1 Well she’s clearly a socialist while campaigning on a green agenda?

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@TheZeitgeistNZ And that’s got what to do with green initiatives?

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@flushingitgolf The Speith and Bryson groups.

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@truereckons1 @aniobrien @kaiviti_cam @Suitandtie9999 @dpfdpf Change my mind…

[DownUnderSpin @downunderspin]

@Osinttechnical They aren’t KC135’s…

[William McGimpsey🇳🇿 @TheZeitgeistNZ]

WATCH: Mike Hosking calls out the media over trying to manufacture a Luxon leadership crisis.