REVEALED: NZTA spends $710,000 on Mackenzie Basin art sculptures

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the New Zealand Transport Agency to “work on their negotiation skills” after documents were obtained from an Official Information Act request showing they spent $270,000 on design costs and $390,000 on installation for a 14 metre tall art sculpture outside a rest stop near Tekapo. The documents also show that more than $50,000 was spent on a piece of cultural panelling down the road in Burkes Pass.

Commenting, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“The first sentence on the NZTA’s website states ‘our primary function is to promote an affordable land transport system’.  Whichever bureaucrat approved this expensive piece of artwork needs to be reminded that this object is neither affordable, nor a land transport system.”

“Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but no one is stopping their car mid-journey just to see a 14m tall metal eyesore when the stunning Mackenzie Basin is in the backdrop. And the mountains didn’t cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands to commission.”

“The Transport Agency can’t tell the public how much they’re wasting on questionable art across the country, because even they have no way of keeping track of the massive sums. Maybe if these bureaucrats focussed less on decorations and more on roads, our highways wouldn’t feel quite so much like the surface of the moon.”