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Speaker 1: The New Zealand Film Commission has raised eyebrows for spending

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Speaker 1: nearly seventeen thousand dollars on staff parties in this time

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Speaker 1: and age. More than eight thousand dollars were spent on

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Speaker 1: two farewell parties for the two farewell parties for the

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Speaker 1: outgoing Chief Executive Maladden Advantsage that was approved by the

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Speaker 1: incoming Chief Executive, Annie Murray, and then of course Maladden Evantage,

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Speaker 1: the outgoing executive approved another eight thousand dollars for two

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Speaker 1: welcome parties for the incoming chief executive. Any The executive

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Speaker 1: director of the Taxpayers Union is Jordan Williams, and head

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Speaker 1: joins me now and you're obviously fulminating, mate, aren't you?

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Speaker 2: Good day? Andrew? Look another week another adjoining your show

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Speaker 2: or joining ZB to get another story of the Film

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Speaker 2: Commission spassing money up the wall. If I had that

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Speaker 2: sort of behavior, the idea of me signing off on

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Speaker 2: or scratching the back of my replacement and him scratching

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Speaker 2: my back to sign off on each of his parties

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Speaker 2: in any private sect for organization, you'd be marched down

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Speaker 2: the road. But not at the Film Commission. They seem

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Speaker 2: to live on another planet, funded by other people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, sixteen four hundred and thirty one dollars is what

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Speaker 1: they blew. There are fifty four staff. They don't actually

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Speaker 1: make a film, They just wonder about whether a film

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Speaker 1: should be made. Why is it these public servants haven't

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Speaker 1: actually got the memo that says don't spend money for

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Speaker 1: a bit survived till twenty.

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Speaker 2: Five because the Film Commission actually don't think that the

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Speaker 2: rules apply to them. I mean, you know I wasn't

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Speaker 2: exaggerating that. You know that we're always talking about the

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Speaker 2: Film Commission. You know they've had two parties. There was

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Speaker 2: not just one party for the outgoing guy and one

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Speaker 2: for the incoming you know, they had to have one

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Speaker 2: in each of Wellington and Auckland. And if only they

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Speaker 2: didn't go through many, so many CEOs. Of course, you

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Speaker 2: remember David Strong cost taxpayers and only seven hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: to get rid of him, including a four hundred and

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Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars golden good bye. You know, there's very

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Speaker 2: clearly problems at the Film Commission. You know, they spend

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Speaker 2: six and a half million dollars on staff, costs fifty

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Speaker 2: four people to dole out only thirty million in grants.

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Speaker 2: The films that they give money to the box office

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Speaker 2: is less than the subsidies that taxpayers front up and

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Speaker 2: pay for. You know that there's real questions here. Taxpayers

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Speaker 2: Union were set up to sort of highlight government waste. Look,

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Speaker 2: this whole organization is.

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Speaker 1: So can we cut them some slack? For instance, the

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Speaker 1: approval for the spending was done in mid twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: arguably before this government's big savings drive, so they could

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Speaker 1: argue ignorance, couldn't.

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Speaker 2: They No whether it was wasted a year ago or today,

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Speaker 2: it's still taxpayer money. I think even even the last

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Speaker 2: government wouldn't for a moment defend this. I mean, the

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Speaker 2: whole point of this agency, as best we can tell,

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Speaker 2: is to use taxpayer funded champagne to coax another lord

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Speaker 2: of the rings not even doing that.

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Speaker 1: Do you think, though, that the government should actually send

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Speaker 1: out a directive? I mean, the hinters obviously have been

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Speaker 1: sent out loud and clear, but they have to do

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Speaker 1: they have to put it out on paper and say

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Speaker 1: just no more parties.

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Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean Paul Goldsmith's the Minister of Yards.

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Speaker 2: The Ministry uts to do his job, call in the

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Speaker 2: political appointments that sit on this board and say do

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Speaker 2: your job. You have to your successive chief executives that

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Speaker 2: we first got themselves into trouble, and now the middle

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Speaker 2: one and the most recent are clearly showing they can't

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Speaker 2: read the room. You know, a year ago New Zealanders

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Speaker 2: were still under there, still under the cost of living pressure.

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Speaker 2: You know that we've previously called out the Film Commission

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Speaker 2: for sending half a dozen people to literally the purpose

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Speaker 2: of going to Las to attend the after parties at

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Speaker 2: various awards and the hopes of schmoozing someone with our

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Speaker 2: money to come and set up and do something in

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Speaker 2: New Zeland. I mean this is this is literally a

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Speaker 2: government agency that just operates totally outside the rules. They're

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Speaker 2: allowed to have modest farewell parties, hope.

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Speaker 1: So okay, there's four of them, all right, Jordan, I

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Speaker 1: thank you. We've got to move on, and I thank

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Speaker 1: you so very much. Jordan Williams A is the executive

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Speaker 1: director of the Taxpayers Union.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.