Mackenzie Basin artworks cost taxpayer $700,000

An official information act request has revealed that roadside artworks for tourists entering the Mackenzie Basin cost the taxpayer more than $700,000.

The Taxpayers Union made the request to NZTA referencing "works of art that serve no practical purpose".

The organisation has published the reply received from NZTA.

"Regarding your specific request, the SH08-SH79-SH80 Mackenzie Basin Improvement project (the project) included three packages (Pukaki, Mt Burgess and Tekapo) and was implemented to provide safety and access improvements, including safe stopping areas, increased capacity at existing rest areas, and new rest areas at scenic locations, as well as tourist information.

"With an increasing number of self-drive tourists, there are higher expectations to provide safe places to pull over, safe access points and a forgiving road environment to allow tourists national and international to share the road with cyclists and freight. Dog Kennel Corner was one of the areas benefitting from improvements, including the construction of the artwork Ka Tiritiri o te Moana Mahi Toi. 

"The project and artworks were funded as part of a Regional Investment Opportunities package and administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through Kānoa (the Regional Economic Development and Investment Unit).

"Professional and designer fees for the project artworks in the package, including interpretative panels, were $270,000. The artwork installation, including transport and construction, was $440,000 ($390,000 for Tekapo and $50,000 for Burke’s Pass)."

In a media release today the Taxpayers Union was critical of the NZTA's inability to provide a comprehensive list of similar artwork project around the country.

“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.”