MEDIA RELEASE

ATEED Sending Staff on Olympic Junket

19 AUGUST 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

While Aucklanders struggle to pay their rates, Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development (ATEED) is spending tens of thousands of dollars of ratepayer money sending two staff on the ultimate junket to the Rio Olympics.

The Ratepayers’ Alliance can reveal that Steve Armitage, the GM of External Relations, and Susan Sawbridge, ATEED's Stakeholder Relations Manager, are at the Olympics this week despite both having no responsibility for major events or even working in the department responsible for attracting commercial investment to Auckland.

A spokesperson for the Ratepayers’ Alliance, Jo Holmes, says, “While you could understand a member of the Auckland World Masters Games organising team attending Rio, the two staff ATEED have sent have nothing to do with organising events. It’s just a junket on our dime, plain and simple.”

“If ATEED was at the Olympics to attract events or competitions to Auckland, they would have sent someone from their events department. Likewise, if they were there to promote Auckland investment, they would have sent someone who works in that area.”

“This is just the sort of rort Auckland ratepayers are sick of, and why the Ratepayers’ Alliance was established. The next Council needs to stamp out this culture of waste and entitlement.”

Earlier this week the Ratepayers’ Alliance reviled that total spending on travel by the Council and CCOs totalled $7.6 million for the two years to July 2016. See: http://eepurl.com/b-kSwj

ENDS

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