Taxpayers fork out $2500 a week for top PR company

The Ministry of Justice needs to explain why it is paying a top Wellington public relations company about $2500 a week to upload judgments to the Courts of New Zealand website, Labour’s State Services spokesperson Maryan Street says.

“The Ministry has its own in-house communications team which costs it $750,000 a year and spends a further $163,000 maintaining its 11 websites.

“Yet it uses taxpayer funding to pay another $128,000 a year to Senate Communications to post legal decisions.

“Most other government departments manage their own websites. Why is the Justice Ministry unable to do the same?

“The independence of New Zealand’s judiciary is the cornerstone of our democracy and must be maintained. The Justice Ministry’s decision to employ one of the country’s foremost spin merchants calls its integrity into question.

“Senate has built a reputation as a corporate mouthpiece for the likes of Rio Tinto, BP, Woolworths and Bathurst.

“To involve this company in a role which implies editorial license is reprehensible,” Maryan Street says.

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