Justice Summit $1.5 million… and counting

The Government’s Criminal Justice Summit has cost taxpayers $1.5 million dollars, an amount that could continue to increase, National’s Justice Spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“When I first asked Justice Minister Andrew Little how much he expected the Summit to cost, he estimated it would be $700,000. Instead, the two day talk-fest blew out to more than double that. It was attended by six hundred people, which means it cost $2,500 per person.

“Mr Little now needs to explain how it cost so much and where the money has come from. Like most people, I think that money would have been better spent on victims.

“The summit largely focussed on going soft of on criminals. Now, Mr Little is talking about having another summit for victims and a third summit for Māori. That could bring us to $4.5 million.

“PWC was contracted to run the event and the food was provided by a gourmet caterer which included decadent gluten-free chocolate brownie, pork, apricot and thyme pastries, four different kinds of croissants, luxury pies and chicken and cranberry casserole.

“The Government has more than 160 working groups and summits costing at least $170 million. This is all because Labour didn’t do the policy work while in Opposition and is now crowdsourcing its policies.”

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