Labour is demanding to know why Work and Income NZ is in the top rank of corporate spenders on television advertising when it is a public service organisation with no competitors.

The department is ranked fifth in the television ad spend rankings published in the National Business Review on Friday. It is reported to have spent $178,840 in the week to July 24.
Winz also appears, as NZ Income Support, in the rankings published on July 23. It is ranked 11th for the week to July 10, with reported spending of $261,280.

"Winz' extravagance puts the department in the list of New Zealand's 'top products and services' in terms of ad spending," says Labour social welfare spokesperson Steve Maharey. "It's hard to understand why an organisation with no competitors has to spend so much on branding. Beneficiaries have no choice about using Winz' services."

"We know the government budgeted $1.3 million for Winz' 'Api' ad campaign. These rankings make it clear just how extravagant that is. Winz is up there with major corporates like Telecom, Air New Zealand, McDonald's and Mitsubishi in its spending on advertising."

"None of this spending is necessary. The government is wasting money on a vanity campaign for Winz when it could be spent on job creation, supported employment and apprenticeships."

"It's just more evidence that the government and Winz have lost the plot."

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>