Waka Kotahi needs to pivot its Road to Zero road safety strategy into a Road to Zero Waste strategy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Today we learn the transport agency spent almost $10,000 purchasing two large zero symbols – that’s a year’s worth of income tax for someone on the median wage.”

The “giant” zeros sit on platforms and still only reach the shoulder of Transport Minister Michael Wood.

All up, the Road to Zero strategy is set to cost taxpayers $197 million across four years, including $85 million in advertising. The first two television ads alone have cost $4.7 million.

“The scale of the Road to Zero propaganda spending is so massive that Waka Kotahi has lost perspective of the value of taxpayer money. They must see $10,000 as a drop in the bucket – 0.005% of the total campaign cost – but for a household budget that money could have made a real difference.”

“What’s really offensive about this spending is that it has nothing to do with promoting safe driving habits. The Road to Zero campaign is about softening New Zealanders up to accept lower speed limits.”

The Taxpayers’ Union recently wrote to the Public Service Commission highlighting how the Road to Zero ads breach government advertising guidelines for their focus on promoting government policy over positive behaviour change.

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