The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can report through an Official Information Act that Metlink has paid $1,300,245 dollars (inc. GST) for a project to install seven toilets in Wellington, exclusively for the use of bus drivers. The locations of the toilets include Houghton Bay, Darlington Road, Wilton, Mairangi, Lyall Bay, Highbury and Karori.

“This latest waste story is another example of government failing to deliver on the basics. Spending a penny is one thing, but spending 130 million pennies for just seven toilets takes the biscuit.

“At an average cost of over $185,000 per toilet, it makes you wonder – are the seats made of gold? While looking after bus drivers is important, that money could have surely gone further if spent better.

“Through only a quick Google search, Metlink could have bought seven high end portable toilets that would have cost below $2,000 each. Not only that, with the money left over, they could have hired another twenty full-time drivers. Surely that would have helped with the constant bus delays more than installing seven loos?

“Metlink needs to start thinking about where they get their money from. Ratepayers are paying their rates with the expectation that they are paying for busses that will be on time, not on frankly ludicrous toilet spending.To waste a million dollars of ratepayers’ hard-earned money in a time when Kiwis are facing a cost-of-living crisis shows how out of touch they are with the people they are supposed to serve.”

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