The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has sent $500,012 on consultants for posture training and workstation assessments in the last three years.

Commenting on this, regular desk user (self-trained) and Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Here’s one to make taxpayers sit up straight and listen: over half a million dollars has been wasted by one government department alone teaching bureaucrats how to use a desk and chair.”

“The public service can posture all it likes claiming there’s no more fat to be trimmed, but when MBIE’s happy to chuck hundreds of thousands away on posture training it’s taxpayers who are left bent out of shape.”

“MBIE could do with getting their values back in alignment with cash-strapped taxpayers. They can start by sacking the back-alignment consultants, when a few printed-off diagrams stuck around the office would do the same job for a fraction of the cost.”

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