Nominations now open for the 2023 Jonesie Waste Awards

On the 17th of August, The Taxpayers' Union will be hosting the 6th annual Jonesie Waste Awards, live from Parliament. 

Nominations have now opened for the awards of Local Government, Central Government and Lifetime Achievement.

What are the Jonesie Waste Awards? The Jonesie Waste Awards is an unapologetic yet tongue-in-cheek recognition of the most memorable acts of government waste, excessive regulation, and inefficiency. It's an opportunity to hold those in power accountable for their actions and bring attention to the issues that matter most.

Click here to watch last years Jonesie Awards!

Tell us who deserves to be honoured with a Jonesie this year below!

Deadline for nominations end of day Thursday the 10th of August 2023.

Showing 214 reactions

  • Howard Clifton
    commented 2023-07-25 17:57:49 +1200
    Hipkins. These called pm, not voted in,and cannot and will not run a country,
  • Bruce Wenzlick
    commented 2023-07-25 17:55:17 +1200
    Mahoota, for wasting an entire health budget & more on a racist agenda that will fail.
  • charlene storrar
    commented 2023-07-25 17:54:51 +1200
    jacinda ardern
  • charlene storrar
    commented 2023-07-25 17:53:42 +1200
    jacinda ardernj
  • Alan Farquharson
    commented 2023-07-25 17:50:21 +1200
    Jacinda Adern, Chris Hipkins, Grant Robertson, Nania Mahuta and the combined Labour and Greens caucus for turning a very healthy economy into a double dip recession in less than 6 years.
  • Richard Graham
    commented 2023-07-25 17:49:06 +1200
    DOC – the $3500 encouragement to learn Maori language. NB. It is NOT a necessary skill for their job though !

    When I set out to learn Italian via night classes, I paid for it. Why should I as taxpayer pay for Jennifer Eccles to learn Maori ?
  • Louis Esterhuizen
    commented 2023-07-25 17:46:46 +1200
    National

    ALL!!!! New Zealanders must be treated equal with same privileges and not based on race
  • Colin Wratt
    commented 2023-07-25 17:46:13 +1200
    I would like to nominate the whole “Disinformation Project” (or whatever it’s called) as the most astounding waste of money ever. How can a government have the audacity to claim that they have the inside running on truth? Anyone with any other “truth” then becomes the subject of a “fact checking” inquiry. Surely truth can only come from open discussion and debate, something this government does not allow.
  • David Wyatt
    commented 2023-07-25 17:42:50 +1200
    Can only be the one and only Grant Robertson for his arrogance and stuffing up the economy of which we, our children and their children will be burdened with for decades to come

    What economic qualifications does he have!!!
  • Medicor Limited
    commented 2023-07-25 17:40:00 +1200
    Grant Robinson. Wanton waste of tax payers money. Even the IMF think so.

    “The World Economic Outlook report released by IMF today shows the fallout of Grant Robertson’s economic mismanagement, with New Zealand taking last place of all the advanced Asian and Pacific economies,” says ACT Party Leader David Seymour.
  • Rosslyn Cull
    commented 2023-07-25 17:39:52 +1200
    Department of Conservation- Stewart Island

    For powering their electric vehicles on the island with a DIESEL powered charging unit ffs
  • Kevin Laurence
    commented 2023-07-25 17:39:51 +1200
    Grant Robertson finance minister for the Labour who thinks he has a bottomless pit of money to give away
  • Carl Kent
    commented 2023-07-25 17:38:59 +1200
    The governmental minister responsible for all the revisionist indoctrination regarding Matariki. Also the appalling waste of tax payer’s money.
  • Mark Young
    commented 2023-07-25 17:38:47 +1200
    NZ Communist, err I mean Labour government, for wasting $500, 000,000

    (That’s five hundred million or half a billion dollars) on now-useless RAT covid 19 tests. The rationale seems that they favoured a corupt-able PCR test)
  • Kevin Laurence
    commented 2023-07-25 17:38:46 +1200
  • Carole Hambly
    commented 2023-07-25 17:37:58 +1200
    Grant Robinson. Wasting tax payers money on just about everything

    Labour government. For paying media millions to lie

    Labour government. Three waters wasting tax payers money

    Labour government for paying out gangs millions

    Labour government for spending our tax payers money on payments for Covid

    Labour government for Covid rat tests that are expiring and have to be thrown away

    Labour government for stuffing our country up by wasting billions on so many schemes that haven’t worked kiwi build etc.

    Maori schemes that have just sucked up million to billions of tax payers money by labour government

    Labour government for overseas travel that was ridiculous eg planes hotels food alcohol etc

    I could go on and on. This government has failed us as a country they all need to be gone.
  • Kevin Laurence
    commented 2023-07-25 17:37:50 +1200
    The whole Labour Party . Must be the most wasteful monetary and racist inciting Government ever .
  • Carl Kent
    commented 2023-07-25 17:37:16 +1200
    The governmental minister responsible for all the revisionist indoctrination regarding Matariki. Also the appalling waste of tax payer’s money.
  • Kevin Laurence
    commented 2023-07-25 17:36:26 +1200
  • Beau Barfknecht
    commented 2023-07-25 17:35:52 +1200
    The COVID Slush fund and Jobs for Nature program


    After almost six months’ worth of excuses, transfers and extensions on an Official Information Act request sent back in November, your humble Taxpayers’ Union has revealed that taxpayers and Otago ratepayers have forked out more than $2.76 million and employed over 26,000 hours of work to ‘destroy’ (that’s the term the bureaucrats use) just… 18 wallabies! That’s a kill cost of $153,000 per wallaby.

    This was just one of the ‘Jobs for Nature’ projects funded by the COVID slush fund. Jobs for Nature was allocated $1.2 billion – that’s $614 for every kiwi household – as a ‘make work’ scheme when the Government feared we would see mass job losses as a result of the pandemic.

    Despite record-low unemployment and an economy overcooked by Government spending, the fund has continued to dish out taxpayer money to ineffective ‘conservation’ projects at an average cost of around $200,000 per ‘nature job’.
  • Beau Barfknecht
    commented 2023-07-25 17:33:07 +1200
    Department of Conservation – Mike Tully.

    Given a reduced budget. They are $300m behind in infrastructure. DOC complaining to Finance Minister. However they are very happy to offer all 2500 staff a $3500 bonus to learn Maori. Interestingly enough none of the staff are required to use Te reo in their jobs and the DOC HR boss – these days called the Chief People Officer – says that “DOC have no positions that require te reo Maori for the practical purpose of communicating in the course of work.”


    This must be a winner of note
  • Pete Williamson
    commented 2023-07-25 17:31:23 +1200
    Jacinta Adern for overseeing the 3 waters debacle and the creation of a separate Māori health authority
  • Gwynn Compton
    commented 2023-07-25 17:30:56 +1200
    Kāpiti Coast District Council for the spend of $1.22m they wasted on consultants and other contractors pursuing the Te Uruhi Kāpiti Gateway project that they were forced to abandon in early 2023 after three years of fierce community opposition, dodgy business cases, gross mismanagement, and poor management of conflicts of interest.


    Estimated costs blew out from $4.4m (which included nearly 20% in contingencies) to $8.4m – nearly double the original estimate, though the council was still trying to push the project through when costs escalated to $7.7m


    All that was delivered for $1.22m was a few architectural designs, the removal of some native trees, minor stream restoration work, and plenty of billable hours for resource management and project consultants, along with deep divisions and unnecessary stress in the community.


    For a project that was meant to be “shovel ready” for the COVID-19 recovery fund, when it was cancelled it was already running 12-18 months behind the original schedule.
  • Jeff Moselen
    commented 2023-07-25 17:29:23 +1200
    Deputy director general of DOC for $3500 bonus per employee for Te Reo learning competency.

    Ideological and patronising idiocy in face of current financial stress that DOC is in.

    Made worse by fact that no job position within DOC requires competency in Te Reo.
  • Robert Dawson
    commented 2023-07-25 17:28:05 +1200
    I wish to nominate the Health & Safety authorities who have created a regime premised on the idea that there is no price too great to spend on measures needed to save lives and prevent injury. The harsh reality is that life can be attributed a dollar value and that safety measures are only reasonable when their cost does not exceed the value of a human life. This was well covered in the "Smith Report’ on a civil aviation crash at Auckland Airport some years ago.

    This is not a popular concept but the reality is that today we are probably spending more on red cones and other signage and barriers aimed at protecting workers repairing roads and associated infrastructure, than we are spending on the repairs themselves. I haven’t got the calculation necessary to prove such, but in essence we are probably spending $millions in excess of the likely saving of lives or prevention of injuries. I believe it is a national scandal and especially when one adds the cost of say, scaffolding for roof repairs, even on relatively flat roofs, health & safety regulation and compliance thereto in almost every field of business done to the ridiculous logging of “sore fingers” and other minor encounters on any construction site.

    To all this one must add the cost of the inspectorate and huge associated government administration.

    Common sense and appropriate sanction on supervisors who clearly fail to take any reasonable precaution is seemingly of lesser importance than filling out the appropriate incident forms and providing excessive signage etc., to delineate severe hazard areas of work.

    Currently we have the prosecutions associated with the death of tourists attempting to get up close and intimate with an active, steaming, volcano. Have we lost touch with reason?
  • Murray Laird
    commented 2023-07-25 17:27:56 +1200
    Christopher Hopkins for being the team Coxswain for the most uncoordinated, ineffective and with numerous team members falling overboard during a NZ parliamentary term. They rest need to walk the plank.
  • Louis Esterhuizen
    commented 2023-07-25 17:26:21 +1200
    Labor Party

    Why?

    1. Bringing division and racism within New Zealand (Putting one race above the other) – South Africa

    2. Allowing Mobs to do as they please without arrests taking place to try and minimize certain (Special Agenda)

    3. Destroying our Economy and trust

    4. Allowing minority all benefits possible plus funding for doing nothing to contribute

    5. Ungodly

    6. Human rights violations

    7. Gang supporters

    And the list go on

    PLEASE BRING BACK NATIONAL!!!!!!
  • john rademaker
    commented 2023-07-25 17:24:47 +1200
    labour goverment stupid extreem waistfull and chaotic
  • Mark Llewellyn
    commented 2023-07-25 17:23:46 +1200
    Chris Hipkins, for te weakest and most scared PM ever
  • Greg Chubb
    commented 2023-07-25 17:23:34 +1200
    NZTA

    Road to Zero signs