Transport Agency's traffic management cone-spiracy blows out to $786 million

The Taxpayers’ Union is reacting to reports that show the New Zealand Transport Agency has spent more than $786 million dollars on road cones and temporary traffic management in the last three years.

Responding to the outrageous amount of money, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“You cone-not be serious. New Zealand has some of the most expensive infrastructure projects in the developed world, yet we’ve still got an infrastructure deficit as long as your arm.

"When just shy of $800m has been blown on traffic cones and lolly-pop signs, is it any wonder there never seems to be enough money to actually get anything built?

“It begs the question, how many road cones has NZTA ended up buying in the last three years? Which contractor was able to grift off this insane amount of spending?

“Perhaps if they were faster at building real roads, this excess spending wouldn’t be necessary. This is evidence of a broken system, and reason for major cost-saving, results driven reform.”