By James Ross

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an official information act request that Sports NZ’s “Say Thanks to Your Coach” campaign cost $171,598, with Sports NZ contributing $131,598 and Coach for Life contributing a further $40,000. The campaign featured a website for a month, which was used to send e-cards and video messages.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Sports NZ’s ability to somehow spend more than $575 per thank-you email takes the gold for government waste. For the $171,598 cost, Sports NZ could’ve bought 8,580 rugby balls. Instead, they sent a few pixels.

“While the Taxpayers’ Union genuinely applauds the work of New Zealand’s volunteer coaches, surely someone at Sports NZ could dream up a more cost-effective way to thank them? For starters, they could’ve bought the 298 coaches fourteen crates of Speights each and still had change to spare.

“Sports NZ need pulling into line, because clearly someone at the agency doesn’t care about delivering value for money. The only question that matters now is how will they be held accountable?”