The Transport Minister has allowed the NZ Transport Agency to become politicised, forcing the Public Service Commissioner to reprimand the agency for running ads with Labour and Green local election candidates, National’s Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says.

“NZTA is in trouble after putting up advertisements that featured Labour and Green local election candidates during the current election period, inconsistent with the requirement for government agencies to be politically neutral.

“The Public Service Commissioner rightly reprimanded the agency, writing to the NZTA Board Chair to seek assurances that this does not happen again.

“Under Minister Michael Wood’s watch, the number of communications staff at NZTA have tripled from 32 to 97 since 2017. Many are being paid more than $100,000.

“Yet, for all this supposed expertise, not one of the 97 highly-paid spin doctors at NZTA appear to have questioned the appropriateness of running ads with political candidates.

“It raises questions about the kind of lax and careless culture that has developed at NZTA under Michael Wood’s leadership.

“The Minister needs make his expectations clear to NZTA that it should uphold our public service standards and remain politically neutral.”