Simon Bridges criticises Labour for $800k over-budget Justice Summit he labels a 'PR' exercise

September 10, 2018

The Justice Summit held last month was supposed to cost $700,000. Instead, it cost $1.5 million.

Labour already knew what reforms they wanted to make before holding last month's Justice Summit - a ridiculously expensive public relations stunt  -  the National Party leader alleged this morning as he came out swinging on TVNZ1's Breakfast.

Simon Bridges lambasted the high-profile event, which was initially budgeted to cost about $700,000. 1 NEWS reported yesterday that the end cost clocked in at more than double that, at $1.5 million.

"It's a lot of money - to go from $700 grand to $1.5 million is a lot of wasteful spending," Mr Bridges said, pointing out that with 600 people in attendance it amounted to roughly $2500 per person.

"It's not as if Andrew Little and Jacinda Ardern don't know what they're achieving here," he added. "They want to lighten up the sentences, they have a clear plan and this is just kind of the PR around it.

"I had several MPs there. They thought it was a waste of time. They thought it was ministers coming in, pre-prepared speeches that were effectively saying what they were going to say and not a lot achieved for big costs."

Responding to 1 NEWS yesterday, Justice Minister Andrew Little defended the event.

The summit aimed at overhauling what Labour says is a "broken" system blew is budget.

"You do the best of what you know at the time," he said. "And then the more you get into it and do the detailed planning, sometimes you find it cost a little more than expected."

But "investing in new ideas" is money well spent, he added.

"It does cost a bit when you're drawing on people, including people who haven't been heard for many, many years," Mr Little said.

Jarrod Gilbert, who's on the Government's Justice Advisory Group, described criticism of the summit as "a bit petty" when considering that it costs about $100,000 to house a single person in prison for a year. So finding a solution that could keep more than 15 people out of prison would erase the cost the summit altogether, he suggested.

But Mr Bridges told Breakfast today that the summit was a symptom of a larger ailment for Labour.

The Prime Minister says the public often react to emotive cases, rather than best practice.

"Ultimately what you've got here with summits and working groups - there are around 160 of these things, one every couple of days," he said. "There's a couple of hundred million dollars of costs. That stuff does all add up. You could deal with the teachers strike. You could deal with health with that sort of money."

As for the Justice Summit, Mr Bridges suggested Labour leaders are focusing their attention on the wrong crowd.

"You know who (Mr Little) needs to convince? It isn't the 600-odd there for $2500 each," he said. "It's Winston Peters and his merry band of men and women who he needs to convince."

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