The first part of the costs of Charles Windsor’s publicity tour of New Zealand has been released by the Department of Internal Affairs, showing $766,000 was spent on the 6 day tour by the department alone. “This does not include what the Defence Force, Police and local authorities spent” said Lewis Holden, chair of the Republican Movement.
The Republican Movement has been requesting the budget for the tour for months, and has made a complaint against the Department to the Ombudsman regarding the Department’s attempts not to release the budget under the Official Information Act 1982. The budget for the tour was $1,050,000.
“The cost of this tour could easily come in over the $1 million dollar mark – four times the cost of Charles’ 2005 tour. We don’t know yet how much it cost taxpayers to fly Charles, Camilla and their party of 23, to New Zealand from Australia, then back home to the United Kingdom via Singapore. We have another OIA request pending for that” continued Mr Holden.
“It’s reasonable for New Zealand to pay for the cost of security for foreign dignitaries. It’s not reasonable for us to pay for their VIP transport, visits by their public relations people, birthday parties or anything else. These costs are another reason why New Zealand should have its own, independent head of State. The people of Singapore, a member of the Commonwealth that is a republic and had a Royal tour as well this year, only had to cover the cost of William and Kate’s security when they visited” concluded Mr Holden.
NOTES
A full breakdown of the Department of Internal Affair’s costs can be found here: https://www.republic.org.nz/blog/royal-tour-costs-part-vii