David Farrar: $263,000 of Mayoral expenses?

The WCC website lists the Mayoral expenses for the Mayor of Wellington. They state that there has been $263,369.31 of expenses for the Mayor since October 2022, which is a staggering amount.

I do wonder if the WCC is including some stuff as Mayoral expenses that shouldn’t be there. They list $137,979.22 of Mayoral expenses for citizenship ceremonies. Is that just the Mayor’s expenses or the expenses for the entire ceremonies?

There is also $73,174.06 for events hosted by the Mayor. If these are official Council events, they should not be listed as a Mayoral expense.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.