The danger of the $12000 flying turtle funeral  

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
30
1084

You couldn’t actually write a satire like this…

This week we revealed a story of government waste that is so incredible you couldn’t make it up.

Taxpayers shelled out thousands of dollars transporting a dead turtle from Banks Peninsula to Wellington, storing it in a freezer for 21 months, then sending it back down to where it washed up for a high-powered and fully-catered powhiri.

The turtle even got a taxpayer-funded helicopter ride and a handmade coffin constructed by public servants. No scientific research was performed at any stage.

The total cost to taxpayers for Michelangelo’s eventful afterlife is difficult to quantify, but we’re placing it in the tens of thousands. Te Papa and DOC’s total reported expenses were $11,742.31, but that excludes the time cost for high-level salaried staff.

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…when we can’t feed kids lunch and breakfast at school and can’t lift benefits but can spend $12000 on a turtle funeral, it’s difficult not to feel angry.

There are two dangers here, the first is the Taxpayers Union becoming relevant and the second is this fiasco is so ridiculous it’s mockable and the power of mockery can destroy any earnest progress in a millisecond.

The entire thing reads like a Taika Waititi film plot.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. The worst part of the story was the response from DOC and Te Papa. They had no shame and believed they we justified in their approach.

    • The Public Service Bureaucratic Elite NEVER have any shame @Frank. It’s their divine right under the rules of their neoliberal religion to be shameless. They just concentrate on how they might positively ‘market’ it to the public.

    • No the worst part was RNZs gentle retelling of the story leaving out every single outrageous fact, it read as straight government propaganda.
      How poorly served we are.

      • Indeed. Par for the course with the feckless ones. No wonder there keeps on being reducing trust in the media.

  2. Really? The crown returns a taonga which they had taking under mistaken authorization, in accordance with ToW article 2, and all you lot can do is bemoan the cost:

    “…ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa”

    Making an error, receiving more complete information, then acting to remedy that mistake is not grounds for condemnation to me. The number of Te Papa staff may seem excessive, but I guess that depends on how much you value Kai Tahu mana:

    “8. Which members of the senior management team attended (including the CEO)?
    Te Papa representatives at the pōwhiri for the honu at Koukourārata:
    Te Papa Board – James Daniels
    Te Papa Executive Leadership Team – Dr Arapata Hakiwai, Kaihautū; Dean Peterson, Director of
    Collections and Research and Carolyn Roberts-Thompson, Director Ngā Manu Atarau
    Te Papa Management – Phil Edgar, Head of Natural History; Te Herekiekie Herewini, Head of Karanga
    Aotearoa Repatriation; Migoto Eria, Head of Mātauranga Māori
    Te Papa staff – Alan Tennyson, Curator Vertebrates

    “9. Who spoke at the powhiri?
    The Kaihautū Dr Arapata Hakiwai and Head of Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation, Te Herekiekie
    Herewini, spoke at the pōwhiri where the Honu was handed back to the iwi.”

    https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/taxpayers/pages/1628/attachments/original/1614740939/Letter_-_Response_to_OIA_request_Banks_Peninsula_Turtle_Part_2.pdf?1614740939

    My hope from this (admittedly rather expensive) mistake, is that DOC learns; better iwi/ hapu consultation practices, before assuming ownership of taonga. It’s hard to be that sympathetic for the costs thieves incur in returning what they have stolen.

  3. The Daily Lag, huh?
    I may check in tomorrow to see if I made any typos, and if I can find the post. My comment is unlikely to appear before then – so not much point in trying to have a conversation, since their will be considerable delay in any response I may make.

    edit; This comment went straight through, but the other it references is held up for an unguessable amount of time? Does anyone here understand how to predict comment lag on this site? If there is a pattern, it eludes me.

  5. Back in last century a shy young student came into my wife’s class and said he had seen a turtle on the beach. Not to loose an opportunity, my wife took the class down to the beach and carried it back to the school where it was examined thoroughly and they used a book to identify it. Then it suddenly moved so DOC was called so they or Kelly Tarltons sent a helicopter. The child was interviewed by the TV crew. The kids had to wave the helicopter away for the camera and saw the helicopter return for the cameraman. The kids said this day was better than Christmas. The turtle died before it got to Kelly Tarlton’s. This must have cost a bit, but the value in education for the children was uncountable.

  6. It is a shame that woke values don’t seem to care that poor kids are suffering in Motels and its seriously affecting their futures?

  7. $12,000 less for DoC to spend on dropping 1080 everywhere, killing our carrion feeding native birds like the falcon, can only be a good thing.

Comments are closed.