Watch: Prime Minister Ardern announces New Zealand's border reopening. Credits: Video – Newshub; Image – Getty Images.
The Government is planning to spend up to $1.2 million upgrading a private lounge for VIPs hidden within Auckland International Airport that there are no official photographs of.
Newshub can reveal the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has budgeted $1.193 million for "improvements" to the Kauri Lounge, an area where Prime Ministers, Royal Family members and other high-ranking dignitaries can have "calm and privacy" before or after flights.
ACT leader David Seymour said it isn’t a good use of money at a time when the Government should be saving.
"$1.2 million is not the end of the world, but the pattern of behaviour will send us broke," he said. "It just makes everything harder when you have a Government that is not focused on what’s really important right now and that’s saving resources."
But the DIA said the lounge has been in place for more than 25 years and it’s now time for an upgrade.
"The current fit out has reached its end of life. Other than upgrading the kitchen facilities in 2013, the lounge has had limited investment over this time and it is not at a standard comparable to similar airport lounges in place in other countries," said a spokesperson.
Many airports around the world have similar areas to the Kauri Lounge. They allow VIPs to avoid queues to get immigration and customs clearance and in some circumstances bypass security checks.
As Newshub reported last week, the Government has no official photographs or concept art of the taxpayer-funded lounge to show New Zealanders. It cost $392,000 to operate the lounge in the 2021/22 financial year, with 178 people using it.
The Kauri Lounge is located near Auckland International Airport’s gate 4 and fits about 15-20 people. Inside, there’s catering for guests as well as bathroom facilities and an area for meetings.
It’s run by DIA’s Visits and Ceremonial Office and the space is leased from the airport.
The planned refurbishment includes upgrading the shower and toilet facilities "to meet accessibility standards" and increasing office space, which the DIA said is necessary "to meet health safety standards and to support physical distancing as required".
"Upgrades will ensure other legislative and regulatory obligations for health, safety and security are met."
The project is currently in the planning phase, with DIA working with engineers, Auckland International Airport and Aviation Security on the details.
"The estimated completion date of any refurbishment will be confirmed once this planning work has been completed in the coming months."
Seymour said he understands the need to have a space like the Kauri Lounge but he’d like to see a cost-benefit analysis showing the upgrade is "what the New Zealand Government needs to do right now".
"All around the world, there is a major resource crunch for money, for workers, for materials. Basically, everyone is short of everything," he said.
"For the Government to upgrade something like this, that by all rumours was already pretty good so it can be used a handful of times a year by people who aren’t prepared to hang out with the rest of us, I think this is a real shame."
He also doesn’t buy DIA’s line that the upgrade is necessary for health and safety.
"What dangers and risks were people facing previously that they have mitigated? And how was that a good use of taxpayers’ resources compared with other things we could do about it to make the world healthy and safe?"
The DIA said once the improvements have been completed it will "consider whether to make publicly available photographs" of the upgraded space. Seymour thinks New Zealanders who are paying for the lounge deserve a right to see pictures of it.
While the DIA does provide some information about the lounge on its website, there’s little else out there. The only references to the lounge Newshub could find on the Auckland International Airport website were about evacuation and biosecurity protocols.
"It is important that the arriving guests have space, calm and privacy after what will often have been a long flight and that New Zealand border agencies are able to efficiently provide the relevant clearances for the party," the DIA website says.
An Official Information Act request to the DIA asking for all photographs and concept art of the space was refused as it said it didn’t hold the information. DIA said it had no reason to have stock images.
COVID-19 border closures have led to usage dropping over the past two years. In the 2018/19 financial year, 2285 people used the Kauri Lounge but this fell to just 65 in 2020/21 and 178 in 2021/22.
However, the cost of operating the area didn’t drop. DIA said the main expenses are fixed costs like rent, rates and salaries.
In 2021/22, it cost $392,000 to operate. Before the pandemic hit, it cost $367,000 in 2017/18 and in 2018/19, $398,000.
Due to the pandemic, three staff members who were based in the lounge were redeployed during the period.
The DIA wouldn’t tell Newshub specifically who used the lounge over the past five years on security and privacy grounds. However, ministers and guests of the Government have been the most frequent users since the pandemic.
A Written Parliamentary Question response to the ACT Party from Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti has also revealed the budgeted cost of other improvements DIA is planning for its premises. Overall, $14.806m has been budgeted for the 2022/23 financial year on renovations, repairs or improvements.
Among the planned spends is just over $1m on its Avalon site. A spokesperson clarified the money is to establish technology to help with the digital preservation of audio-visual content. DIA has budgeted $2.6m for the refurbishment of its Manukau, Sydney and Christchurch premises "to provide staff with a modern, flexible workspace that can support online uptake and an appointment-only customer delivery model".
This is part of a "multi-year transformation from a product-centric to a customer-centric organisation", DIA said, after COVID-19 showed the "need to be flexible in the way we work".
Many of the DIA sites across New Zealand are receiving security upgrades and other electrical or civil work.
It’s also budgeting $2m for a fit-out of Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s planned new office in Wellington. The Lotteries Commission had budgeted $50,000 for repairs and maintenance as well as a reserve budget of $1m for potential relocation or renovation.