REVEALED: Public Toilet? More Like Public Rip-Off

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal, through a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to the Far North District Council the total cost of the construction of a single public toilet at Rangitāne Reserve in Kerikeri.

The final location had to be signed off by both local hapū and Heritage New Zealand, with excavation carried out under the watchful eye of both a cultural monitor and Heritage NZ representatives.

The project ended up costing ratepayers $157,821.43—with more than $30,000 eaten up by compliance and red tape alone. This includes:

• $5,000 paid to local Hapū for a Cultural Impact Assessment,
• $5,198.90 to Northern Archaeological Research for survey and assessment work, and
• $19,732.21 for consents, charges, project management, and monitoring.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

“We’ve now got to the point where even a single toilet needs a army of consultants, cultural monitors, and bureaucratic sign-offs.”

“This is a textbook case of red tape strangling local infrastructure. It’s not just motorways and housing being held up anymore—it’s reached the public loos.”

“Councils are sinking more money into ticking boxes than delivering outcomes. Cultural impact assessments, archaeological surveys, live monitoring—none of it comes cheap, and most of it is wildly disproportionate to the size of the job. This toilet block ended up costing more than a house deposit. That’s not just absurd—it’s indefensible.”

“Slashing the project cost a bit lower isn't good enough when Far North ratepayers are staring down the barrel of a 11.43 percentage rate hike. If councils are going to keep hiking rates year after year, the least they can do is deliver infrastructure without blowing the budget on red tape.”