Amazon dinner on taxpayers
They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but Amazon employees visiting New Zealand to negotiate a higher rate of film subsidy for the Lord of the Rings television show were treated to two flash dinners and a ‘‘Waiheke Island Experience’’ on the taxpayer dime.
After enjoying more than $5000 of state-backed hospitality, Amazon went on to negotiate a lucrative subsidy deal with the Government, netting the technology giant grants estimated to be worth about $160 million for the first season of Rings.
The cost of the meals was revealed in written parliamentary questions by ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden.
The executives were in New Zealand in March last year to negotiate a higher rate of screen production grant for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings production.
Most films and television shows get a rebate of 20 per cent of what they spend to film in New Zealand, but large productions can apply for a 25 per cent rebate. Amazon applied and, after negotiations, received that higher rate of subsidy.
The negotiations, including a visit to Waiheke Island, were revealed in the response to an Official Information Act request made by Stuff.
Now, Stuff can reveal the cost of wining and dining three Amazon staff was almost exclusively borne by the New Zealand taxpayer.
On Sunday, March 1, Amazon staff were treated to what was scheduled as a six-hour ‘‘Waiheke Island Experience’’. Those six hours cost Tourism New Zealand $2850.
Negotiations commenced the next day and finished with dinner at upmarket Auckland eatery Amano. The taxpayer picked up the cost for this too, with the Film Commission forking out $1428, which worked out at $102 a person.
On the second day, both sides got dinner on their own, but after negotiations concluded on the third day, representatives again broke for dinner, this time at Odette’s Eatery. The Film Commission again picked up the tab for this, which was $1101.41, working out at $137.68 a head.
The expenditure is within the commission’s rules, which say business expenses can be incurred for the purpose of ‘‘building relationships’’ and ‘‘representing the organisation’’.
Those guidelines say the leadership are entitled to ‘‘entertain filmmakers, other business clients and support staff’’, but that ‘‘the expenditure incurred must be moderate and conservative’’. Expenditure in excess of $200 must be signed off by the chief executive. The commission confirmed to Stuff that it was signed off.
The guidelines also say that only ‘‘moderate’’ amounts of alcohol can be consumed, with no more than half a bottle of wine per person (up to $70 a bottle) purchased.
The wining and dining wasn’t a one-way street. New Zealand representatives met with Amazon a few months earlier at a Los Angeles trade fair. This time the hospitality was on Amazon, although it wasn’t quite to the same standard. The written questions reveal Amazon laid on a light lunch of ‘‘sandwiches and soda’’.
Van Velden said the negotiating team should have reciprocated Amazon’s more modest hospitality. ‘‘Our Wellington bureaucrats could learn a thing or two from Amazon on how to avoid largesse, especially when taxpayer money is at stake,’’ she said.
Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash and Amazon were approached for comment.