Joyce’s $1,248 taxi ride

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, May 1st, 2015 - 52 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, national, national/act government, Politics, same old national, Steven Joyce - Tags:

Stephen Joyce has spent $1,248 keeping a taxi waiting for him in Sydney for nine hours.  His excuse was that he saved money by not staying in a hotel and using a crown limo would have cost a similar amount.  The excess spend could have kept him in a reasonable hotel for days.

From the Herald:

The returns showed Mr Joyce also racked up a taxi fare of $1248 during a visit to Australia in November after keeping the meter running for nine hours.

A spokeswoman said Mr Joyce had a full day of engagements while in Sydney for a job fair and he saved money by making a day trip to Australia and not staying in a hotel.

His office pointed out that if he had used a Crown limo for the same length of time it would have cost a similar amount.

This is insane.  Every time I go to Sydney I marvel at the number of taxis.  They are everywhere.  To keep one waiting for him all day on the country’s visa card is crazy in the extreme and suggests a level of born to ruleitis that needs urgent treatment.

The Taxpayer’s union has suggested that the expense should be repaid by Joyce personally.  I could not agree more.

Update: Brook Sabin says it well …

52 comments on “Joyce’s $1,248 taxi ride ”

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  1. Adrian 1
    1 May 2015 at 12:17 pm

    If he can’t negotiate a fair deal with Sky City what chance has he got against a cabbie?

    • aerobubble 1.1
      1 May 2015 at 1:36 pm

      How much is a lawyer an hour? Keeping a room of lawyers waiting….
      ..so until I see a analysis of what time mismanaged Joyce was up to, this
      Story smacks of distraction and moving the narrative on from ponygate.

  2. Tracey 2
    1 May 2015 at 12:24 pm

    WHAT a surprise, the Taxpayer’s Union is using this as an opportunity to make them look impartial… you know, so when the next campaign begins and they are lobbying hard on behalf of ACT (and Nats to a lesser extent) they can have credibility. WHY does the media reprint their BS?

    I don’t understand why the taxi cost is compared to a hotel room? Was he sleeping in the taxi?

    • aerobubble 2.1
      1 May 2015 at 1:38 pm

      Shape t Joyce leaked his own…

    • emergency mike 2.2
      1 May 2015 at 2:57 pm

      I think he’s trying to claim that by having a taxi waiting for him he was able to squeeze his business into a day trip rather than have to spend a night in Oz.

      Why he couldn’t just get a new taxi for each trip instead of having one waiting for him I don’t know. But my guess is that it made him look and feel like more of a big shot, and as you said below, it’s not his money.

      • Tracey 2.2.1
        1 May 2015 at 4:06 pm

        That’s the bit that makes no sense to me EM, that he could just have ordered a new one each time and achieved the same thing for less. It’s not like Sydney lacks taxis… OR hire a car for the day!

        • toad 2.2.1.1
          1 May 2015 at 4:29 pm

          Hiring a car for the day from Sydney airport costs about $75. Sure, add on parking fees, but that should be the comparator.

    • Bearded Git 2.3
      1 May 2015 at 3:12 pm

      Joyce wasted $1248 keeping a taxi waiting. I think this is something that the public can relate to.

      Labour should compare it to say the current average hourly wage in NZ of $28.79 saying “the average person has to work 43 hours to earn the money Joyce wasted on his taxi.”

      • felix 2.3.1
        1 May 2015 at 3:26 pm

        84 hours on the minimum wage. That’s almost three weeks full time (according to winz)

      • Dave 2.3.2
        1 May 2015 at 9:13 pm

        Thanks for letting me know how far below the average hourly wage I am mate, thanks 😛

  3. Fred 3
    1 May 2015 at 12:55 pm

    Might have been for “Services Rendered”, cause taxi drivers know where to find “Services”.

  4. dukeofurl 4
    1 May 2015 at 1:07 pm

    There are corporate limo hires for this sort of thing.

    They can do airport shuttles and are waiting for you in airport. As well they would quote for a full day service.

    Paying a taxi to keep the meter running is an absurd way to pay for that service.

    Ive seen hourly rates of $75 ph. If it was 10 hours it would be about $750 +gst

    Joyce is a complete idiot.

    • Tracey 4.1
      1 May 2015 at 1:12 pm

      Hey, it’s not like it’s HIS money…

      • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1
        1 May 2015 at 1:20 pm

        +1 to both comments

        • Tracey 4.1.1.1
          1 May 2015 at 1:21 pm

          Doesn’t that millionaire and champion of not wasting taxpayer money, Roger Douglas, use up his travel perks every single year at our expense?

      • Tom Gould 4.1.2
        1 May 2015 at 1:23 pm

        When you’re as powerful and important as Jackboot Joyce you expect a car and driver on stand-by, right? Such a busy man big-shot cannot be held up waiting for the limo to arrive. Time is money, remember.

    • Murray Rawshark 4.2
      1 May 2015 at 7:40 pm

      I found one with $75 from airport to CBD and $1.10 a minute excess waiting time over 15 minutes. Let’s say $150 with 8 hours waiting. 8x$66 = $528, so using Joyce’s Novopay arithmetic or English’s budget sums, $3,475.00. Joyce saved us money and we should be grateful.

  5. Old Mickey 5
    1 May 2015 at 2:02 pm

    Wow, almost as much as Former minister of wine & cheese, Jonathan Hunt.

    • felix 5.1
      1 May 2015 at 3:17 pm

      Was that the guy that the Labour govt made Minister of Everything because he could do it better and more efficiently than anyone else?

    • Tracey 5.2
      1 May 2015 at 4:07 pm

      Wow, Johnathan Hunt… You basing today’s standards on way back then now Old MIckey?

  6. TheContrarian 6
    1 May 2015 at 2:36 pm

    I’m not sure Joyce understands how taxis work.

    In an nutshell: you call them, pay them, then call another when you need one again.

    That’s pretty much it. I have been using Uber a fair bit but as far as I am aware that is the way it still works.

    • Dave 6.1
      1 May 2015 at 2:39 pm

      Lol, maybe the taxis operate differently on Planet Key? I hope that driver tugged his forelock like a good peasant.

      • McFlock 6.1.1
        1 May 2015 at 2:52 pm

        taxis… taxis… taxis… oh, are they the limos that poor people own or lease?

        • TheContrarian 6.1.1.1
          1 May 2015 at 3:46 pm

          “are they the limos that poor people own or lease”

          You know how fucking expensive taxis are? Jesus, $70.00 from AK airport to my home. Poor people take the bus. I wonder how much it would have cost Joyce to keep a bus handy?

          • McFlock 6.1.1.1.1
            1 May 2015 at 4:02 pm

            lol
            If he did, I suspect it wouldn’t be kitted out like one of the ancient trundlers that struggle up Dunedin hills. It can cost an awful lot to save that much money 🙂

      • rhinocrates 6.1.2
        1 May 2015 at 9:10 pm

        That’s if he didn’t have a ponytail.

    • felix 6.2
      1 May 2015 at 3:27 pm

      Maybe he thought he was buying the car?

    • Sans Cle 6.3
      1 May 2015 at 5:56 pm

      He misheard it as “taxi-payers union”. Simple mistake.

  7. Kaplan 7
    1 May 2015 at 3:40 pm

    I smell the faint stench of a possible rort. Has anyone seen the receipt? How legit is it?

  8. mpledger 8
    1 May 2015 at 3:50 pm

    All I can think of is what the poor taxi driver did if s/he needed to go to the toilet. Or if s/he got hungry.

  9. higherstandard 9
    1 May 2015 at 3:53 pm

    Stupid entitled troughing moron in short a perfect mentality for a minster of the crown.

  10. Ovid 10
    1 May 2015 at 4:35 pm

    There are 34 vehicles in the Ministerial Services VIP fleet.

    VIP Transport Services annual funding appropriation is $7,415,000.

    That means the daily cost per car is $597.50, or $24.89 per hour. So nine hours of use would be $225.

    • Murray Rawshark 10.1
      1 May 2015 at 7:46 pm

      He’d also have to freight it to Australia. O’Bomber airfreights his limo around the world, so it’s only fair that we sell a few more state houses and buy a local version of Air Force One.

      • Dave 10.1.1
        1 May 2015 at 9:23 pm

        We already have a 757 that can do that, with charming uniformed peasants. The expensive thing would be americanising a BMW, that’s be millions, maybe we could just have Key’s house to have as the Premier’s residence, we could call it the Fake Marble House. It has a ring to it.

  11. cogito 11
    1 May 2015 at 4:51 pm

    Oh come on guys, give Joyce a break. Some poor migrant got to feed his family and pay the rent thanks to him! LOL.

  12. Sable 12
    1 May 2015 at 5:01 pm

    The New Zealand government; “The worst investment you are forced to make.”

  13. Penny Bright 13
    1 May 2015 at 5:26 pm

    Oh dear.

    Bye bye any thoughts Steven Joyce ever had for the future leadership of the National Party / Government?

    This is the sort of extravagance that the public can ‘get’.

    Like VERY expensive male underwear – sort of thing?

    So – who will be the front runner to replace John Key as ‘Leader’?

    I pick Bill English.

    What do others think?

    Penny Bright

    • les 13.1
      1 May 2015 at 6:11 pm

      English had his chance …dry as a pommie towel…Key is all they got..Team Key…and they know it.

    • Sable 13.2
      2 May 2015 at 7:18 am

      I thought Satan might be a good choice of leader. Cruel, evil, selfish and lazy. Should fit right in with the rest of the no hopers.

  14. McGrath 14
    1 May 2015 at 5:56 pm

    Dumb by Steven Joyce. There were numerous cheaper ways, though what a windfall for the driver!!!

  15. McFlock 15
    1 May 2015 at 5:59 pm

    So, might this be another blow from the Dirty Politics camp, slinging more mud at Collins’ opponents (by pure coincidence, of course)? Or is English setting himself up to sneak through the gap? Parata is quietly working along on the outside, I wouldn’t be surprised at a late surge from her…

  16. NZJester 16
    1 May 2015 at 7:22 pm

    Booking a car with a driver for the day would have been way cheaper than a taxi with it’s meter running.
    Another case of National not knowing how to be financially prudent.
    That taxi driver most likely got a few days worth of fares all in one day.

  17. b waghorn 17
    1 May 2015 at 7:33 pm

    They broke it down on 3 news if he had hailed a taxi for the for trips he did that day in Sydney it would of cost a max of $200 .
    I’m loving these new disclosure rules around spending imagine what the buggers were up to when we were kept in the dark.

    • John Shears 17.1
      1 May 2015 at 10:28 pm

      Joyce is a joke but remember its not his money so he doesn’t care.
      Unbelievable that he could be so stupid, he must have know it would come out eventually.
      He makes out that is a big deal going to Sydney on the early flight
      and getting the red eye back the same day Nah!!!! heaps of real
      Kiwi businessmen do it , thats why the flights are available.

      I have personally done exactly the same sort of thing and used a Taxi for each journey ,reception at my client would have another waiting when I finished the meeting and I was all over the city as far out as Paramata not just the extended CBD as Joyce did.
      What a Wally.

  18. Pat 18
    1 May 2015 at 8:14 pm

    prat/prat/
    noun
    an incompetent or stupid person; an idiot.
    a person’s buttocks.
    a Minister in the NZ National Cabinet

  19. North 19
    2 May 2015 at 2:29 am

    What a darkly arrogant and reptilian bastard is that Joyce ?

    Nowadays they come up with fuck-up after fuck-up on a weekly basis. If “third-termitis” were only unofficially in the New Zealand political lexicon then it’s official now and on the lips of the dogs in the street. EVERYONE understands that $1,248 for a cab is a bit fucking rum. The Popemobile’s probably rather cheaper. In common terms, a rort or a wank.

    This weekly fuck-up thing won’t suddenly stop either. There is long quarantined rot. It is pustular and it now seeps. Malodorously.

    Fun times ahead methinks. Because for the arrogant and the born-to-rule there is but one answer – resort to more arrogance and more born-to-rule.

  20. Paul 20
    2 May 2015 at 7:38 am

    Someone is managing the new for the return of Collins as leader.

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