Table of Contents
Summarised by Centrist
Resources Minister Shane Jones spent nearly twice the $33,068 approved for his March 2025 trip to a Toronto mining conference, with the overspend approved retrospectively almost a year later.
The final bill reached about $63,000, including more than $41,000 for two business-class airfares, $13,397 for accommodation and almost $6,000 for ground transport, roaming and service fees.
The two business-class flights had been booked on February 7, more than two weeks before Cabinet approved a travel budget based on cheaper premium-economy fares.
A private limousine costing C$3,791 was kept on standby for 24 hours across three days.
Ministerial Services began asking for an explanation in May 2025, noting a $20,000 overspend and warning that additional approval would be required.
By November, officials described the trip as “90% overspent” and again asked whether any extended budget had been approved.
Jones did not seek retrospective approval from the prime minister’s office until January 30, 2026, after Ministerial Services raised Official Information Act requests concerning the spending.
Approval was granted on February 4.
Jones blamed errors in the original budget, including the wrong flight class and omitted transport costs, but said: “To the best of my knowledge, there were no errors made by my office.”
Winston Peters defended the spending, saying there was “nothing for us to apologise here for”.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis disagreed, saying ministers should “never exceed what Cabinet grants you” and that the trip reflected “significant errors on the part of the minister and his office”.
Jones responded with a warning to his coalition partners.
“Provoke the matua at your peril,” he said, adding that he would reserve his “political firepower” for the six weeks before the election.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called the spending “eye-watering” and accused the government of applying different rules to ministers and ordinary families.
