The most bonkers govt Big Tech spending revelations
Thursday, 25 June 2026
From the IRD not providing receipts, to NZ On Air spending half a million bucks with Silicon Valley, there are many ironic, bizarre, and funny revelations in Stuff’s public sector ‘big tech’ spending investigation.
You can imagine Inland Revenue’s response if you filed an incomplete tax return and your excuse was that it required too much work to do it properly.
You’d be laughed out the door or off the phone.
But that’s exactly the excuse the tax department gave for not providing a breakdown for a big chunk of its offshore media spending.
The request was part of an all-of-government investigation by Stuff into how much taxpayer money went to overseas-based tech giants like Alphabet (which owns YouTube and Google), Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), and TikTok in 2025.
Inland Revenue spent $1,284,661 buying advertising via media agencies, which are a go-between companies that on-sell local and global media ads etc.
However, IRD was “unable to break down these costs” into how much of that was spent with Alphabet, Meta, TikTok, and local media companies.
So Stuff asked: Are the media agencies you use not able to tell you where they spend IR's money and how much goes where?
IRD’s response: “We know how much is spent on each advertising campaign, and the specific channels that are included within a campaign.
“A significant amount of work would be required to try and manually break this down across multiple campaigns and advertising agencies over the year,” a spokesperson said.
The irony’s not lost on me that the government department whose role is ensuring accountability of Kiwis’ accounting couldn’t do the same for its own expenditure - especially when spending taxpayer money with companies that divert vast amounts of revenue offshore to avoid paying their fair share of corporate tax to the IRD.
But it wasn’t just the tax department that had some accounting quirks. Quite a few others did too.
Ministry of Social (Media) Development?
Social media spending was a big chunk of the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) advertising budget.
It spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on TikTok ads, making it the third biggest government spender with the Chinese-owned video platform (an app banned from Parliament-issued mobile phones).
Snapchat received $23,500 from MSD for a “service delivery campaign” about StudyLink.
It was the fifth biggest Meta government spender, with a total of $433k spent on various campaigns and promotions on Facebook and Instagram.
However, it slipped outside the top 10 for Alphabet/Google spending, with a total of $166k.
AI takes flight? Yeah, nah
Artificial intelligence (AI) is meant to be soaring in the public service, making efficiencies, doing things smarter, and replacing thousands of jobs.
But in this investigation, just one government entity revealed it paid for an AI service.
The Civil Aviation Authority spent $120 on Chat GPT, which would have given it access to the premium version of the platform for 3.4 months, based on a monthly subscription fee of $35.
To be fair, AI spend wasn’t specifically requested and it does appear the entire public service is using Microsoft’s AI service called Copilot. But it’s an interesting quirk nonetheless.
Bucks for trucks or bucks for Zuck?
Despite the never-ending strikes by professional firefighters over pay, conditions, and rundown fire trucks, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) was one of the top 10 government spenders on social media.
It spent $274k advertising with Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Instagram platforms, and $179k with Google and YouTube. FENZ was also the fourth biggest spender on TikTok, spending $120k on ads.
Over at Police, $60k was spent on Snapchat ads and $73k on TikTok ads - both of these were for recruitment drives (and combined, could pay the salaries of two police recruits at Police College).
The vast majority of its Meta spend ($167k) and Alphabet spend ($111k) was also on recruitment, with the rest being spent by the Firearms Safety Authority. LinkedIn got $1920. Combined, this would fund the salaries of 4.2 new police recruits.
Corrections spent less on TikTok than police and FENZ, with $56k going to the Chinese company. However, it spent more than those two with Alphabet, which totalled $362k.
Its overall Big Tech spend was $661,725.73, enough to pay for a prisoner to be incarcerated for 3.2 years.
NZTA: New Zealand TikTok Agency
The biggest government spender on TikTok in 2025 was NZTA, which spent $532,750 advertising on the platform.
How many potholes could that money fix? Around 1331 average potholes.
The Transport Agency also took the chequered flag for Meta spending, which came to $1.08 million. That could pay for building a kilometre of your average road.
It took the bronze medal for Alphabet spending, which was $1,048,497. That’s enough to pay for 403,268 cars to use the Northern Gateway toll road.
Don’t fall off the (corporate) ladder!
The Accident Compensation Authority (ACC) was by far and away the biggest government big tech ad spender, racking up a bill of $3.3m in 2025.
It was also the biggest LinkedIn spender, with $169,756.02 going towards communication with health providers “to support improved onboarding, and communications to employers to help them support injured employees back to the workplace”.
It spent $1.7m with Alphabet which went to YouTube ads and Google search ads for various injury prevention, recovery, and other promotional programmes.
Meta received just over a million dollars for similar promotional material.
RNZ spent more with TikTok than community newspapers
The state-funded broadcaster was the 26th biggest social media spender in the public sector.
It spent $16,522.45 on TikTok ads for RNZ TAHI, a video launch, and something called “Journey of Scent”.
This was twice as much as it spent with community newspapers in Wairarapa, Nelson/Tasman, Manawatū, and Rotorua ($7956) for something listed as “AM transmission”.
RNZ’s Meta spend was $118k and its Alphabet spend $62k, taking its total social media bill to $197,992 (which could probably fund the salaries of three intermediate journalists).
NZonAir or USonLine?
The agency whose primary role is to fund, deliver, and promote quality New Zealand media was the ninth biggest social media-spending government entity.
NZ On Air spent a total of $506,020 across Alphabet, Meta, and TikTok to promote other content it had funded.
Similarly, Creative NZ spent $10k advertising on Meta.
Wait, someone MADE money?
You might not have heard of Network For Learning, but it was the only government entity to reveal it made money from a social media giant.
We’re not talking big bucks though, it got a refund from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to the tune of $105.51. (It could help pay for broadband for two months in one classroom.)
How energy efficient are big tech data centres?
EECA was the third biggest spender on social media, totalling $1.7m.
Given its whole purpose is energy efficiency and conservation, how long could you run a standard Google data centre for with that money?
Google AI says: “A hyperscale facility (50MW) drawing about 1.2 million kWh daily, that budget covers about 3.5 to 5.5 months.”
Other quirks?
Invest NZ didn’t invest any money in New Zealand media companies. That’s probably wise given its entire remit is to lure foreign investment in New Zealand.
Education NZ didn’t spend any money advertising in New Zealand, which is also fair given its role is to lure international students to study here.
The Retirement Commission spent more with Silicon Valley ($323,403.26) than it did locally ($109,878.53). It begs the question: Are there heaps of pensioners on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube?
However, the Commission isn’t targeting pensioners, it’s targeting young Kiwis and encouraging them to use its sorted.org.nz tool to help them plan for their retirement instead of relying on the pension.
Some was for its Sorted In Schools programme, while the rest was about “targeting our three key audiences: active budgeters, social spenders and aspirational aspirers”.
(That begs another question: What on Earth is an “aspirational aspirer”?)