10066 (2026). Camilla Belich to the Prime Minister

10066 (2026). Camilla Belich to the Prime Minister: How much has been spent on external communications, public relations, advertising, or media monitoring by each department or entity for which the Minister is responsible in each financial year since 2021/22, broken down by department or entity and by spending category?

Rt Hon Christopher Luxon: In my capacity as the Prime Minister, I am the responsible minister for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is a departmental agency hosted by DPMC until 25 September 2025. The Cyclone Recovery Chief Executive was a functional Chief Executive appointed under the Public Service Act 2020 in March 2023 and disestablished with effect from 1 July 2025. The following table sets out how much was spent on advertising, public relations campaigns and publications in 2024/25 and the previous four financial years for DPMC, Chief Executive, Cyclone Recovery (CE, CR) and NEMA. Amount spent ($000) 2024/25 2023/24 2022/23 2021/22 2020/21 DPMC - 6,120 42,7831 18,3892 CE, CR - - - NEMA 998 936 906 1,590 734 1 In 2021/22 DPMC also incurred a further $29.994 million expenditure for the vaccine campaign funded by the Ministry of Health. 2 In 2020/21 DPMC also incurred a further $7.711 million expenditure for the vaccine campaign funded by the Ministry of Health through Vote Health. For DPMC, there was no advertising, public relations or publications expenditure in 2024/25. The decrease in expenditure on advertising, public relations campaigns and publications in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23 was due to the transfer of the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora from 16 November 2022. The decrease in expenditure on advertising, public relations campaigns and publications in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22 was due to the vaccine campaign no longer delivered through DPMC channels from 1 July 2022, and the transfer of the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign to Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand from 16 November 2022. The increase in expenditure on advertising, public relations campaigns and publications in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21 was due to an increase in both the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign expenditure and the Vaccine campaign. This includes expenditure funded by the Ministry of Health. The increase in 2020/21 was due to an increase in the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign expenditure and the start of the Vaccine campaign. For NEMA, the 2024/25 spend the amount was higher than 2023/24 as a new Danger Sense campaign was funded following the lessons of Cyclone Gabrielle to encourage people to act when in danger and not wait for an official warning. The 2023/24 and 2022/23 spend reflects NEMA’s standard baseline for promotional activity. In the 2021/22 financial year, an additional one-off injection of funds was made, from reallocated underspend, to enable the development of new campaigns that have since been released to market. There was no expenditure on advertising, public relations, campaigns or public relations for the CE, CR in 2022/23, 2023/24 or 2024/25. Information for the current financial year for DPMC is currently not collated, and it is not in the public interest for officials to undertake this work.