The AM hosts are hitting out at Waka Kotahi after revelations the transport agency has more than 80 public relations staff - 65 of whom earn $100,000 or more.
Since 2017, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has more than doubled its PR team from 32 staff to 88.
Since 2019, the transport agency has spent $145 million on consultants, covering things like the environment and planning, versus just $200 million on actual construction.
It's a figure that didn't go down well with National on Thursday.
"This Government's addicted to spending," said National's transport spokesperson Simeon Brown. "What New Zealanders want is better infrastructure and better roads, not millions and millions getting put to consultants for projects which should've already been delivered."
But Transport Minister Michael Wood said the money's gone toward "detailed design, planning and consenting".
"There's frankly a cheap political shot here that either demonstrates total naivety about how transport projects work or is simply knowingly making these claims when actually we know that that's how transport projects have to be structured."
Wood also said he's sent the agency a "reminder" about its spending.
"I've sent Waka Kotahi a reminder recently that they need to be careful and considered with their expenditure," Wood said.
But the spending was a shock to the AM hosts on Friday, with Melissa Chan-Green questioning why the agency needed nearly 100 PR staff.
"How many PR staff does it take to change a light bulb or in this case run a transport agency?" Chan-Green asked. "Apparently it is 88 PR staff, it was 32 in 2017 but it has gone up to 88.
"What are they all doing at Waka Kotahi transport agency?" she queried before suggesting perhaps the agency was using it for YouTube ads.
Chan-Green highlighted a recent ad pushing the benefits of the Northern Busway extension which is opening this month.
"It is quite heavily produced for a video on the Waka Kotahi Youtube channel. But do you know how many people watched that? How much work went into that? This is how many people watched 327 (as of 6am on Friday) and I was quite a few of those," she said.
"So what else are they doing? Maybe they are deciding on signs for their Road to Zero campaign. Signs like this," Melissa said showing a picture of Transport Minister Michael Wood and Police Minister Poto Williams standing next to a large red 0 sculpture.
"That sign cost $4885 so they thought, 'you know what, that's a bargain, let's get two'," Chan-Green said.
"Stop it," co-host Ryan Bridge interjected. "That's $10,000!"
Bridge then questioned what all the PR staff were actually doing.
"What are they doing?... I am genuinely quite shocked at the number," he said.
"Same," Bernadine Oliver-Kerby added. "In another department sure but PR, you wouldn't think that's an essential for that volume of people."
