All this talk about a plastic "waka" - I think there's an "N" missing.

@Bunchofwhingers #366: Well said! The fact is, most of New Zealanders are too unintelligent and short sighted to understand that this amount of money is but a drop in the ocean for the government and that at least this money will be making a return on it's investment!

HELLO PEOPLE. National is borrowing $250 million A WEEK and you are whinging about $36 million that is being invested to promote New Zealand sporting performance at an elite level, put our name in the global spotlight again and reap the economic benefits that will follow.

Nobody will even remember this stupid and idiotic debate if we win the cup and host the ne xt one here in Auckland with the millions of dollars of economic impact that would have!

Currently our debt is $449,731,000,000 or an avg of over $103,000 per New Zealander whats another 36 million! we are already stuffed.

source http://johnpemberton.co.nz/html/debt_graphs.html

leone, isn't it catamaran, sorry that i'm a convict with intelligence,please, all you wakas stay in nz, i'm going home this year and don't want to run into you lot, still amazed that you hate us so much and still want to go there to live, if nz is so fkn fantastic why don't you stay here? if you haven't noticed, we really don't care about your insignificant country, cheers cobbers.

Conan, mate, this is the correct spelling of government.

conan 123 (great movie that, barbarian wasn't) one should not call people idiots because they do not agree with your beliefs, shows a distinct lack of class.

leone #368 Well said. All the whinge about the plastic waka (a great idea, and a pavillion we can be proud of) and then 18x as much on the bloody americas Cup fiasco.

A National (Party) shame.

Isnt it wonderful that 30 something million dollars can be spent on building a catermeran for the Americas cup. Isnt it wonderful that 2 million can be spent on a plastic waka. Culturally we've got our waka mixed up. Maori arrived here on catermeran, Why not get the Maori to make the catermeran that will pay the 2 million dollar bill for the waka. Or give both of the initiatives with highly similar goals an equal amount..Stop using Labour promises as an excuse to keep something you really want going, going. We all know it takes National 2 minutes to change laws made and policies planned by Labour Govt. Grow some fullahs. Face up. Rock on labour

Actually for you idiots that don't know the whole story:

National has been contractually obliged to give Team NZ the cash. This was brought in by the previous labour goverment in 2007!...haha.

So in the period 01/07/10 to 28/02/11 government tax revenue was approx $33,354,000,000. This yachting deal is costing the current government (via a deal Labour signed) $36,000,000. By my calculation that means roughly 0.1% of our taxes are going to a team that will represent our country and the skills we have on a world stage. (The 2007 AC was broadcast to 150 countries and had an audience of about 928 million people). To put this spending in context in the same period $16,349,000,000 was spent on social security and welfare. Roughly 50% of our taxes went to benefits and superannuation! Quite frankly I'm happy for the government to spend 0.1% of my taxes on promoting my country on the world stage.