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• Kiwis needing surgical help for foreign objects are costing taxpayers thousands yearly.
• ACC paid $125,348 in 2023/24, up from $50,093 the previous year.
• Taxpayers' Union’s Rhys Hurley called the spending “wasteful” and urged a review of ACC funds.

Curious Kiwis seeking medical help to fish foreign objects from their rear ends are costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars every year.

New figures reveal the paid out $125,348 in the 2023/24 financial year for claims relating to foreign object insertions in back passages.

The figures show a marked increase from the previous year, when rescue missions in the back passage only set the taxpayer back $50,093.

Already this year claims have cost $117,799.

The figures were obtained by the Taxpayers’ Union via an Official Information Act request.

The lobby group’s investigations coordinator Rhys Hurley said open-minded Auckland took out the title as “capital of curiosity”, with Wellington, Southland and Otago all coming in behind in terms of where claims were lodged from.

Hurley labelled the treatment as “wasteful” and questioned why taxpayers should have to pay for this type of medical treatment.

“What Kiwis do in their own time is their business, but when things get stuck, why are taxpayers stuck with the bill,” he said.

“With ACC levies soaring, it’s taxpayers getting hit in the back pocket – making them the real butt of this costly joke.”

“But unfortunately, this is just one example of wasteful ACC spending habits. With ACC under review for performance mismanagement and ballooning costs, New Zealanders deserve a full review of how ACC funds are spent – and where to draw the line on personal responsibility.”

Infamous eel incident

New Zealand’s most noted case of proctological peril involved the .

The unnamed individual presented himself at the A&E department at Auckland City Hospital in 2012 to explain his embarrassing problem.

The patient was sent for x-rays and a scan, which showed there was an eel lodged inside him.

“The eel was about the size of a decent sprig of asparagus and the incident is the talk of the place,” a hospital source said at the time.

“Doctors and nurses have come across people with strange objects that have got stuck where they shouldn’t be before, but an eel has to be a first.”