It was the publicity, not the incompetence that did it

Dr MURIEL NEWMAN: Would the Minister have disestablished the Community Employment Group if there had not been any adverse publicity?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: No, I definitely would not have.

But a few minutes earlier this question was asked:
5. KATHERINE RICH (National) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Why did the Government decide to disestablish the Community Employment Group?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: With unemployment at 4 percent, a near 20-year low, it was time to rethink the position of this particular organisation.

Gee, even if unemployment was an all time high at 48 percent, it would still have been time to rethink the position of this particular disorganisation. In other words, this "rethink" was because the hip hop holidays, hugged the front pages too much. Not to mention the nut symposiums, and grants to encourage gay and lesbian Maori and Pacific Islanders into sport - no, not in NZ, but in the US!! It was akin to throwing money down a big black hole - which was why the CEG was disestablished. CEG may well have stood for Cash Easily Gained.

Thank God for the publicity. Without the publicity, we could have had a $300,000 trip hop tour to Botswana to give 55 recent Iraqi immigrants the opportunity to teach transsexual Chinese dwarfs how to build igloos to keep warm in autumn.

Maharey says the CEG was "stunning examples of community innovation".

He was right. Sunning examples of how to rip the taxpayer off. Lawyers and Accountants who rip the taxpayer off go to prison - politicians don’t even get reprimanded, even when ignoring the advice of their own officials in the process. Where's the justice in that?

Umm.. there is none. Parliament is a law to itself.

I wonder if Maharey likes the Kiwi rappers "Three the Hard Way", whose single "Hip-Hop Holiday" topped the charts in 1994.