An expensive shit sandwich

Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, October 3rd, 2013 - 11 comments
Categories: same old national - Tags: , , ,

There’s a way of giving people bad news called in PR circles a shit sandwich – basically you give people something happy and fluffy, then the bad news, then something happy and fluffy so you can brush on past it.

And we’ve been paying for some expensive ones through the Ministry of Primary Industries.

The new ministry – formed just last year – comes with a communications (ie PR) team of at least 18 – so it’s not like they can’t sugar-coat news to the public as it is.  But beyond that they’ve been forced to reveal spending more than $250,000 on 3 PR companies.  More than $33,000 on the botulism scare, $30,000 on Aquaculture, $13,000 on didymo, $18,000 on the “Primary Growth Partnership” …

It’s probably more – initially they revealed nothing in response to the OIA until they were pushed further.

On top of this, the ministry paid thousands for associated costs such as photocopying, mileage, internet, media monitoring and taxis to the contractors.

There were also more than 3400 emails, excluding those sent during the botulism scare, sent between MPI and communications professionals which MPI said would cost $11,278 to review and print and refused to do so.

…

MPI was previously accused of squandering taxpayers’ cash when it was revealed it would spend $900,000 on rebranding following the merger of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with the Fisheries Ministry and the Food Safety Authority.

Yup, they need to spend so much on PR to tell you your news about what your Ministry is doing.  You get to pay to have your info dressed up and sugar-coated, and turned into happy little shit-sandwiches, so you won’t notice them giving you bad news unless you take a big bite.  And you get to pay up to $175/hour for it, because National have cut back too much on civil servants.

Lovely, eh?

11 comments on “An expensive shit sandwich ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    3 October 2013 at 1:26 pm

    It is a good idea to never eat shit sandwiches because if you eat enough of them you may get to like the taste.

  2. Rogue Trooper 2
    3 October 2013 at 2:53 pm

    “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself”- Abraham Lincoln (The Lincoln Lawyer).

    • Ron 2.1
      3 October 2013 at 4:10 pm

      Just curious did John Grisham really have that quote in “The Lincoln Lawyer” I know that Abe was responsible for the original saying but don’t remember it in the Grisham book

  3. Tracey 3
    3 October 2013 at 2:56 pm

    So Labour/Greens will spend nothing on communications within depts?

    • Colonial Viper 3.1
      3 October 2013 at 3:02 pm

      Did you somehow miss the point that National is spending a shit load of money on PR fluff which is wasteful and ineffective?

  4. vto 4
    3 October 2013 at 3:02 pm

    Life is a shit sandwich..

    the more bread you’ve got the less shit you have to eat

  5. Tracey 5
    3 October 2013 at 6:16 pm

    No cv. I was addressing the point that all politicians waste our money on fluff and sometimes pledge cards. Just dont think the left can be quite so precious about it.

  6. Tim 6
    3 October 2013 at 6:48 pm

    A bit like the ever increasing number of contractors doing daily IT support roles in various departments – most clipping the ticket for an 8 hr day, doing 5 (including late arrivals, early departures, and long lunches) and even then spending most of their time in …. ‘meetings’ – all of which seem to grow in the number of attendees AND length.

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