There are 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The seasonally-adjusted trend on dole numbers is still on the rise. Many other people fall through the gaps and are unable to get public assistance in their time of need.
What better time for the Minister for Social Development to bugger off for five weeks?
Paula Bennett is taking part in the Eisenhower Fellowship. Her course (which just consists of a bunch of meetings) is on corporate social responsibility.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m as big a fan of corporate social responsibility as the next leftie. But somehow I don’t think Bennett’s going to be learning about corporate social responsibility as we would understand it – not from a right-wing organisation led by George W Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and not when Bennett says the US “does it quite well”.
Since corporate social responsibility is nowhere on the government’s agenda and not within Bennett’s portfolio anyway, I just don’t see the point.
It sounds like a glorified holiday, on top of the four weeks she’s just had. Maybe she thinks there’s no work for her to do here after erroneously declaring victory over unemployment once again.
At least her officials will get a break from having to reduce important information to pretty pictures for her. Maybe it was their idea to get her out of their hair.
Oh yeah, she’ll be taking her $5,000 a week salary while she’s over there too. So, enjoy paying for her big break while the people who need her to be doing her damn job for a change languish.
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