KEY POINTS:
Coverage of the Budget tends to focus on how many blocks of cheese there will be for the man or woman in the street, but there are a lot of other funding announcements which don't make the headlines. Sometimes these involve quite a lot of cheese. An extra $40 million for the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme for example. The Government also found $10 million to set up a national animal identification and tracing system and $15 million for airport security.
And it wouldn't be a Budget unless there was an announcement of some new government entity or three being set up. Doubtless it is absolutely essential to set up the Maori Trustee as a standalone office at a cost of $24 million. I don't know quite why it couldn't simply be part of an existing government department, but I am sure there are very good reasons. Same with the $40 million being spent to set up a new organisation called Maori Business Aotearoa New Zealand (MBANZ) which will "establish services for Maori including providing business support, identifying opportunities for Maori economic development and some facility for loans to Maori businesses".
Now, I would be the first person to say encouraging Maori entrepreneurship is a most excellent thing to do. The renaissance of Maori culture has been a positive thing for Maori self-esteem, but it would be even better to see more Maori starting and owning their own profitable businesses. So the aim to promote a dynamic wealth-creating Maori private sector is a worthy one, but will another quango actually achieve this? We already have public sector organisations which profess to have similar aims to MBANZ. Te Puni Kokiri has a division called the Business Facilitation Service to "help new and existing businesses with advice and guidance". It is a free service available to any Maori, offering mentoring, coaching, problem-solving, networking, identifying funding sources and accessing resources. I wonder what will happen to this branch of TPK when MBANZ is set up - and its group of "account managers" and "accredited business mentors"; does it close down? I somehow doubt it. There are always announcements about new organisations being formed but seldom any word of extraneous governmental machinery being dumped. And there other new initiatives which potentially double-up on existing services. The Government is to spend $7 million building a Wharewaka on the Wellington waterfront, near Te Papa, to provide a venue for Maori cultural events. Couldn't Te Papa do that? It got an extra $12 million in this Budget.
I don't mean to single out funding for Maori - there are other areas which look alarmingly like duplication to me. The New Zealand Music Commission, which describes itself as "about getting New Zealand music out into the world and assisting music businesses in working better" got an extra $4.8 million. This arts agency, set up by the Labour Government in 2000, seems to be stepping close to New Zealand on Air's work spruiking local music.
I am sure I will get shouted down by people who will point out these are all excellent initiatives. They certainly are for the bureaucrats who will be employed in them. The question is not whether these are praiseworthy but whether new government entities - with their paper clips, telephones and ergonomic chairs - are luxuries we can afford. There is not enough cheese.
deborah@coneandco.com
