Blumsky Mark: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Blumsky Mark: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:632;Page:3774] 
10.  
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
 to the  
Minister of Internal Affairs 
: Does he have confidence in the application of the eligibility criteria for the Significant Community Based Projects Fund; if so why? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister for Economic Development) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Internal Affairs 
: Yes; because the Minister is advised that the criteria were applied by an interdepartmental advisory group and in addition a team of independent auditors assessed applications against financial and governance elements of the criteria. 
Mark Blumsky 
: How does the Minister explain the discrepancy between his statements in the House on 15 June that the $8 million loan from the Wellington City Council to the Karori sanctuary was not an issue and that to quote the Minister his officials had told them that “it was not a problem” and the explanation given by his department to the sanctuary and Wellington City Council officials on 8 June that the loan was the major criterion on which their application was declined? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am advised that the independent auditors felt that the loan did not meet the cash requirements. 
Mark Blumsky 
: How does the Minister justify giving away $32 million of taxpayers’ money based on criteria that are not available to applicants or taxpayers given that his department told the Karori sanctuary and Wellington City Council officials on 8 June that the sanctuary’s application had failed to meet criteria that they did not even know existed and that had never been published and can he tell the House what other criteria are being used or could be used that are not currently publicly available? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am holding the information sheet about the Significant Community Based Projects Fund which was issued before people applied and which includes all the criteria. 
Mark Blumsky 
: How does he explain the discrepancy between his statement in the House on 15 June and the letter to the editor of the  
Dominion Post  
today by the manager of service delivery at the Department of Internal Affairs which states that the sanctuary’s application was not marked down because it had asked for $6 million instead of $8 million given that his department told the Karori sanctuary and Wellington City Council officials on 8 June that if the sanctuary had applied for $8 million instead of $6 million it would have met the application criteria but because it did not do so its application had failed? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: That is not consistent with the advice that was given a couple of hours ago to the Minister whom I am standing in for today. 
Mark Blumsky 
: I seek leave to table the criteria for receiving funding from the Significant Community Based Projects Fund which do not mention at all the word “loan” or the other criteria that have been mentioned such as a 5 percent shortfall. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Mark Blumsky 
: I seek leave to table a report from the chief executive officer of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary which confirms the fact that the officials are totally contradicting the Minister and talks about criteria that the sanctuary was marked on that are also not in the criteria just tabled. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.