Rich Katherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Rich Katherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:13231] 
12.  
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Why was taxpayers’ money used to fund a project described by the Community Employment Group as “Te Kahui family reunion” which the group’s New Plymouth fieldworker has described as “a real success”? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 The Te Kahui Family Trust received a $2000 grant in September last year towards the costs of bringing together a small community in rural Taranaki including that hapu to discuss the community’s future economic sustainability. Community Employment Group projects funding is used for community-based employment development projects leading to the increased capacity and sustainability of organisations and communities to contribute to their own community enterprise and to their own job development. Priority is given to communities that have experienced disadvantage in the labour market and that have depressed labour market conditions—as is the case with this group. 
Katherine Rich 
: How does the Minister reconcile that answer with that of the Community Employment Group worker interviewed about the project who freely admitted that the grant was for a family reunion which included a “capacity-building wananga” and that the family reunion was a real success; who is correct: the Minister or the Community Employment Group worker? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I may have missed something on the way through that second question because I could not quite see what the difference was. We are both quoting from the same fieldworker. There is one problem with this process which I will share with the House because it is one that we are clearing up and it is the reason that the member received wrong answers to her questions originally. The Community Employment Group had the unfortunate practice of answering questions until recently off summary forms and then when asked to look more deeply of going back to— 
Hon Bill English 
: Then tell the truth. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The member Mr English is saying that I am not telling the truth. Should he rise and apologise Mr Speaker? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am assuming that the member did not accuse the Minister of not telling the truth. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Oh good. OK so we are still telling the truth. That is good. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The only accusation I made was that the Community Employment Group had not been telling the truth. I would not want the Minister to take offence at that. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is exactly why I took the matter no further. I accepted the word of the member. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I appreciate Mr English’s clarifying that. What I am saying is that the Community Employment Group’s working off the summary sheets is what caused the difference in its answers. When it is asked to go back to its base data it gives the same answer all the time about this particular organisation and other ones it funds in the hopes of encouraging community-based economic development. 
Helen Duncan 
: Can the Minister tell the House what positive reports he has seen about Community Employment Group work with communities? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: There are a lot of examples. One of them which all members will know is the rebuilding of communities following the period of the floods in the central North Island which the Community Employment Group was directly involved with. There is also an example I can use from the primary questioner’s region of Dunedin. Since 2000 the Community Employment Group has supported the Dunedin Methodist Mission’s community and economic development unit’s Smart Food School Lunches community enterprise. Smart Food School Lunches provides work experience and pre-employment training for job seekers who make nutritious lunches at low-decile primary schools in Dunedin. Feedback from the community the schools and the parents has been positive the project is now attracting interest from schools outside Dunedin and that enterprise has now become self-sufficient. 
Katherine Rich 
: Referring to the Minister’s comments about the Community Employment Group’s use of summary sheets can he explain why the Samoan advisory councils have received more than 10 grants for a wide range of projects with project titles such as “Softball” “Rugby” “Motivational Development” “Capacity Building” “Drivers Instruction” “Fair Play” “Catholic Capacity” and “The Disciples Instructions” and can he explain why those projects should be funded with taxpayers’ money? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: That is an incredibly long list of applications that have been granted funding. I would obviously need to go through them one by one with the member. But the member’s general question asks whether we agree with the kind of funding that has been going on within the Community Employment Group. The member will know that I have frozen the funding and that now only grants that are approved by James Buwalda the Chief Executive of the Department of Labour will be made. But I do want to say to the member that the Community Employment Group does things in the electorates of every single member in this House that we would all like to see continue. My aim is to ensure that some of what I have called lack of focus in that organisation is got rid of. We have stamped on its grants procedure and we want to make sure that the organisation gets back to its proper focus and does the kind of job we all want to be done.