By Liz Puranam
A 3 News investigation into how the Ministry of Social Development is spending millions of tax payer dollars has seen the opposition label the scheme a lemon.
On Monday night our investigation revealed that a taxpayer-funded community garden could only provide evidence of just one pumpkin being grown.
Yesterday, we revealed further oddities in the Community Max scheme, including one which involved breaking and taming wild horses.
The scheme was run by Richard Tu Marae, who received $170,343 in wage subsidies for young people to work here.
“Its about teaching those young people with some sort of work experience - ethics ethos,” he told 3 News last night.
“We wanted to identify who the owners were and look at the possibility of breaking some of them in and on selling them to an interested party that approached us.”
That interested party was Tame Iti, but the deal fell over when Tu Marae would not accept Iti's offer.
When we put this to the ministry of social development, they tried to stop the interview.
But at Parliament today all the talk was about the one pumpkin that was found as part of a $317,000 dollar tax-payer funded job project in Northland.
“Why has she spent more than $300,000 on a garden that has left participants unemployed and produced, just one pumpkin,” asked Labour MP Jacinda Ardern
The government is standing by the programme.
“We would hope that eventually, some of those people who haven't got jobs have still got something useful on their CV, apart from playing on the playstation,” said Bill English.
The Northland community garden is just one example from the $57 million Community Max scheme.
“We thought community max was a bit of a lemon - but it turned out to be a pumpkin,” said Labour leader Phil Goff.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the scheme was superficial.
“It’s a papering over the cracks scheme. They are not investing long-term in these people, they are not investing in proper skills that will help them get work.”
It took 3 News seven months to obtain the details of nineteen projects.
The Ministry of Social Development is still refusing to hand over paperwork for about 300 more.
The Government has now ordered an internal investigation into the projects.
3 News