Mark Blumsky
National Party MP
15 June 2006
Barker being bloody-minded over Karori sanctuary
Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker’s refusal to review a departmental decision not to grant the Karori Wildlife
Sanctuary funding he admits it deserves is sheer bloody-mindedness, says National Party Wellington-based MP Mark
Blumsky.
In Parliament today, Mr Barker agreed with the Prime Minister’s statement that the award-winning Karori Wildlife
Sanctuary was the sort of project that the Significant Community Based Projects Fund aimed to help, but refused to
review the decision-making of officials who declined the sanctuary’s application.
Mr Blumsky says the sanctuary has proven itself against the fund's criteria of securing ‘commitments for significant
community support towards the project cost from funding sources other than central government’.
“How can Mr Barker support his department’s decision that the sanctuary does not have sufficient community support in
light of the $13 million in community funding, $8 million in pro bono work, 350 volunteers, 5,500 members and 250,000
volunteer hours the sanctuary has received in recent years?
“The sanctuary clearly meets the criteria for this grant. Mr Barker should either fess up and explain to the hundreds of
Wellingtonians supporting the venture that he disagrees, or grant them a review,” says Mr Blumsky.
Ends