"Don't know, don't care" Minister should be sacked
Press Release
29 July 1999
"Don't know, don't care" Minister should be sacked
Green Party Co-Leader Rod Donald has called on Prime
Minister Jenny
Shipley to sack Social Services Minister
Roger Sowry after his performance
in the House today.
"I asked the Minister a perfectly sensible question;
what was in the lunch
boxes for which six WINZ staff
paid $100 each at the recent 'World Masters
of Business'
Event," said Rod Donald.
"In reply the Minister said
'I don't know and I don't care'.
"That answer sums
up the Minister's whole attitude towards Work and Income
New Zealand. He doesn't know and he doesn't care about the
extraordinary
culture of corporate extravagance which
pervades WINZ since his government
merged Income Support
and the Employment Service.
"Beneficiaries and
taxpayers up and down the country will be appalled to
learned that the Minister in charge of the government's
biggest budget
doesn't care whether taxpayers' funds are
squandered by senior staff
attending lavish talk-fests
or used wisely to help struggling
beneficiaries
survive.
"The $100 spent on one day's lunch is more
than most superannuitants, sole
parents, job seekers and
students have for food for a whole week.
"What sort
of government is Jenny Shipley running? Certainly not one
that
exhibits the basic principles of her much-touted
code of social
responsibility.
"The sooner this
government is put out of its misery the better," he
said.