FAMILIES COMMISSION NOT OK

We watched with great interest the interview Paul Holmes did with Dr Jan Pryor, the CE of the Families Commission on Q and A .

At first she was very clear that the organisation was not a lobby group, but later in the interview talked about lobbying on some issues. That alone should have them disbanded. They are apparently there to offer contestable advice and as David Farrar points out, decided that they should even have a say on the Maori seat Super City issue. Bless them. That is casting their policy net way to wide.

Now we concede that the one thing that the commission has done well was the mass media It's Not Okay, TV campaign.



However, that ad campaign could have been commissioned by any of a number of agencies.
And the kudos for that campaign should go to the Ad company that developed it.

We have also taken a look at their annual statement of intent. It seems that it costs $8 mil to run this 40 strong agency of policy twonks.

It all about producing reports. Lots and lots of bloody reports.

They do intend to spend $3.7 million on the very successful Its not Ok campaign and the White ribbon against domestic violence day, events this year.

We reckon that's money well spent. It's a very powerful campaign.

However their Statement of Intent also lauds the success of the "Couch" an online forum for families.They are very happy that an estimated 4500 families are involved.

What a bloody crock. They wont be the sort of families that really need help and guidance. Most of them will have sky and probably a play station but a good computer is a stretch. And after 2 years thats all they have and its only an " estimate" The last actual figure of families engaged in the Couch forum was quoted at 950.


So we reckon we are getting $3.8 mil of good spend from $8 mil and Thats Not Ok.

We hope that the government puts up a good candidate for Ohariu- Belmont to get rid of Peter Dunne and this white middle class sop to his white middle class "holier than thou" part'ys pretensions.

A campaign of the size of the "Its Not Okay" and the White Ribbon Day should keep one communications person busy with perhaps a half time support for a few weeks. It could easily be tucked under MSD.

In the meantime $4.5 -5 million is being wasted on crap - when it could be put to far better use.

And in these tough times that's definitely Not Ok.