Community Max

Stuff has a couple of stories on government funded community max schemes, where the outcomes have been very dubious – catching horses to release them again, and a Maori Internet business directory which is not online.

Personally I am dubious about many of these taxpayer funded community schemes. They can provide useful skills and experience to those who don’t have any, but they can also cost a lot of money and not produce much in the way of outcomes.

MSD say the majority of participants in the two examples above, have gained skills and are now off benefits. But paying $175,000 for a project (a Maori online business directory) that it seems wasn’t even needed (there are existing ones) is an expensive way to go about it.