It’s obscene that the Ministry for Children’s communications team—blessed with nearly $2 million a year and 14 staff, each paid over $100K, gets to bask in their comfort zone while children live in poverty and are being murdered in their homes by their own family members.
What are they, the Comms Team, doing for those millions? Internal comms. Social media posts. Glossing the turd with platitudes like “engagement with partners, providers, iwi and communities”. Utter word salad. Let’s talk about priorities: how about engaging with social workers who are threatened by gangs, or visiting freezing homes struggling to eat to give budgeting advice? No, better just sprinkle in a few Te Reos like ‘iwi’ and ‘kaimahi’, because that’s obviously the solution to child murder, right?
Then there’s the absurd memo: “It’s entirely appropriate… to ask our kaimahi to not comment to media… without engaging our deep-context, legal-obsessed media team”. So social workers—who daily risk their lives in hostile gang territory—are considered too naive or ignorant to speak? Really? They’re denied agency while comms experts, safe behind desks, get to shape the bureaucrats’ narrative?
And the grammar faux pas: “to not comment.” Is that the best $100K+ gets us? Do they even know what infinitives are and why splitting them isn’t right? The suggestion that a communications role needs legal tightrope-walking—while social workers brave threats to keep our kids safe—is a slap in the face.
Meanwhile, frontline staff earn near-minimum wage, face physical threats every day, and risk everything. Yet the Ministry’s priority is brand preservation, PR messaging, and making sure only approved voices hit the airwaves.
In summary:
- Massive taxpayer-funded comms team = $2 million.
- Kids left with scraps, entangled in poverty and violence.
- Social workers silenced; coms pros empowered.
- Glossy press releases masquerading as frank and honest communication.
- And the woke Te Reo tokenism? Pure fairy-dust theatre.
We need action, not word salad. We don’t need another glossy campaign or social media rebranding—we need warm homes, safe communities, proper pay and protection for social workers, and a real commitment to vulnerable children.
Here’s an example of good comms: Dear Minister for Children, May I suggest using Grammarly Pro for your Comms? It’ll generate clearer communications and will cost the Ministry way less, allowing a few million to be sprinkled on the Social Workers, you know, the ones who are out there, sleeves rolled up, helping the children who need help, you know, doing what the Ministry’s there for.
eN-Zed 