The Council for International Development is an umbrella organisation for aid groups operating from New Zealand. Last year, it criticised the government's disestablishment of NZAID and shift in the focus of aid from poverty reduction to business growth. In retaliation, Murray McCully has just cut all their funding, resulting in 10 of its 11 staff being laid off.
This is a vicious, brutal, vindictive act of political thuggery. But its also stupid. Those staff perform a vital role in coordinating the efforts of relief groups during disasters. Without them, aid money is likely to be poorly spent. And when the government's preferred response to disasters is to channel relief funding though NGOs, that will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of that spending.
Stupid, shortsighted, and vindictive. It's McCully to a T, isn't it?
