We all know the Christchurch earthquake is going to have a devastating effect on the Canterbury economy. At the moment the government has a (pathetically small) transition package in place to tide people over, but this will end in a few weeks, after which we'll see a large number of people on the dole.
Today in Question Time Paula Bennett, the Minister for Social Development, was asked whether she had received any advice from her department on the unemployment effect of the earthquake. After a pathetic attempt to dodge it by abusing the opposition, she was forced to admit that she had not, and that she had not asked for any. That's right: the Minister of Social Development hasn't bothered to get her department to model how many more people are going to be out of work, and therefore how much it is going to cost us.
This is incompetence, pure and simple. But hey, Bennett lives in Auckland on a $250,000 salary. So why should she care what happens to unemployment in Christchurch?
Update (6/5/11): Added link to Hansard.
