Destiny, "discrimination", and greed

Earlier in the week, Destiny Church (most famous for organising the "Nuremberg rally" against the Civil Union Act in 2004) complained about being "discriminated against" due to not receiving more government funding. Today, the Herald reveals the true problem: they didn't meet the criteria, because they couldn't find other agencies to partner with to deliver services. And the reason they couldn't find other agencies to partner with? Because no-one wants to work with bigots.

Cry me a river. This isn't "discrimination", its just desserts. It is also, I should add, those other agencies ensuring that their service delivery complies with the Human Rights Act - something that simply can't be guaranteed if Destiny is involved.

Meanwhile, the Herald also has the truth on why Destiny is dissatisfied with merely receiving $860,000 of taxpayer's money: because they didn't make enough money:

He said Destiny's Community Max scheme, in which young people developed good work habits and assisted older and younger members of the community, was about to finish.

While the $850,000 his organisation received for its Community Max programmes was a lot of money, he said, all but about $10,000 went on wages, ACC and KiwiSaver payments for those on the schemes.

His organisation had spent about $6000 more in running costs.

"We made $4000."

Again, my heart bleeds. The government tender process is supposed to secure the best value for money, which, if the government are doing their job right, means low profits for providers. If you think you're going to get rich by providing social services under contract, then you're probably the sort of fool who thinks that you can secure the blessings of the invisible sky faerie by giving all your money to Brian Tamaki.

As with everything about Destiny, this is about greed. They're not sucking enough out of their churchmembers to provide motorbikes and bling and luxury cruises for everyone at the top, so they're trying to suck money out of taxpayers instead. Fortunately, the public servants who assess tenders aren't credulous fools. Unfortunately, Destiny is hoping that Ministers are, and that by sucking up to them, they can bypass the usual process. After all, it worked for Parents Inc and PEDA...