Danyl McLauchlan’s excellent “Bees & honey” feature (May 13) highlighted public money wasted on consultants.
For any particular client ministry, the consultant is aware of the answer its client wants. Repeat business depends on pleasing the client. Yet public policy based on incorrect facts is likely to be harmful. One report I read left me convinced the client had required the consultants to show the conversion of sheep and beef farms to forestry in a favourable light.
It made forestry look good by including high-country farms. These have very low-employment density, but are on iconic landscapes few want to see planted. The report used StatsNZ data but did not count thousands of sheep and beef support workers who, in the original data, appear in a wider agricultural category.
Forestry support workers were easy to include, having a separate category.
Policies justified by the report have gone on to reduce employment and drive irreversible land-use change.
Dave Read
(Wairoa)
Some years ago, I worked as a consultant in the area of IT in teaching and learning. At the time, one definition of a consultant was “someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time and then keeps your watch”. Quite apposite, given the accounts in your article.
Luckily for me, my talents were recognised and I was employed by the quango for several years.
Brian Bowell
(Hamilton)
RETHINKING THE TREATY
As should be clear from reading Bain Attwood’s article “Lost in translation” (May 20), all documents are of their own specific time and space. Equally, so
