From Rags to Riches - the HRDC Outcome

The skies have opened and the manna is falling. All those groups that were denied student grants are getting phone calls - money is flowing and everyone is scrambling to reverse gear. Good news for the community organizations, good news for the arts and heritage, good news for students. Good for Monty Solberg.

Unfortunately the question remains - what was that all about? My take: the previous HRDC minister - forget her name - made some draconian policy and money decisions, handed them over to some number crunching consulting firm and distributed evaluation formulas to HRDC offices across the country - no one sanely or soberly examined the obvious consequences - they could have asked the senate to look at it, anyone for that matter - but when every MP in the country's phone started to ring off the hook, they realized there was a problem. And now hopefully they also realize that governing is not as easy as they thought.