Taken from stuff.co.nz:

A centre that cares for severely disabled people faces having to turn people away next year because the Government is refusing to provide extra funding. The Chris Ruth Centre offers long-term, one-on-one care and specialist services for people in Christchurch with very high special needs who are too old to stay in the school system. Six more people want to enrol at the centre next year, but may not be able to because of the Government’s refusal to disburse additional funding.

The kicker to all this is that not only was the Chris Ruth Centre given a measly 5% funding increase last year, and confirmed no more would be given next year, but at the same time, the Ministry of Health’s payroll had increased by 55 per cent in the past eight years and, in the past year, those earning more than $100,000 had risen steeply. Not that I doubt, for a second, the hard work those ministers are doing, it just seems like an awfully large pay increase within a department that is seemingly stricken with funding issues! Hypocritical, perhaps?