Make it 1000%!
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of 125% on the US, up from the 84% announced earlier.
So, imagine your old mate's surprise when he heard that instead of increasing funding for such 'colonial science', more is going to projects like 'research' into whether playing whale song to sick kauri trees can fix kauri die-back.
Sounds ridiculous, and yet the project got the green light, was managed by MBIE, and the actual payments were funneled through Landcare Research.
Officials are still refusing a line-by-line breakdown but, in total, this mātauranga Māori-based 'research' cost taxpayers $4,027,020.
Te Tira Whakamātaki Ltd did the 'work'. It's "co-founder and trustee", Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, is also the co-director of the BioHeritage Science Challenge Science - i.e. the government initiative funding the project!
