Kate Hawkesby: How deep is the prezzy card pot?

I'm just wondering if there's a big box of prezzy cards stashed somewhere inside the Beehive, or somewhere all the bureaucrats can go, to just bundle up endless prezzy cards to hand out to people.  

In the latest prezzy card scandal —and let's not forget there've been a few— 'defendants on serious charges', it was reported, got $75 dollar prezzy cards to attend meetings. These were meetings in Hawke's Bay at the courts, and it was reportedly to ‘share ideas and court experiences.'’ 

So the news report said 'about 50 people attended the meetings'. This was at the start of the month, a couple of weeks ago, and they were held in Napier and Hastings. So who held these meetings and were handing out the prezzy cards?  

‘Ministry of Justice Chief Operating Officer Carl Crafar..' alongside 'Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, and supported by the Ministry.' The story said the meetings 'were held in order to gain a deeper understanding of the local community’s aspirations for Te Ao Mārama.' Which means enhancing justice for all. Which starts with prezzy cards it seems.  

The Ministry of Justice's COO was reported saying, "the vision for the District Court, [was] a journey towards a more enlightened justice system, in response to repeated calls for transformative change."  

Now here's the key point: the story says the Ministry of Justice claims it didn't know how many attendees at these meetings were defendants or victims. Why not? Why didn't they measure that? Surely that helps inform what they're trying to do in terms of how to improve the experience. Don't you need to know who people are in regards what end of the court system they were dealing with?

But it gets worse, Stuff said one attendee was someone currently on bail 'while facing various charges of assault including a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.' So a very serious charge, an offender still before the courts, on bail, getting handed a prezzy card to the value of 75 dollars so he can buy himself something nice for the trouble of his time to tell the Ministry how his experience before the court could have been better. Are you kidding me?  

The Ministry's chief operating officer was quoted saying 'the knowledge shared at the wānanga was invaluable for all those involved, and many participants expressed their appreciation at the opportunity to share their views.' I bet they did. I just don't know how or why this prezzy card reward system has grown into such a big thing for government departments, and why they're so happy to spend our taxpayer dollars on token rewards for anyone and everyone they want information out of. Including alleged offenders.  

There has become this general acceptance it would appear, that the best way to entice people to do stuff, is to hand them prezzy cards, or KFC, or takeaways, or any token gesture that gets them over the line... at our expense. I mean I guess it's cheaper than millions on consultants, but how much is being spent on prezzy cards by government? How deep is the prezzy card pot? And why is there no vetting of whose getting them and who isn't and why and how even offenders can get them?  

It just feels like more reward-based politics, based on little fact, and using our hard earned money to achieve... what? 

Kate Hawkesby is a journalist and broadcaster who hosts the Early Edition show on Newstalk ZB.