The Gloriavale community is applying for a grant from the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund to set up a new health food enterprise on the West Coast.
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says he didn’t expect communes to put in for a share of the provincial growth fund but Gloriavale’s application has shown anyone can try.
Gloriavale is a closed fundamentalist Christian group based at Haupiri on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand.
The Provincial Growth Fund is a 3 billion dollar treasure chest the New Zealand Government has created to promote regional growth.
Jones said the application would be considered professionally like any other but that did not mean it would see the “fiscal light of day.”
“I wouldn’t want to knock out any particular application till we had all the facts.
“But the reality is that particular organisation does represent something of a morality play,” Jones said.
The Opposition National Party’s economic development spokesman Paul Goldsmith said it’s not clear to him “how New Zealand benefits from giving money to a closed community.”
Massey University Professor Peter Lineham said Gloriavale have “set themselves up on the Coast as a curious little isolated place that wants to have nothing to do with the world.
“Well, then what are they doing asking for the world’s money? That’s what I’d like to know.”
“Gloriavale comes with a whole lot of baggage. And the Government cannot be comfortable,” Lineham said.
Gloriavale’s spokesman declined to comment about the application to the Provincial Growth Fund when contacted by 1 NEWS.
Source
- tvnz.co.nz
- radionz.co.nz
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