Fiscal responsibility be damned. The trough is now wide open.

"When it has been filled with a swill funded by taxpayers and invitations have been issued to various organisations to come and slurp, it’s fair to suppose it is a trough. This likelihood is increased significantly when we learn the invitation to come and slurp is issued by Shane Jones.
    "As Minister of Regional Development, Jones has invited councils, iwi, businesses and community organisations with infrastructure projects that support regional priorities to apply for funding from the Regional Infrastructure Fund, which opened [yesterday]. ... Jones’s invitation to apply for a place around the trough was among the latest press statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website."

~ Buzz from the Beehive, from their post 'Roll up, oinkers – Shane Jones is calling hogs to a new trough, not as rich as the PGF, true, but a $1.2bn swill must be tempting'