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Although they have paid lip-service to the goal of hiking NZ's knowledge economy, almost nothing they've done has been without an alternative political agenda.

Coalition member Jim Anderton appears to consider the likelihood of a great photo-op to be a major consideration when handing out hi-tech grants and funding, while the whole Technology Grants scheme seems more like part of a socialist redistribution of wealth scheme than a genuine way to promote innovation and research.

In this morning's NZ Herald, Dr Cullen is quoted on the issue of the of the Kiwi innovator toiling away using their own resources as saying "it is time we put this little romance to bed".

It appears that in Mike's world, the only good research is that funded by a government wealth-redistribution grant or by those organisations capable of setting up highly disciplined and well funded R&D programmes.

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I'm sorry but if you're a back-yard inventor then you're off Labour's Christmas Card list. After all, where's the value of a photo-op that depicts a high-ranking government minister standing in a small shed looking blankly at the implementation of some incredibly smart idea?

It would surely be a big smack in the face that a lone individual could succeed without the assistance of the state or the involvement of government in some way, shape or form.

Cullen goes on to further demonstrate his ignorance by claiming "Innovation is not an art, it is a set of disciplines that can be learned, practised and taught."

This is clearly a man who has never had an original creative thought in his life!

What next -- will he be telling us that *anyone* can become an artist to rival Rembrandt or Picasso because painting is just a set of disciplines that can be learned, practised and taught?

And if innovation is such a simple thing, why aren't all our students taught these disciplines, effectively making NZ a nation of innovators and therefore world leaders in the conception and development of innovative new ideas and products?

Perhaps his lack of understanding of the way inventors, innovators and other creative people work demonstrates exactly why we're still sliding down the list of OECD nations in respect to our economic performance in the knowledge economy -- while countries such as Ireland show us how it should be done.

As an innovator who has suffered at the hands of a government without a clue and which is led by ministers who back voodoo-like devices such as magnetic fuel savers, I hold little hope for any improvement until such time as we get something better than beancounters telling us how to innovate.

Although I do know that being a bean-counter/finance minister involves simple skills that anyone with half a brain can master (perhaps Cullen is proof of that), there can be few people in the business of innovating who don't feel more than a little insulted by the Minister's comments.

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