Poor quality spending by government- a campaign to stop it

Yesterday Adam posted here about an item on Bernard Hickey’s blog at Stuff. He did not comment on some other points in the same post as he wished to cover them in another item, namely this one.

Now when concluding his item on the Social Development Ministry, Hickey noted some additional comments regarding the fact that he has undertaken to highlight what he regards as government waste each day going forward, see his original post on this here.

The additional comments made yesterday are here, and he made them in response to comments posted on his blog:-

You makes some good points about posting on nothing but this. There will be other posts on other subjects. But I will be posting once a (work) day on this until the election. Some are wondering why I appear so grumpy about this. Some have accused me of going over the top.

I’m going over the top because I’m sick of paying so much tax for government services that don’t improve our lot much and that recently have done nothing but put up interest rates, which also increases the cost of living.

This year’s budget pushed me over the top. It was profligate, irresponsible and inflationary. I’m not going to stop until someone in government, whoever in government, starts spending our money more carefully.

Money should be spent with care and concern for real value.

Now it is very important to note that this is not a vendetta on Hickey’s part.

As Hickey said on 28 May in his first post on this:-

Every day from now until the election I’m going to take up Michael Cullen’s challenge to identify some pointless or wasteful government spending that could be cut. This includes spending by state-owned enterprises and jobs being offered by all manner of agencies and quangos. This is going to be fun because there is a lot of low-hanging fruit.

The good doctor believes the government runs a tight ship and critics won’t be able to find much in the way of cost savings from government spending to fund tax cuts or to help reduce the inflationary pressures that are keeping interest rates high. He has challenged National and any other proponent of income tax cuts (although I am not one right now) to explain how they will be able to afford tax cuts without massive cuts in government spending and services.

My sense is that nine years of strong government spending growth have created an atmosphere where bureaucrats employ extra people, pay for more consultants and launch more projects without asking the basic question: Do we really need to do this and will we create more value for the economy by doing this than by allowing the private sector to use these resources?

Adam thinks that Hickey is on the right track.

It is time that people put effort into identifying true waste and inefficiency, not the somewhat hypocritical issues so often blown up by politicians.

We as taxpayers need to take control.

Consequently, Adam is going to start a spreadsheet and tally up all items he becomes aware of. He invites anyone who has an example to contribute to post the details here.

Adam will transfer the item to the spreadsheet and make the details available on the blog.

Please let your friends and mates know so that they can contribute as well.

If you have a blog please publicise this effort and link through so that we can gain maximum traction.

In due course we will send the details to the pollies and to the media for a reaction and action.

Please note Adam would take this view whichever lot held power.

Any additional suggestions and thoughts will be welcomed.