Is it a necessity? Is it pork? Is it waste?

Adam posted the other day on his desire to identify waste in government spending.

Until today he had missed this article by Deborah Hill-Cone in the NZ Herald under the heading – Budget spending: I smell a rodent.

It would appear that she has found a nest of rodents. Looking into the detail of the budget Ms Hill-Cone has found a number of items of spending that may well be duplication or just plain old fashioned political pork.

Items of potentially dubious benefit include:-

• $40 million for the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme – what is being subsidised and why?
• $10 million national animal identification and tracking system – why not recovered from those whose animals are tracked? what need is this meeting?
• $15 million for airport security – should this not be recovered from the airports, airlines and passengers?
• $24 million to establish the Maori Trustee as a separate office – Adam thought this was a distinct function already, so what is the $24 million for?
• $40 million for Maori Business Aotearoa New Zealand – which appears to duplicate existing services and agencies – will these be closed when MBANZ starts, Adam doubts it – so whose pet project is this? Whose votes are being purchased? How much is voted in similar schemes for the Pakeha small business sector? Or is that money not allocated on racial lines?
• $4.8 million for the NZ Music Commission – why?

Ms Hill-Cone finished her article by saying:-

I am sure I will get shouted down by people who will point out these are all excellent initiatives. They certainly are for the bureaucrats who will be employed in them. The question is not whether these are praiseworthy but whether new government entities – with their paper clips, telephones and ergonomic chairs – are luxuries we can afford. There is not enough cheese.

If the amounts are justifiable, then it becomes a question of priorities. Adam is of the view that not enough attention is being given to:-

• quality of spend
• priority of spend

He is not holding his breath for rapid improvement.