Fine tuning Key’s action plan
David Beatson has written a thoughtful piece at Pundit Key’s action plan needs fine tuning, with which Adam is in broad agreement.
Adam thinks note should be taken of these comments:-
John Key should take the time to fine-tune the structures and processes suggested by ACT to define precisely where they are appropriate, how they would be appointed, and how long they should last.
He is right to call on public service chief executives to carry out an immediate line-by-line review of their spending – but that is not going to tell him how to get more of that spending to the front-lines of their activity.
Objective cost-benefit analysts should be hired to help the coalition government to make its public expenditure reallocation decisions, on a transparent and purely advisory basis.
There is a case for broader inclusion of relevant private sector advice into the policy development process – but there should be no rush to create elaborate structures that could enable ACT or its private sector acolytes to exercise undue influence over public policy implementation.
National was elected to lead, not follow. We need concrete action, not more reviews, especially reviews geared to produce ideologically driven outcomes. We had enough of those the last 9 years.
