Govt To Axe Non-Essential Services

[Perry]

Govt To Axe Non-Essential Services

29/03/2011

The squeeze on public spending will mean service cuts,
Finance Minister Bill English has warned in a speech that
has mapped out years of austerity measures. English said
the Government's decision to rein in new spending in this
year's Budget would mean some services that were ''nice-
to-have'' but not essential would be axed

What's the bet that anything which is axed will be some
sort of plebian "nice to have." Further, that no service cuts
will apply to anything which is "nice to have" for the W'gton
woodenheads (e.g. expensive BMWs).

Good ol' Blinglish. Lead by example, Willy!

Yeah, right!
.

[CJ]

I see this is a good thing. A shame they have to do it so fast as they were doing well as slowly decreasing the middle management but increasing front line staff. other non essentials like courses in basket weaving had been cut. There is still room but by speeding it up more they they would have liked, they will probably cut one to many things while annoying too many people at once (do it slowly and the mobs doint get big enough).

Dont get distracted by the BMW's - they got a very good deal.

[PC]

I can think of about 100 non-essentials they could axe.
They sit on their butts for a few hours per week generating hot air, spend time touring in BMWs, Taxi's & planes and accomplish worse than nothing.

Remove those salaries & perks - there's a great few $million.
Replace them with more direct democracy - especially public veto of stupid legislation!

[Perry]

Don't get distracted by the BMW's - they got a very good deal.

The 'deal' is irrelevant. It's the complete
lack of principle. And that Tweedle Key
lied about them. It's all the proverbial
"do as we say, not as we do" hubris,
arrogance and duplicity.
.

[CJ]

And that Tweedle Key lied about them.

Labour bought them at the insistence of the Greens (low emissions).

Do you really thing upgrading cars was the biggest issue Key had to deal - he probably missed the paragraph explaining what was happening in the 20,000 pages he had to read that week. You don't micro manage a country.

We need to forget about petty politics and look at the big issues.

And I seriously dont think Key gives a shi! what car he drives around in.

my opinion: personally I think Key has been pussy footing around - ratings have been more important that making changes. Hopefully they are ahead enough in the polls and with Chch as an excuse, he can make the decisions he should have made 2 years ago. We elected the 'Smiling Assassin' and all we got was 'Smile and Wave'.

Now back to non essential services
- We need a lean government what provides the right incentives to businesses to create jobs. Real jobs, not government jobs for the sake of employing people.
- We need to spend money where there is a return - 20yo students need cheap education, 60yo students need to learn to play bridge and stop wasting money just so they have something to do.
- we need to cut red tape so investment decisions aren't delayed or cancelled.

[Perry]

Depends on who or what you want to believe.
.

[CJ]

Depends on who or what you want to believe. .

i read that and the bit that stands out is:

“The reality of this deal with BMW is we are selling the cars at a rate very close to the purchase price. We pay nothing for the maintenance and repairs so, logically, the best deal was to roll them over,” he said.

Key is running a Billion dollar economy struggling to stay out of recession, which has been subject to one of the top 10 insurance events of the year (that was before the second quake).

Sure he could have handled better but the boffins that signed upto the renew gave advice that "the best deal was to roll them over". The decision (appart from petty politics) is a simple maths equation. Sign and move along and leave him to make the decisions that actuallly have pros AND cons.

There is much more waste in Government than dealing with a lease roll over.

[Perry]

It's not the money - it's the deceit involved.

Key is running a Billion dollar economy
struggling to stay out of recession.

I can't see that changing any time soon. As
I think you and a few others have observed,
the penchant for avoiding the hard decisions
(in order to get re-elected for another term)
cripples them and their efforts.

Come election time, it seems that the choice
for constituents will be:

• frying pan
• fire

[Keithw]

I'm with you 100% on that one CJ.

& local Govt wastage concerns me as well.
Since the Auckland "Big City" amalgamation, which was supposed to save money on beaurocracy and simplify council processes, I have seen dozens of jobs advertised for Akl Council "ENFORCEMENT" type jobs.
Ie instead of reducing beaurocracy and making processes work better, all that is happening is a growth in the Police State !!!

[Davo36]

I'm with you 100% on that one CJ.

& local Govt wastage concerns me as well.
Since the Auckland "Big City" amalgamation, which was supposed to save money on beaurocracy and simplify council processes, I have seen dozens of jobs advertised for Akl Council "ENFORCEMENT" type jobs.
Ie instead of reducing beaurocracy and making processes work better, all that is happening is a growth in the Police State !!!

They need the income. Most councils have a) borrowed heaps and b) hired heaps of staff over the last 6-7 years.

And now that building has slowed, the development contributions tap has been turned at least halfway off.

The bigger point though is that there is so much waste spending these days. Things I see in my immediate area (West Auckland):

• Full sized buses going along my road (which is too small and windy for them to be able to stay in their own lane) and they are normally empty. That or they have maybe 2 people on them. But public transport is 'green' and 'energy efficient' so ratepayers pay to subsidise them.
• Our road (and roads in the immediate vicinity) get resurfaced when they don't need to be. And the tarseal is the crappy kind where they pour on liquid tar and then put stones on top. They do this in the middle of summer so all the stones fly off the molten tar and stick to everyone's cars, leaving just tar on the road. So unnecessary and ineffective.
• Upgrading footpaths, by lifting curbs etc. Totally unneeded again. The footpaths were fine.

And this is repeated all over Auckland. But it allows a department in council to say something like "We've completed $8 million worth of upgrades to footpaths this year!" with pride. The complete opposite stance of any private organisation which would seek to reduce costs, not escalate them.

[Perry]

Strange you should say that, David: the Hastings
District Council is spending up large (before end
of the financial year?) on footpath replacement in
industrial areas, where pedestrian traffic is almost
zero.

The complete opposite stance of any private
organisation which would seek to reduce costs,
not escalate them.

As I may have observed before, the focus is all
wrong. The local supermarket has hundreds of car
parks for customers. At the local Council offices,
there are 4-5 for customers (aka captive rate-
payers), but many tens of parks for council staff
and councillors.

That tells you exactly where they see their focus
should be: we're here to serve them, not t'other
way around.

[kapitibeanman]

Perry, are you including John Key as a woodenhead, or is it just all the public servants in Wellington?
I ask because I find myself in agreement with you over some things, but I'm not sure where you draw the line.

[Perry]

I don't think it's possible to draw a line. If one
was drawn, I suspect it would be hard to pin
down. It seems that most of the MPs we get
to hear about more often all make stupid sorts
of decisions, from time-to-time.

That's as distinct from them being as thick as
two short planks. Yet the old looks like a duck
is a duck axiom is hard to ignore. Does PM Key
work on the easier to seek forgiveness than
permission maxim?

As far as I can tell from media coverage, Key
feigned innocence on the BMW deal, blamed
it on Labour, then was found to have had some
bad memory lapses over the matter.

As I see it, we elect the politicians to ride shot
gun on the W'gton bureaucracy stagecoach.
But rather than reigning in the red-tape crowd,
they just seem to get caught up in the miasma
of bureaucratic oligarchy, eventually defending
it and themselves for defending the indefensible.

I don't think Tweedle Key or Dipton Dum could
run the country to save themselves. Or us. The
people we probably most need to be there would
likely never consider it, because of the whole
unsavoury business that's politics in NZ.

Of course the constituents are not blameless.
They allow the wool to be pulled over their
eyes, in every election campaign. The phrase
'political spin' is something we're all cognisant
of. "It's all in the way you package it."

As an example, Key said the BMW extravagance
was a good deal for the NZ taxpayer. All
I can see is a good deal for certain, very select
bums on seats in Wellington.

Thirty-four $200,000 cars that come complete
with four-zone air conditioning, massaging seats,
sixteen high-performance speakers, monitors and
DVD players, an internet portal, automatic doors,
and voice recognition starting.

Boy, how those being chauffeured must suffer.

John Key feigned innocence: "I can't take respons-
ibility for a contract that was entered into by the
previous Labour Government, that wasn't brought
to my attention or to my ministers' attention.

That particular bit of 'spin' was later found to be
a lie. Not only did the National government actually
do the deal, but John Key may well have known all
about the cars all along having been taken out in
one in April for a test drive!

Whether he was just in a car that was there on
a trial (and was innocent of that) or knowingly
took a test drive, I can't quite be sure.

Like (I suspect) a few others thought and felt,
perhaps National had re-discovered it's roots?
Maybe it would turn back the red tide of social-
ism washing over all of us? And the culture of
bureaucratic arrogance & avarice that seems to
be rife in Wellington and most council chambers.

We were spun spin and will soon face the same
again. The politicians can't or wont control the
every-growing plague of bureaucrats, local or
national, and we can't seem to get any control
over the politicians, who do seem to regard the
three yearly cycle of quasi dictatorship as some
sort of licence to self-indulge at the expense of
the long-suffering and ever-bleeding taxpayers.
.

[kapitibeanman]

It is a severe problem, and I don't think it will ever be fully solved. I doubt it will ever be largely solved. As soon as remedial measures start to bite, too many voters recoil and slump into spend mode, with no real concept of consequences. We are, after all, in our present unsatisfactory situation because of generations of sub-optimal behaviour. Look at how much honour Sir Roger Douglas receives for starting to lead us out of the pooh.
Could it be that the only way forward is one of pragmatism, compromise and persuasion?
It's obvious that idealists (ACT/Communism) don't have traction, and the liberal Left is struggling to find a mainstream cause. At least the Nats pay lip service to less bureacracy.
What I'm getting round to saying, is I think John Key & co. are the only ones that can carry us along, but they have to be careful not to overdo it in case the ninnies amongst us get all fretful and go sobbing back to Labour. You're being pretty tough on them. I don't think it is a job for woodenheads. It is a very delicate balancing act, and I for one can understand & forgive the odd cockup. I'm even quite prepared to give the Nats a bit of trust. I don't think JK is a liar, I do think he has a hell of a demanding job & I just hope he gets the big things right. He seems the only person around for the job. That's why I'll probably vote for the Nats for the first time in many years this coming election. Maybe.

[Perry]

In some respects, I concur with many of your sentiments.
After years of abstinence, I voted for the Nats last time.
In hindsight, that was a mistake. One I wont make again.

As far as I can see, neither shade of brown has much
real understanding of economics. Although the thought
is rather scary, I suspect some sort of crisis will have
to happen before anyone wakes up, politicians, ninnies,
or otherwise.