Boris Janic at the Herald has reported that National created *more* working groups than Labour during the first two years of each party’s latest term of Government.
From the Article:
Since the early days of the current Government the Opposition has accused it of splurging on public reviews, working groups and advisory panels, saying the situation was out of control.
Ministers says it’s a complete beat-up, National says it’s been a consultants’ bonanza.
So with the second year of the Parliamentary term now wrapped up, how many reviews have actually been set up, how many have been finished and how do the numbers stack up?
As it turns out, the country’s civil service watchdog – the State Services Commission – last year began quietly keeping track with its own official list of inquiries, reviews, and advisory groups.
According to the National Party, there have been a whopping 302 government reviews and groups launched since the Government came to power.
But the State Services Commission puts the number at 103. (See its full list below)
It says 55 of those have now been finished, while the Government will go into election year with 48 still going – including 19 that are designated as part of the core work of public agencies, such as regular reviews of laws.
Another two reviews are already also slated to start in 2020.
By comparison, the previous National Government launched 113 reviews by the middle of 2010 – roughly half way through its second year in Government, according the party’s own count.
There is some dispute about the definitions and the categorisations. National’s definition involves any entity that has Ministerial powers devolved to it.
But this is a rather unfortunate dent in the suggestion that National is somehow better managers of the Government’s purse strings than Labour.
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