Posts Tagged ‘government waste’

Economics on private prisons don’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, May 11th, 2010 - 15 comments

The argument against privatising prisons isn’t high principle (only the state should imprison people) or that this is an attempt at cost-cutting. No, the reason private prisons suck is they cost more. The last time Auckland Remand was privatised it didn’t save money. It cost $66,000 a year to imprison someone in Auckland remand vs $49,000 for a publicly-run equivalent.

Weeding out low quality

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, April 24th, 2010 - 58 comments

The Nats are looking to cut $1.8 billion in spending over four years. Where from? What and who will be deemed to be “low quality” in need of “weeding out”? The answers are going to tell us a lot about the National Party’s values…

Nats: economically illiterate

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, April 15th, 2010 - 22 comments

How economically illiterate do the Nats have to be to send the government’s research vessel Tangaroa to Singapore for a $20 million refit when VT Fitzroy at Devonport was ready and willing to do the work here? Sure the bid was a bit lower but did they consider the tax the government would gain, the fewer unemployed and the other benefits from keeping the work here in New Zealand?

Take it out of my ‘tax cut’

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, April 9th, 2010 - 30 comments

So the govt wants to sue the Waihopai 3 for $1.1 mil. No pesky jury this time. The dudes only have a grand between them. Spending a couple of hundred thousand on lawyers’ fees to bankrupt some hippies. Doesn’t seem like the best use of taxpayer cash. Tell you what. If the govt really wants its $1.1 million they can take it out of our tax ‘cuts’. 25 cents each. That’ll be my tax cut pretty much gone.

Super bill for Supercity

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, March 25th, 2010 - 6 comments

When pressed very very hard, Rodney Hide described the set up costs of the Government’s Supercity as “minuscule” even though he couldn’t put a number on it. Now, we have some a number on what “minuscule” is in Hide’s book. The Auckland City Council alone faces a $34 million bill to establish the Supercity.

Nats to pay miners to dig up national parks

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, March 17th, 2010 - 14 comments

During Question Time yesterday, Metiria Turei exposed National’s plan to subsidise mineral exploration by foreign companies in the most important parts of our national parks.

John Key refused to confirm Turei’s information but couldn’t deny it. Clearly, the Nats had been planning to slip it through in the Budget unnoticed.

Tolley keeps empty schools open

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, February 4th, 2010 - 17 comments

Well, there can’t be any doubt now, Anne Tolley is this government’s worst minister. A failure that stands out among failures. She had an Auckland university pay to take her on a chopper ride because she didn’t understand what was meant by getting a “helicopter view of the sector”. She complained to her advisors about […]

Steven Joyce and the new Think Big

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, January 29th, 2010 - 18 comments

The first half of an excellent piece by Kent Dunston of Save the Basin (which is opposing the construction of flyovers around the Basin Reserve by National): Back in the halcyon days of the Muldoon administration circa 1979 the then-National government embarked on a series of large-scale interventionist construction schemes called ‘Think Big’ that were […]

Joyce’s holiday highway

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 28th, 2010 - 60 comments

Steven Joyce has announced plans for a  motorway from Puhoi to Wellsford at a cost of $2 billion ($1.4 billion in today’s money). The route is used by just 15,000 cars a day (and that has been falling the last few years) and is estimated (optimistically) to save just 15 minutes off the travel time. […]

Even Banks against Key’s ‘Party Central’ fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, January 13th, 2010 - 6 comments

At first, I thought I must have been dreaming yesterday morning. There was John Banks loudly attacking central government politicians from Wellington. How dare they impose expensive and unjustified costs on Aucklanders? Why were they so insistent on rushing through their own ideas rather than taking the time to come to an enduring solution that Aucklanders […]

Govt to waste $400 million on white elephant highway

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, January 7th, 2010 - 132 comments

Steven Joyce has finally revealed the benefit/cost ratio for the billion dollar Transmission Gully project. A few weeks ago he was mocking Sue Kedgley for saying that the costs would outweigh the benefits and claiming that the BCR would be about 1.5 ($1.50 benefit for each $1 spent). It turns out Joyce was lying. There is just […]

Transmission Gully- $1bln white elephant

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, December 17th, 2009 - 119 comments

Here’s a prediction. Transmission Gully will never be built. There’s a reason that Labour kept pushing Transmission Gully off. The Benefit/Cost ratio is sh*t. “It is likely that the benefit-cost ratio for the Transmission Gully route is less than 1” says Joyce. Disgracefully, NZTA is too ashamed to publish the actual number. Transmission Gully will […]

No more jobs for Nats’ old mates

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 1st, 2009 - 49 comments

Apart from keeping Don Brash well stocked with corned beef in his dotage, what exactly are we getting out of the Government’s half million dollar 2025 Taskforce? The Brash Report is a joke. It reads like nothing so much as a collective ramblings of half a dozen geriatics who haven’t had a new idea in 20 […]

Not walking the talk

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, November 8th, 2009 - 18 comments

I’m not against Prime Ministers making limited use of Airforce aircraft when necessary – when commercial flights or (better) surface travel aren’t practical. It’s cheaper and more efficient than having dedicated aircraft that would hardly ever be used. But Key using two Iroquois, each flying for eight hours, just so he could get from Blenheim to Kiakoura […]

Pork barrelling from the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, November 5th, 2008 - 26 comments

One of the virtues of New Zealand government has long been that we avoid US-style pork barrel politics. The Government sets the direction of policy and priorities but doesn’t interfere with specific projects. The principle is that the experts, not the elected officials, should decide the details of specific projects. For instance, the Government might […]

ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 1st, 2008 - 20 comments

Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, mysterious, cure-all tax cuts. Here’s what they’ve said they will cut: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating (why it’s not waste) 2) Badges about Te Reo […]

Contrary to Key, Govt does target waste

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, July 13th, 2008 - 54 comments

The idea that a government would purposely spend money in a wasteful manner is patently absurd. Voters want more government services and lower tax, any dollar of wasteful spending not only takes away from a government’s ability to meet those desires but also gives voters an active reason to vote against the Government. That’s a […]

Government slashes ‘waste’

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, July 4th, 2008 - 36 comments

The Government’s new core benefit will see all beneficiaries given the same treatment and the same assistance to get into work if they are able. The changes will reduce monthly costs for both beneficiaries and MSD. The more efficient system will save $40 to $70 million a year (source: newsroom). A cheaper system that will […]

Johnny Key and the magic $500 million

Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, June 25th, 2008 - 12 comments

Whenever John Key is asked to explain how he will fund some new spending or his still secret tax cuts, he says ‘we’ll cut waste/rein in spending’ and the only example he ever gives is ‘we’ll cap the core public service at 36,000′. This, he claims, will save ‘$500 million over 3 years’ or $166 […]

ToryAid: Wastewatch (3)

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, June 24th, 2008 - 68 comments

In response to the UMR poll that shows 60% of voters would not want tax cuts at the expense of public services, Bill English says “under any tax plans we might have government spending will continue to increase* but [we need] more effective public services in tougher times” Notice, they are already preparing the ground […]

ToryAid: Wastewatch (2)

Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, June 19th, 2008 - 40 comments

Here’s the waste National has identified so far: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating 2) Badges about Te Teo for school kids – $56,000 Why it’s waste: badges for Maori language! Next they’ll be wanting their land back. Why it’s not a waste: Meh, maybe it is waste but […]

Key’s slippery promises on waste

Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, June 14th, 2008 - 50 comments

National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on average more than Labour. That’s $3 billion a year. The operating surplus is gone, so where will the money come from? John Key has been repeatedly referencing the fact that the government […]

Which is the waste of money?

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, June 10th, 2008 - 35 comments

Every now and then a ‘commentator’ pops up who is so hilariously incompetent you don’t know whether to ignore them or mock them. In Bernard Hickey‘s case, it’s been the former because the man’s work is so bad – his numbers don’t add up half the time, his understanding of economics would have had my […]

ToryAid: The Standard resurrects Wastewatch

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, May 27th, 2008 - 66 comments

Remember wastewatch.co.nz? It’s National’s site listing all the ‘government waste’. From six years of Labour government it managed to find a grand total of $1 billion in waste (0.32% of Government spending or a 10 cent a week tax cut) and most of that wasn’t ‘waste’ it included the entire $400 million for the new […]