Good piece in the Herald yesterday (and the Dom Post the day before) from PSA national sec Richard Wagstaff critiquing ANZ National chief economist Cameron Bagrie’s woeful report on public sector ‘waste’.
Wagstaff takes aim at the underlying assumptions of the report about ‘productive’ versus ‘non-productive’ public sector spending, then proceeds to rip through some of the more glaring omissions and misleading examples in the report.
One of my favourite examples:
Then there’s the Department of Conservation. According to the report, it’s also “non-productive”.
But where would New Zealand’s tourism industry be if DoC staff weren’t protecting our natural and historic heritage? Of the 2.2 million overseas tourists who visited between March 2006 and March 2007, 668,400 – 30 per cent – visited a National Park maintained by DoC staff.
The West Coast’s five National Parks generate $220 million in tourism activity a year, creating jobs for 1800 “Coasters”. In the North Island, the Whakapapa and Turoa ski fields are also included in a National Park maintained by DoC. They generate more than $45 million a year and create more than 2100 jobs.
Yet ANZ says this is “non-productive”.
You can read the full article here.
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