Paula Bennett: Daft Government spending shows we need tax cuts

Finance Minister Grant Robertson: He provides some good services but he gets out of control, says Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opinion

Let's imagine there is a guy in New Zealand, let's call him Grant, and he is providing much-needed services and everyone is paying him.

The arrangement is that the money is taken from you via your employer before you even see it. Or, if you are an employer or self-employed, you pay out a whacking amount each year in instalments.

He provides some good services but he gets out of control and dreams up some schemes and then doesn't actually provide the service.

He thinks he might do an Auckland bike bridge and spends $50 million on it. Then changes his mind because the residents don't actually want it. Oh well – there goes $50 million.

His boss says they are going to do light rail to the airport. He doesn't know how to so he spends nearly $50 million on consultants and nearly $100 million on engagement activities. No light rail but he has spent your money very easily.

He doesn't like how water is managed and who owns it so comes up with a scheme called 3 waters. People don't like it so he spends $3.5 million on advertising how great his scheme will be.

One of his mates believes that TVNZ and RNZ who are owned by all of us can't be trusted anymore. So he comes up with a plan to merge them together without telling us how this will make them more trustworthy and spends $370 million.

He still doesn't know what to do or how to do what he doesn't know so he employs more people. He needs them in Wellington, where he is, so he spends $1.8 billion on extra bureaucrats.

They don't really want to come into the office any more and they have new seismic rules so he has empty government buildings that they continue to pay rent on. They also leave the lights on in these empty buildings 24/7.

He thinks a train running from Hamilton to Auckland might be a good idea so gets some more consultants to advise him and pays them $722,914. Then he runs the train and that costs another $100 million. Very few people actually use the train.

He wants to Get Wellington Moving but doesn't know how. So instead of asking all those extra bureaucrats, he pays nearly $200 million on consultants and a business case.

Last time I looked, Wellington wasn't moving any faster. But hold on maybe a pedestrian crossing would help. But he doesn't know how so he spent $385,000 on consultants to tell him how to put a pedestrian crossing on SH1.

He then has to show you how much money he has collected from you. He has collected $108 billion. He has taken an average of $15,000 more in tax per household.

Can you imagine what you would do with that money? Do you really think Grant can spend it better than you would? You deserve more of your money in your pocket and that's why we should have tax cuts.