Ritzy reviews

$700k a day for Govt groups

The Government is spending $700,000 a day on inquiries, according to figures released by National.

The Opposition claims that 206 reviews and working groups have been called for by the Government at a total cost of around $280 million.

National leader Simon Bridges claimed the Coalition had virtually added another tier to Government in jobs for Wellington consultants and retired politicians.

“This is a Government whose parties had three terms — nine years — to develop their own ideas, but they’re now farming the thinking out to others and charging the taxpayers.”

The result of so many inquiries was a sense of uncertainty that had hamstrung the business and social sectors, he claimed.

“It is also a colossal waste of money which quite literally would mean you wouldn’t need a regional fuel tax in Auckland and could fund thousands of cochlear implants.”

Of the spending outlined in documents released by National, only $35m related to information the party obtained under the Official Information Act.

The rest was in a working document it compiled.

In response, the Government said National had its numbers wrong and described it as “a lazy piece of research”.

There were only 41 reviews and working groups as determined by the State Services Commission.

“National have listed a lot of items as reviews or working groups that aren’t and are actually core government work,” State Services Minister Chris Hipkins said.

Nearly half of the spending was on a Royal Commission into historic abuse in state care and churches, the mental health inquiry and the Pike River Recovery Agency.

“Much of the rest of the spending relates to business as usual expenses that any Government incurs and a lot of it is over three to four years,” Hipkins said.

But Bridges said it was creating mass uncertainty for the business and social sectors.

Examples of the negative impact included ports, which he said was holding back on capital investment while a review of ports was held.

“The same is true with power [because] we have a power price review, and for landlords and property investors given the tax review next year. I’m not saying there should be no reviews, but . . . it’s out of control.”

Hipkins said much of the inquiry work was on matters that could not be ignored.

“This Government cares about New Zealanders and their cost of living. That’s why we lifted the minimum wage, invested record amounts into families through our families’ package, put in place the winter energy payment and are reviewing the price of petrol. We are doing all that while running a surplus and maintaining a strong economy.”

Bridges couldn’t recall the most expensive inquiry during National’s last term but didn’t consider the $26m flag referendum extravagant. He claimed the Coalition Government was planning referenda on cannabis, euthanasia and electoral reform.

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This Government must be setting a record for inquiries. Every week it seems, another is announced. By National’s count, the number now exceeds 200 at a cost of almost $700,000 a day, as revealed in the Herald on Sunday today.

Last week, two of the big ones produced reports, one on mental health, the other school management.

The report on Tomorrow’s Schools is a bundle of clear, concrete, radical recommendations.

It proposes to do away with boards of trustees and school zoning and put schools in administrative groupings.

The report on Mental Health and Addiction, however, is vague and inconclusive. It proposes a permanent commission to oversee more services for milder mental illness and advocates less medication, more “talk therapies” and unspecified targets for treatment.

One presents the Government with decisions to make, the other kicks its can down the road.

One panel was given a tightly focused task, the other asked to consider anything with a bearing on mental health.

One probably had a good idea of the Government’s thinking before it set out, the other was sent into a field where the Government clearly has no idea what to do.

Mental illness comes in such a variety of forms and sufferers are so hard to monitor that even the experts do not sound sure of what to do. Yet New Zealand’s youth suicide rate demands action.

The inquiry into the abuse of children in state care will be hearing from former wards put into institutions that were closed last century.

It has spent most of this year expanding its brief, which now extends to include just about any form of child custody, possibly including schools, but it still looks likely to plough old ground.

Inquiries are useful when there is something we need to know and it can be discovered. The 1986 royal commission on the electoral system was a classic example. It examined different electoral systems and devised one the country eventually adopted.

But, too often, inquiries are set up to do something about an intractable problem.

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