Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Treasury on the leash
The Letter this week refers to the BNZ Weekly Overview (pdf) which reveals that even The Treasury are not spared the whip from the Government's spin machine. This quote from BNZ Chief Economist John Whitehead is just plain frightening:
Treasury are probably engaging in the biggest smoke and mirrors exercise we have seen from them since 1990. But to give their shenanigans the benefit of the doubt the driving force behind these manoeuvres as back then could be from above for political reasons.There are two disturbing elements here. Firstly that it seems unmistakable that The Treasury are happy to sing from Dr Cullen's, "I love to tax - so you tell them I need it", song book despite the independence supposedly guaranteed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
There is almost $5b available by traditional surplus measures used in New Zealand for decades to use for both increased spending and tax cuts. The question then is when will we tax payers get some of our money back or does the government plan a major expansion down the track of the economic activities of the state?
Secondly, and more importantly, this prick has stashed 5 billion dollars of our cash for his own purposes!! Whether those purposes are cynical vote buying, idealogical agenda's or Social Steve Maharey's bad ideas, My Right does not care - it was ours - give it back man.
Message to John Key - get yourself on the front page with some numbers, even if you have to rely on Mr Whitehead to put them together for you.
