NZ Herald column on CIS study

The NZ Herald has run a guest column by CIS Researcher Phil Rennie, on his study showing little if any improvement in key outcomes, despite $20 billion of extra annual expenditure.

It’s good to see Rodney Hide picking this point up, and I am somewhat surprised National hasn’t been more vocal.

This isn’t just an argument about tax rates. This is about how to get good results and outcomes from the money you are spending. Like many, I don’t begrudge paying tax, where it clearly has a positive outcome for society, and is something appropriate for the state to be doing. But when you have money being poured into public hospitals, growing waiting times, and spare capacity in private hospitals, you have to ask how far will the Government go in putting ideology ahead of good outcomes?