The Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee

I was delighted to see National announce that if elected, they will establish a Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee. Facing a decade of deficits it would be stupid not to do so. It isn’t good enough to only scrutinise new spending initiatives. At a time where private sector companies are having to make tough decisions, the public sector should not be exempt.

I have to admit that my ideal job would be something like Chief Advisor or Analyst to the Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee. Hell I’d almost do the job for free. And no not because I want to slash and burn – it would be the satisfaction of being able to eliminate low quality expenditure without it affecting public services.  And don’t believe there isn’t a lot of it out there – I’ve chatted to far too many senior public servants who have told me about the waste. By waste, I don’t mean that the expenditure is a total waste of time – just that the benefits from the expenditure are marginal.

Now I don’t actually want a job in Parliament again – eight years in Parliament was enough punishment for one lifetime. But hell even just six months working for the Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee would be enough time to make a difference – I wonder if they would take applicants on a commission basis 🙂