How Should Mr. Tanner Cut Spending?
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has admitted that the government has run out of ideas on how to cut spending. Round 2 is up to you, dear readers. Let’s rise up to the challenge laid down by Mr. Tanner,
‘We would welcome any suggestions or savings proposals from anybody in the general community’.
As a reminder, here’s a paper from the Treasury on how the government managed to piss $272 billion up against the wall this year. They also note with concern that real spending has increased by a whopping 50% in the past ten years despite ten years of strong economic growth and that ‘all other things being the same, higher government spending will reduce economic growth.’
Social security and welfare……$96.5bn
Health……………………………….$43bn
General ……………………………..$32bn
Defence …………………………….$20bn
Education ………………………….$18bn
Transport & Infrastructure ……$10bn
Industry …………………………….$10bn
Culture ……………………………..$6bn
GST payments to States………..$36bn
Total ………………………………..$272bn
Send in your finest proposals, we’ll put the best ones up for a vote and then mail them direct to Mr. Tanner.
