Bureau of Statistics to face razor gang
Not content with gutting the CSIRO’s budget even further, the Rudd government has signalled it will cut $20 million from the BoS’s budget in an attempt to contain inflation. Apparently having information as to what’s going on in the nation and being able to express it in terms of time series (past events) and inferences (where are we headed) is a major drain on the budget and needs to be done away with in order to stop working families feeling the squeeze of mortgage payments.
This is like cutting the family’s food expenditure in an attempt to balance the household budget. In the case of the Bureau of Statistics and the CSIRO the family’s already getting by on a packet of lentils and a bag of brown rice. How will Rudd be able to pursue evidence-based policy if the evidence simply can’t be analysed? Absolutely crazy. ASPRO Richard Denniss points out that now is the time that we need better statistics on the economy to be able to make decisions regarding fiscal policy and interest rate rises, etc. If Rudd’s looking to trim the fat from the budget, there’s plenty of electoral pork which could be slimmed down. Taking the $31 billion in tax cuts and allocating it to the underfunded government departments and saving the rest isn’t exactly the world’s stupidest idea.
Your food analogy is spot on Sam. The cordial is already watered down enough.
Let’s face it though; if Rudd were to renege on the tax cuts, he’d be crucified by the press and the opposition, so I think that’s a mistake that we are all going to have to live with.
The opposition wouldn’t be able to crucify a Barbie doll at the moment. Swan’s “preferred Treasurer” ratings are already in the toilet and the tax cuts are going to evaporate as soon as people get them. If Rudd scrapped the tax cuts as fiscally irresponsible (given that the inflation figures are above 4%) then he could claim to be economically responsible rather than economically populist (which is what Howard was).