Rolling Back Government: Lessons from New Zealand

Hillsdale College ^ | 4/15/04 | Maurice P. McTigue

[Timocrat]

When we started this process with the Department of Transportation, it had 5,600 employees. When we finished, it had 53. When we started with the Forest Service, it had 17,000 employees. When we finished, it had 17. When we applied it to the Ministry of Works, it had 28,000 employees. I used to be Minister of Works, and ended up being the only employee.

Somebody needs to go hire these guys and put them to work in this country. Ministry of Works starts of with 28,000 employees and finishes with one - thats my kind of Minister.

[Timocrat]

Yes, Ronald Reagan was right: lower tax rates do produce more revenue.

Memo to Lurch.

[kstewskis]

Hi there long time no talk to-*PING!*

[Graymatter]

I love how they handled the driver license thing.

Think we could get them to invade us?

[azcap]

Since foreigners cannot become president lets just make this guy Dictator-for-a-Decade.

[SpyGuy]

Wow, there might actually be hope for mankind after all.

[Sgt_Schultze]

bump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marshmallow]

The bad news is that New Zealand is now governed by socialists who are no doubt now working busily to reverse much of this.

[Timocrat]

Same thing happens in the UK. It beats standing in line at the MVD every year.

[Marie]

Bump for later study. This sounds like a dream. If Hillary ever manages to get elected, I'm moving to NZ!

[Moonman62]

Somebody needs to go hire these guys and put them to work in this country. Ministry of Works starts of with 28,000 employees and finishes with one - thats my kind of Minister.

But notice from the article that there had to be a financial crisis before anything positive got done. The same thing will have to happen in this country before the Republican led government growth and spending will end.

[katz]

What government programs have we cut or ended here? Every time someone wants to cut a program, some lib screams and froths that it will cut benefits.

[shaggy eel]

,,, thanx for the ping K. I took the week after easter off. I'll read thru this one now. Hope all is well = J

[shaggy eel]

Ministry of Works starts off with 28,000 employees and finishes with one

,,, it's crap. The restructurings didn't pan out that way at all. Take the example of the Ministry of Transport... 5600 employess that covered eight different occupational classes, all working under different terms and conditions under various awards. You had meteorologists, traffic cops, clerks and managers, lighthouse keepers and technicians thru to air traffic controllers. All those jobs didn't disappear from the face of the planet, they were restructed into three agancies - Maritime, Civil Aviation and Land Transport (for road and rail) - the 53 remaining employees that appear to be the pillars of transport for all New Zealand, are actually exist to serve the Minister of Transport and that's all there is to it.

[shaggy eel]

~

[Copernicus]

I just received my copy of this in the mail and was surprised it was posted with virtually no notice on Free Republic.

Will someone please ping the White House and the Bush Administration?

Best regards,

[Copernicus]

Will someone ping the White House and the Bush Administration?

Best regards,

[Liberatio]

Better yet, give them Canada and then it would be closer to home and people will start wanting it for our country.

[steve86]

"The restructurings didn't pan out that way at all".

Thanks for that, uh, clarification. Was clearly too good to be true. Probably were some legitimate improvements. Beautiful country by the way.