We chuckled--you know that kind of deep seated belly laugh that the good doctors tell us does much to enhance our wellbeing--as we read the following from Busted Blonde at Roarprawn over our morning coffee.
BB got all literary and excited on us. She was describing the new mood in Wellington as heads of government departments start to cut spending and complete a line-by-line review of all departmental budgets. We quote:
People in and out of Government departments are head down and tushes up as they pour over the books of each and every Government department and Ministry. Line by line the go, project by project, programme by programme, trimming, snipping, biffing out, asking why, asking how and asking "what the fuck?"
Up they front to Ministers with weasel words, fawning over their new masters whispering on how good they have been and how much they have trimmed, offering up only dust, only to be told to go away and come back with more. Some have been told twice already that they must do better. CE's stare at you with the eyes of the hunted in the lift. It is a new dawn and the cold light of reality sees them shiver.
It is a beautiful thing to behold. People in the hinterland should be allowed to come to Wellington to watch to give them some satisfaction that this government that they gave their good votes to, is performing financial liposuction on the bloated beast that is the public service.
Over coffee you hear the whines and the howls and see the tears from some as their little fiefdoms are sucked of fat. In other corners rivers of joyful tears run down the faces of the pragmatic as finally they see the waste being put in a bucket and turfed out. Gone are the raspberry and white chocolate muffins, gone are the two course luncheons for little meetings, Going are the Koru Club cards, gone are the oversized rentals. Going are the spurious overseas conferences for " networking." Going are the crap documents in huge storerooms that serve no purpose, remain unread, never distributed.
All is Bliss - just bliss.
Since most of us in the hinterland will not have the opportunity to coming to Wellington to see the "beautiful thing" maybe BB could provide us with a photo--just one, of a department CE with that hunted look in the eyes!
But let's not forget it is just the tip of the iceberg. The hinterland itself is inundated with rules, regulations, demands for reports, forms, surveys, endless constrictions and restrictions. To change the metaphor, a behemothic bureaucratic boa constrictor is squeezing the breath and life blood out of productive activity everywhere. The bloodless revolution must move beyond the rarefied confines of ministerial head offices out into the hinterland where production takes place.
If the revolution is to succeed, it must encompass both branch and root.
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