Thursday, July 15, 2010

Tourism Scrutiny

Today's press release from Labour’s spokesperson for Tourism, Kelvin "Little School" Davis rages against recommendations in a major report reviewing the government's tourism sector agencies.

It has been recommended that the Tourism Ministry be merged into the Ministry of Economic Development  along with other structural and operational changes.

We believe that the report HERE outlines a step in the right direction.

John Key is expected to announce adoption of some of the recommendations within the next few days.

Davis appears to have cheerleaders in current TIA chief executive, Tim Cossar and former TIA and Qualmark chief executive, Fiona Luhrs that have stated their preference for a standalone Ministry.

Ironically Davis's emotive headline "Job losses expected with Tourism Ministry cuts" that is supposed to cause indignation and outrage is music to the ears of most rational folk in the private sector.

We say that the tourism industry is not a sacred cow and the the outputs of all public funding should be scrutinised.

Unlike the state worshipers on the red team, we do not believe that maintaining or increasing state tourism administration will benefit tourism businesses. In fact it will have the opposite effect.

A chilling statistical fact that we must consistently remind ourselves of, is that New Zealand has 1.75 million people working in the wealth-creating private sector. 1.75 million people have to pay tax, alongside corporates, to pay for the livelihoods of 1.75 million wealth-destroying bureaucrats in the State sector, beneficiaries and retirees.


Any increase in efficiencies and reduction in bureaucracy should be celebrated.

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