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2010-06-27

Wastes in public programs, statistics and GDP in Australia

Comments on Christopher Pearson “Panic in the ranks over whiff of mortality”, 26/06/2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/panic-in-the-ranks-over-whiff-of-mortality/story-e6frg6zo-1225884462916
While some credit should be given to the Rudd government in terms of having steered Australia away from a recession, the costs of achieving it are often neglected by many.

We don't really know in totality the triumph of avoiding a recession has outweighed its costs.

Even the wastes of some of the Rudd government's programs, while being counted in the GDP number to form the statistics of no recession, were large enough to change the headline of the story of a recession or no recession.

The values of some of the BER, for example, were inflated by some factors. In real terms, removing their effects could have tipped the statistics the other way.

Even the economics of Australia's having avoided a recession is murky.

In that light and the wastes in the stimulus packages, what roles were Treasury and Henry played in that process?

The past two and half years represents an excellent and rare case of public policy failures, from politicians to some top bureaucrats. It should be wonderful materials for case studies of public policies in Australia for students for the coming decades.

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