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NZ Initiative: Nothing unusual about Government Defence Force request

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 20 Jan 2020, 10:43AM
A team of NZDF engineers departs for Kangaroo Island on a RNZAF C-130. Photo / File

NZ Initiative: Nothing unusual about Government Defence Force request

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 20 Jan 2020, 10:43AM

There are questions being asked around how much money the Government wants to purge from the Defence Force.

A report obtained under the Official Information Act shows Treasury and the Defence Ministry have been asked to identify low value funding.

The extra cash would then be made available to other government areas.

New Zealand Initiative economist Eric Crampton told Kate Hawkesby it's not unusual for governments to free up spending.

"So it's important to the budget process to make sure that every dollar is delivering as much as it can, and they'll ask this of many departments."

National's slamming the plan, but Crampton says we don't know how much money the government wants out of the Defence Force budget.

"If the government were talking about 50 per cent in Defence, then they would absolutely have a point. If you're talking about one per cent cuts, then this is just run of the mill stuff, and we don't quite know where we are between those."

 

 

 

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