Evening all. Parking fees. They can be a bit steep, and the only reason people might be happy paying them is because it's always a relief to find a park. The rates in Wellington haven't got as exorbitant as Sydney, but you also have to juggle finding a spot with time limits for being there or, worse, not noticing you are on a dreaded clearway.
The new millionaires will be parking wardens on commission.
Saw an article in the DomPost yesterday that indicated 40% of the rental space in Wellington was now consumed by the bureaucracy, and since 1999 the office space leased for bureaucrats has increased by 77 per cent for an annual spend of 106 million.
Rental space increases over the last few years indicate just how big the bureaucracy has grown. Some of the departments have grown by acquisition. Ministry of Social Development gobbled up the entire Child Youth and Family Services, which in itself was large and others, like TEC have closed branch offices but presumably grown head office. The Health department has grown I believe, and yet the promise of establishing 21 or so District Health Boards was that central office shrunk. I don't think that happened.
There is another hidden cost to the growth in our bureaucracy - Contractors.
It seems to me government also grows to manage outsourced contracts. If the contractor stuffs up, the department says "not my fault" and gets a new one. Minimising accountability. It would be interesting to see some figures on this, as I only have my Tiger-sense and a few anecdotal stories to go off.
Anyway, enough on bureaucracy and more on Friday Night Chat stuff. I'm not around, being off doing the old fashioned 'face to face' style of meeting. Hopefully, I shall be back sometime in the evening to see how the weeks gone for every-one else.
Cheers!