First it was the air force
Now is the whole defence force. While I was away, National's Defence Minister Wayne Mapp just told NZ public his "philosophy":
"We have 105 of them (Light Armour Vehicles), mostly parked in garages where they are in long-term storage. My own philosophy is Defence should have things they use and don't have things they don't use."
I immediately started to wonder how he got that post - by that logic, New Zealand's whole defence force is simply a waste of money, nobody is going to invade us as far as we could tell, and all our forces sent oversea are largely non-combat forces. Defence is like a life insurance, you buy it, and hope that you or someone else will never use it (well in this case, some needed to be used for training purposes).
His comment worries me quite a bit, but the associate minister, ACT's Heather Roy, is even worse:
"The Defence Force doesn't necessarily need to own everything. It could work in a partnership where somebody else owns the land or owns the buildings and they lease it back."
Well, I have an idea for this government since they are in the mood of privatisation (where's the election promise?), how about ... let's privatise parliament buildings, at least the debating chamber. Here is my reasoning:
- The debating chamber is rarely used - no more than half of the year, so ... what a waste.
- ... and Parliament doesn't have to own everything it uses.
- so the chamber could be used to host picnics, or give a private company to run tours.
- it costs less to tax payers - as tax payers only pay for the building when it is actually in public use.
- it's also more efficient - if every minute use of the chamber costs money, I hope parliamentarians would keep their debate and squabbling succinct - although I know I put my hope a bit too high.
- ... the current debating chamber is too much of luxury for politicians. A large garage would do anyway. or we can have the British house of the commons style, let the MPs squeeze in the seats.
So what are we waiting for, let's do it! I look forward to have my picnic on the speaker's seat.
