Ross Gittins seems to think libertarians have quietly watched as the Rudd government has bungled its response to the north Atlantic banking crisis and massively, irresponsibly expanded public debt ("Libertarians silent on insulation bungle", Sydney Morning Herald, March 1). Nothing could be further from the truth.
I gave this evidence to the Senate inquiry into the stimulus package in February last year: "In my opinion, the package does not contain enough stimulus relative to the spending that it contains, and the spending that it does contain is of poor quality. This kind of stimulus package has a very poor track record of success, and economically we cannot really expect it to succeed."
I gave evidence again in September: "We have actually seen a very poorly implemented policy of a substantial amount of taxpayer money that has basically, to a large extent I believe, been wasted."
In December, I told a visiting OECD delegation that, in addition to wasteful spending, three people had died in connection with the insulation program and many houses had burned down due to poor insulation practices.
Individuals do not need the nanny state to look after them, but that does not absolve government from responsibility for its actions. To ask the question, "And whatever happened to individuals accepting responsibility for their own affairs?" is simply astonishing. The Rudd government established a policy that was poorly thought out and poorly executed. Individuals responded to incentives created by that program. Kevin Rudd has accepted responsibility on behalf of his government.
The claim that libertarians have not warned that the stimulus package was wasteful is simply ignorance.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment