Its good to see National occasionally doing something correct, and they deserve kudos when they do. State Services Minister Tony Ryall has directed the merger of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The merger will save the taxpayer $10 million.

“Merger will cost more than it saves”. is the objective NZ Herald headline.

“The Public Service Association has called the move an unnecessary distraction for its members in a time of national emergency. Its national secretary Richard Wagstaff said hundreds of staff were now anxiously awaiting a decision on whether they would be made redundant. “They’re anxious about whether that axe will fall on them. They’ve got a lot on their plate at the moment – it’s tough.”

Wagstaff is a lefty and he’s one of those who would have cheered wildly at every dollar spent by government as we plunged blindly onward in our mission to bankrupt NZ in a mountain of debt. That debt has to be relieved Mr. Wagstaff, and to do that, government spending has to be cut. Workers have to get off the public payroll and onto the private one.

There’s no other option, and the reality is anyway that you are only reaping what you have sown. The socialist governments Mr. Wagstaff loves spent and spent and spent as if there was no tomorrow. For decades setting up huge amounts of public services with no regard to long term economic sustainability. How the private sector was going to pay for them. Now financial reality has finally arrived.

Public servants may be worried about the axe falling, but there’s the little matter of borrowing $300 million a week to keep your departments running Mr. Wagstaff. If $10 million can be saved here or there to relieve debt you should be all for it. Things will only get worse if it doesn’t happen.