Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Revealed: Treasury chief's blast at government policy

In today's Financial Review (no link):


The country's most senior economic bureaucrat, Federal Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, has delivered a scathing assessment of the Federal Government's water and climate change policies, warning his department to be vigilant against the 'greater than usual risk of the development of policy proposals that are frankly, bad' in the lead-up to the federal election.

In a speech to an internal biannual Treasury forum at Canberra's Hyatt Hotel on March 14, Mr Henry said his department had little influence in the development of the Government's recent $10 billion water package, and expressed his regret that its advice both on water and climate change had not been followed in recent years...