4. Types of Expenditure Cuts

In order to balance a budget or produce a surplus, revenue needs to match or exceed spending. However, the political priority is generally to maintain the same level of revenue or ideally to offer tax cuts, so balanced budget and surplus goals lead to spending cuts. As many voters do not like the sound of spending cuts, the rhetoric is around increasing efficiency and improving performance. The loss of public service jobs is lauded, as are cuts to the ‘bureaucracy’ rather than the frontline, so areas where there are minimal direct public interactions are the first to be squeezed. Reviews are used to depoliticise the process, or at least give that appearance, but in the end the cuts match the ideological preferences of the government before the process has even begun.