If all you have is a hammer...

What's National's answer to child abuse? Public sector reform, of course!

The Government is planning to amend the State Sector Act and the Public Finance Act later this year to introduce statutory boards overseeing a multitude of agencies.

Mr English said: "That group of social ministers are going to be tested, I think, by the focus we have got on children because that's an area where inter-department co-operation is the least developed ...

"These are big organisations used to getting their own cash for their own programmes and keeping off each other's territory. Well, if that worked we wouldn't have as many children suffering serious assault."

The Government is in the process of drawing up a white paper to tackle the problems that face vulnerable children such as child abuse.

Mr English said this was "the positive side" of public service restructuring.

"If we can demonstrate to department structures [that] working in a different way will actually save the lives of our children, or improve miserable lives, I think they will probably make the change.

Because obviously more cuts and another layer of National-appointed cronies will improve outcomes. What happened to actual policy? Instead we have a universal solution, imposed on utterly spurious grounds, in the belief that reshuffling the deckchairs at the top while not doing anything else differently will somehow magically produce remarkably different results.

What next? National will announce plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by appointing Jenny Shipley to oversee the Ministry for the Environment? They'll save Maui's Dolphin by getting Wayne Mapp to oversee DoC? That's the sort of logic they're using, and the link between their planned actions and the desired outcomes is tenuous to say the least.

But hey, it will mean a bunch of National cronies get well-paid sinecures, while further corrupting and politicising the public service. So that's a win in National's books.