Right program committee leader: right now you need to put jobs ahead of the environment
Wants to reduce the number of quota refugees
Heggelund notes that in the 2014-2018 period, there were five European countries that received more asylum seekers and refugee refugees than Norway per year. capita. If you extend the period to 2009–2018, there are only two countries.
– There is no reason why we should be in the top three or top six on that list, with the challenges we still have.
Heggelund proposes two steps: tighten the rules for family immigration and reduce the number of refugees allowed. He notes that around 5,000 received asylum in Norway last year, while 11,700 family immigrants arrived.
– There are very few countries that contribute to the refugee quota. I think we can pay other countries above the aid budget to receive refugee quotas and also give money to individual refugees. Then we help more refugees, and we help the UN, while reducing the budget.
This year, Norway will receive 3,000 refugees with quota, the same amount as last year. Heggelund will return to the 2013 level, i.e. approx. 1000.
Do you want to chop the cheese grinder?
Heggelund believes the party should also cut the cheese grinder that Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre wants to bury. There is talk of reform of bureaucracy and efficiency (ABE reform). The reform introduced by the government in 2015 cuts 0.5 to 0.8 percent of the operating budgets of state companies annually. Heggelund will increase the rate to 1.2.
– It is quite inconceivable that Støre or anyone else would increase budgets without the ABE reform. That is why Ap also budgets with its alternative budgets, even though they say they are against it.
– We have an annual savings of approx. NOK 1.7 billion due to ABE reform. The public sector still needs to be streamlined, and we must do more. So I think we should double ABE reform. And if we have a time limit for reform until 2030, the leaders of the public administration know what they have to plan.
– In addition, I think the government should be able to show what is being rationalized, so that one can see the specific efficiency results of the different agencies, he adds.
Critics of the reform believe that the government is pressing the responsibility to make political priorities for state-owned companies, rather than for themselves. What do you say to that
– I see it, but I don’t think it’s a criticism of the ABE reform. Agencies and directorates are responsible for operating as efficiently as possible. When I say I see the point, it is because I agree that politicians must also make concrete cuts.
