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Government's public sector cost-cutting criticised

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 8:13a.m.

Finance Minister Bill English and PM John Key (file)

Government plans to merge some of its departments are being described by critics as arbitrary cost-cutting measures.

Prime Minister John Key says the aim is to make them more efficient and responsive but Labour thinks the opposite will happen.

"Constantly reorganising the public service doesn't make it more efficient," state sector spokesman Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday.

"Constantly spending money on restructuring doesn't improve the quality of services."

Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilot says there's no overall plan.

"All we've had so far is cuts, cuts and more cuts," she said on Radio New Zealand.

"That's not a substitute for a good plan for the public service, it's just cutting for the sake of it."

Mr Key will outline the government's intentions in a speech in about three weeks, until then he isn't confirming there will be job cuts.

Finance Minister Bill English told NZ Newswire early this year there would be more public sector job losses in the next 12 months.

Mr Key says money is going to be tight for all departments and his May budget will have a new spending cap of $800 million.

Most of that will go to health and education, but they'll only just be able to cope with population increases.

"It's going to be tight for those two big-spending ministries, let alone anyone else," he said on Monday.

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15 Feb 2012 06:58a.m.

Global Conscience wrote:

Cherie, you have no idea. Private companies always chase a profit, the Public service can not. New Zealand have always prided themselves on being a moral and caring society, but the likes of Cherie would hang all those who find themselves down on their luck becuase her counterparts have jobs, and decimated societies, to put more money in the pockets of parasitic and normally offshore shareholders.
Also, Labour left the Country's books in a very healthy state, National through deciept and corruption have decimated a healthy balance sheet.
The tax cut/GST rise was so heavily weighted against the middle to lower income earners, Donkey had to give pay cuts to the very wealthy to make it a no loss affair. Now they have squirrelled their ill gotten gains off shore and the economy has not bounced back. That is incompetence on nationals part. And the followers like Cherie, that is stupidity.

14 Feb 2012 11:35p.m.

Don wrote:

Paora the smartest simple solution that Ive heard for a long time- floor the house of cards

14 Feb 2012 02:06p.m.

Chargone wrote:

actually, Jacky, when it comes to the parties, getting rid of the small parties wouldn't help anything. getting rid of national and labour Might (after all, so far as i can tell their only reason for being there is 'so the other guys aren't', unlike the small parties who, for the most part, actually have goals and ideals and plans and aren't, generally, for sale to the highest bidder (usually not literally, mind) on everything...) worth noting that a while ago a bunch of backbench MPs attempted to have their own jobs eliminated for just this reason. had cross party support. never went anywhere. basically, more/less parties only costs anything in terms of one off expenditure each election campaign. keeping them out of parliament doesn't change that, it just wastes the money. we'd have the same number of people doing the same jobs either way. cutting salaries at the top would help, yes, but i'm more likely to fly to the moon under my own power than any government is to do That of their own free will.

14 Feb 2012 12:37p.m.

Neil wrote:

It still amuses me that we spend all this money on rearranging the deck chairs every change of government. The only thing that happens is those staff remaining end up spending a vast majority of their day dealing with change - not actually process work - the same happens in the private sector when a company is taken over or bought.

14 Feb 2012 12:37p.m.

brian wrote:

Far too many years ago I started having very regular "contact" with "Public Servants" as they were then called. Now I prefer the term PETTY bureaucrats. In the good old days, long before email etc contact was by snail mail or telephone and resolution was always within 2 weeks. Now they have instant email, smart phones, all the whistles and bells, and "obviously" bottomless in-trays that usually can take even 6 months to get to the out-tray, if your lucky. The work load to do with this - as far as I'm concerned - hasn't changed but with more than double the # of Pb's efficiency has GONE, WHY? Could it be far too many of them now even although they now have far smarter systems to "lighten" their load? Makes one wonder doesn't it. From memory we went from 28,000 to 45,000 Pb's in the 9 years of the last - forever I hope - Labour Govt. And NZ stagnated when the rest of the world boomed, how ironic. Now we have better leadership - notwithstanding the puerile "C" tax - that seeks to reduce the # of Pb's. Go for it John, a l o n g overdue elimination of pathetic shufflers.

14 Feb 2012 11:47a.m.

madness wrote:

Go Jacky, you said it al! They look after themselves and bugger anyone else. As long as the Nat's are happy and have enough who cares about anyone else they think. Bet they couldn't survive in the real world on real money for a couple of days. They wouldn't even have enough to cover a days expenses let alone a week ah!!??

14 Feb 2012 11:17a.m.

Paora wrote:

Cut the IRD staff by 90%. Close all offices except one by simply removing income tax completely and replacing it with an increased GST so there only needs to be a small team in one office to do the GST monitoring. Remove all GST exemptions to stop the business rorts. Money is useless till it's spent so a spending tax rather than in income tax is easier to work and more meaningful. The more money you have, the more you spend. The more you spend, the more GST you pay. QED.

14 Feb 2012 11:10a.m.

Erm... wrote:

Everyone agrees that Government departments are useless, then eveyone complains when they get cut back! I reckon that Government departments can be just as useless but much cheaper with fewer staff.

14 Feb 2012 10:37a.m.

alan wrote:

Good on the government in spending our taxes prudently. Those that disagree can only have selfish personal motives. We complain like hell when money is wasted so give credit where it is due.

14 Feb 2012 09:40a.m.

cherie wrote:

Govt depts are just like private companies. In hard times you take hard lines. Labour let the Govt dept workforce blowout and Nat has to bring it back. Happens every time.