Thousands of jobs to go, as Govt overhauls public service

The Government has unveiled a plan to overhaul the public service in a bid to get ‘better value for money.’

The aim is to streamline services, and reduce duplication

Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith said New Zealanders expect a public service that grows smarter, not simply larger.

“Between 2017 and 2023, the size of the public service expanded from approximately 47,000 people to more than 65,000.”

The new target is 55,000 public servants by mid-2029. 

Finance Minister Nicola Willis outlined the initiatives that would be used to achieve this goal, including reducing the number of government agencies and entities and embracing AI and other digital tools. 

Comparisons are being drawn between New Zealand and other countries, to justify slimming down the number of agencies. 

“New Zealand has, by latest count, 39 departments and ministries administering Budget lines. That compares with 16 in Australia, 24 in the UK and around 12 in Finland,” Willis said. 

“Agencies will be asked to come up with proposals to logically merge their existing activities around citizen-facing functions, using common technology platforms.”

Opposition and Labour Leader Chris Hipkins was open to integrating agencies and making better use of technology, but not reduction targets.

“All of those could potentially be good things, but setting arbitrary targets to potentially reduce the public service by 10,000 people - there is no way you could reduce that many people … without reducing frontline services.”

The Green Party likened the reforms to the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ seen in the US under Donald Trump and Elon Musk. 

Public Service spokesperson Francisco Hernandez described them as ‘DOGE style libertarian fantasies right out of Elon Musk’s playbook’. 

However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon insisted it was reasonable to question the status quo.

“The public service has been organised in a certain way over the last 30 to 40 years. It’s right and appropriate we take a good look at that and say, 'Could we better organise?” 

“The public service is not a make-work function. It's not here just to maintain jobs and maintain a position of how it was always run since 1995 in the same way."