Spin army grows under National
The final year of the National Government saw the number of public sector ‘‘spin doctors’’ growing by close to one a week.
The State Services Commission yesterday released what could be the final version of what is called ‘‘capping data’’, set up by National to monitor the growth of the public sector.
As well as a continuing rise in the number of overall public servants, the report revealed the number of PR and communications staff rose by almost 15 per cent in 12 months.
Across the public service there were 311.4 fulltime equivalents at the end of June 2017, up from 271.9 a year earlier. The number is still slightly below the level of 2008.
The Department of Internal Affairs was responsible for more than a quarter of the increase, with its public relations team now numbering 55.7, up 11.5 in a year.
As part of its drive to cut the size of the public sector National set caps on the number of ‘‘core’’ public servants, created six-monthly reports to monitor progress and introduced measurement of public relations and communications staff.
The number of core public servants also climbed in 2017 by 403 to 36,378. The cap excludes thousands of employees who would tend to be considered public servants. By the more traditional measure, the number of public servants grew by 1358 in 12 months.
The cap is projected to be breached in the year to June 30, 2018.
Even before National came to office in 2008 it pledged to cap the size of the public sector, with then State Services Minister Tony Ryall saying that the Helen Clark Labour Government ‘‘let the bureaucracy get out of control’’.
The State Services Commission has confirmed that at some point since December 2016, Cabinet passed a resolution changing the capping reports from six-monthly from annually, a decision that does not appear to have ever been announced.
No one from the now-Opposition party has responded to a request for comment.