Public service cuts: Who will be spared?
Painting a full picture of the potential public service cuts is becoming increasingly difficult as the Budget approaches and more and more ministries front up with how many job cuts they are proposing.
But some areas are safe, or at least seem safe. A range of agencies and departments are not yet proposing disestablishing roles. We look at some of the ministries and areas where jobs may remain untouched.
The Defence Force
According to official information released by the Defence Force, between August last year and the end of February, 2024, NZDF disestablished 158 roles as part of a restructure – 143 of them were staffed at the time.
But as of this month, the NZDF has no plans to cut any more roles.
NZDF has been asked to find 6.5% in savings, and is working to find those savings.
Ministry of Regulation
Asked what areas, aside from the ‘frontline’, that he would like to see remain the same or have more resources put in, Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said they were trying to build capacity around regulation.
“It will have a much bigger presence than the regulatory team at Treasury, which will be moving over there, along with other additional people, so there’s a few changes there.”
Seymour said as far as the Regulation Ministry goes, they believed “it is worth spending some money on getting regulation right, and again, you'll see that as a Budget detail”.
Inland Revenue (IRD)
Not too long ago IRD went through a mass shedding of staff, as it planned to cut 1500 jobs between 2018 and 2021, dissolving more than 1000 jobs by September 2020.
With its 6.5% savings target, IRD was already looking at how to become “more efficient”, a spokesperson told The Post, saying they were confident they could reduce expenditure in that way.
“At this stage IR is not looking to reduce staffing levels beyond business-as-usual changes,” they said on Thursday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Despite being given a 6.5% savings target, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not strayed from its statement to media over the last few months that it is working with its minister Winston Peters on the Budget 2024 process. Peters was asked last month by Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson Damien O’connor how he was going to handle the cut, if he wants to expand New Zealand’s footprint.
“How are we going to handle it? Of course we can always find economies, but we’ve got to start with firstly understanding that there’s some things you cannot sacrifice.”
Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ
Unlike the health ministry, which has a proposal that could affect more than a quarter of positions, Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ has not been given a cost saving target.
Last month, Health Minister Shane Reti said savings at the ministry were expected to be filtered through to frontline services at Te Whatu Ora, which runs the country’s hospitals.
The ‘frontline’
Whoever happens to be defined within the ‘frontline’ of that agency – social workers, police officers, corrections officers.