Roughly one in five public servants are quitting their jobs.
How can a Government deliver the services the public wants if it can’t find the workers to do the jobs and what should be done to retain good civil servants?
Below is Stuart Smith’s response.
The core role of the public service is to provide New Zealanders with essential services focused on achieving better outcomes and delivering for all Kiwis. Whether it be healthcare, education, transport or infrastructure, New Zealanders should get value for the taxes which they pay to the Crown.
Government is currently spending $1.8 billion of taxpayers hard earned money every year on 14,000 extra bureaucrats, and that’s without mentioning the staggering amount spent on expensive consultants and working groups. The public service in New Zealand has ballooned to unprecedented levels. Yet, we seem to have worse outcomes as a result.
The fact that nearly one in five employees in the public service left their role in the previous year is highly concerning. More churn means more costs, and the lack of continuity puts strain on workflow and projects.
Adding to that, the Crown accounts released earlier this month show that the government’s tax revenue increased from $76 billion to $108 billion in five years. That is an average of $15,000 more in tax for every household in New Zealand.
With all the extra revenue and all the extra government officials and public servants, I struggle to understand how and why New Zealand’s public services are not functioning as they should.
Our health waitlist is sitting at 200,000 people, almost the same number of people that live in Wellington. From Cape Reinga to Bluff we have potholes scattered across our state highway networks, and our latest education figures show that only two per cent of students in decile one schools can pass a writing test.
The question is, why are we getting worse outcomes? Frankly, it’s because this government is focused on the wrong things.
Instead of adjusting our immigration settings to boost the number of nurses coming to New Zealand, they have spent billions on a bureaucratic health restructure during a pandemic. Their ideological agenda has caused them to lose sight of what should be the main focus – making sure New Zealanders have timely access to healthcare.
Rather than attempting to deal with falling numeracy and literacy levels in New Zealand’s children and providing the right support for teachers, the government cut funding for senior teachers within Communities of Learning/Kahui Ako. Meanwhile, the number of Ministry of Education bureaucrats earning over $120,000 has almost tripled to 955.
If New Zealanders are paying high levels of tax, they should get services that deliver for them and their families. We should not be content with mediocrity, we should be ambitious and focused on giving Kiwis the best opportunities and best services possible. I’m confident that a National Government will be able to manage the economy competently and deliver outcomes that rival some of the best in the world.
Government is currently spending $1.8 billion of taxpayers hard earned money every year on 14,000 extra bureaucrats, and that’s without mentioning the staggering amount spent on expensive consultants and working groups. The public service in New Zealand has ballooned to unprecedented levels. Yet, we seem to have worse outcomes as a result.
The fact that nearly one in five employees in the public service left their role in the previous year is highly concerning. More churn means more costs, and the lack of continuity puts strain on workflow and projects.
Adding to that, the Crown accounts released earlier this month show that the government’s tax revenue increased from $76 billion to $108 billion in five years. That is an average of $15,000 more in tax for every household in New Zealand.
With all the extra revenue and all the extra government officials and public servants, I struggle to understand how and why New Zealand’s public services are not functioning as they should.
Our health waitlist is sitting at 200,000 people, almost the same number of people that live in Wellington. From Cape Reinga to Bluff we have potholes scattered across our state highway networks, and our latest education figures show that only two per cent of students in decile one schools can pass a writing test.
The question is, why are we getting worse outcomes? Frankly, it’s because this government is focused on the wrong things.
Instead of adjusting our immigration settings to boost the number of nurses coming to New Zealand, they have spent billions on a bureaucratic health restructure during a pandemic. Their ideological agenda has caused them to lose sight of what should be the main focus – making sure New Zealanders have timely access to healthcare.
Rather than attempting to deal with falling numeracy and literacy levels in New Zealand’s children and providing the right support for teachers, the government cut funding for senior teachers within Communities of Learning/Kahui Ako. Meanwhile, the number of Ministry of Education bureaucrats earning over $120,000 has almost tripled to 955.
If New Zealanders are paying high levels of tax, they should get services that deliver for them and their families. We should not be content with mediocrity, we should be ambitious and focused on giving Kiwis the best opportunities and best services possible. I’m confident that a National Government will be able to manage the economy competently and deliver outcomes that rival some of the best in the world.
Stuart Smith is a N Z National Party politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives for the KaikÅura electorate since 2014. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
The one in five who left probably are the ones who could not bring themselves to feign interest in and enthusiasm for te ao, tikanga, te reo, time wasting obstructive consultation, and partnership.
If all the civil servants employed trying to adapt and incorporate maori twaddle into everything were diverted to real productive work desired output would likely be met.
I worked as a researcher and statistician in the public sector education space. Lots of good people but a few too many rising higher and higher who should not have. Research managers with no education or research experience or talent. Statistics Team Leaders with no tertiary qualifications, but the worst part was the shameful bullying and often it came from the unqualified or underqualified. Many good people got hurt. It was profoundly disgusting!
READ THIS:
https://www.psa.org.nz/our-voice/workplace-bullying/
It says:
Bullying is widespread in the public sector, especially in health and education.
I confirm that this statement is absolutely true - at least in education. Unqualified people bullying the highly-qualified out of their jobs and careers. Human Resources people who have no interest in the welfare of staff and engage in further bullying of disliked staff. Some of these people will do anything to you and even engage in physical intimidation and lying about staff they wish to remove.
Now we have traditional knowledge masquerading as science. The top executives should hang their heads in shame and, in my view, we urgently need an independent review of our public sector education agencies.
David Lillis
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