The axe is falling on the public service, with major job cuts looming in the weeks and months ahead.
As of June 11, Stuff had confirmed that 5867 roles* have been – or are proposed to be – disestablished, as part of the cost savings drive.
The latest updates on cuts come from the Ministry of Justice and Ministry for the Environment, which will decrease its workforce by more than 40%.
It also includes 427 jobs that are coming to an end as the Government has stopped work on the water services amalgamation project. And roles from Crown Entities, such as ACC, which operate with a degree of autonomy and did not have savings targets – but have been asked to make “material savings”.
Stuff
These cuts sound large but they are quite simply tinkering at the edges. If you put the cuts into context then you get a very different perspective:
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The economy is in the doldrums, and businesses everywhere are having to make do or cut costs, including staff costs.
The Labour-led government hired willy-nilly, often on projects with no demonstrable progress.
As those projects are cancelled so should be the staff associated with them.
But the Government could and should cut harder.
There has been much wailing about the lack of funding for cancer drugs in the budget. The easy solution would be to axe the Waitangi Tribunal and tell the public that it is putting real health care ahead of imaginary grievances. The vast majority will clap their hands with glee, and the only people who will moan about it don’t vote for any party currently making up the coalition Government.
So cut harder, I say: cut harder.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
Thanks Cam - spot on as usual.
As I said in a comment to Mike's Minute on Tuesday to the question: "Are these tribunal hearings value for money?"
Short answer "NO!"
Please, go and sign The Hobson's Pledge petition to End the Tribunal and put that in PM Luxon's In Tray ... at the top marked Urgent!
I would add that Parliament should not be allowed to go home until they get on and do it because it is becoming more critical by the hour.
Anonymous agreed totally , Ministry for Climate Change is a close second for total removal . We can sit on the fence and nothing will change from the NZ position taken in worlds natural envirionment . NZ are just a miniscule part of the whole alarmist climate change issue.
I am all for firing all the Maorification preoccupied staff, which is a vast number. And lots more when Councils included. The fear is of a consequent general slump so great that Labour and its rabid mates wil be returned with a vengeance
Cam agree. I've been saying not enough is being cut.
Ardern kept banging on about 1800 extra police being employed to 'make nz safer'. What a lot of leftie drivel, the crime is out of control. What are these 1800 extra cops doing?
Give me the lean mean police force of 2016 before the lunatics got in, where crime was not an issue.
I'm still trying to work out how a govt can create total and utter destruction of a country in such a short period of time.
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