Act leader David Seymour is taking aim at the size of government, calling for a limit to the number of Cabinet members, scrapping or merging Government departments and abolishing ministerial portfolios, including some created by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
In a speech to Tauranga Business Chamber members today, Seymour proposed capping the number of ministers at 20, with no ministers outside Cabinet. There are currently 28 ministers, including eight sitting outside Cabinet.
He also supported scrapping all associate ministerial roles, aside from the associate finance ministers, of which he is one.
The proposal, which Seymour says could be Act Party policy for next year’s election, plans to abolish some of the 82 ministerial portfolios and to either cut or merge the roughly 40 Government departments.
In his speech, he mentioned several portfolios in his sights: Racing, Hospitality, Auckland, the South Island, Hunting and Fishing, the Voluntary Sector, and Space – all currently held by either National or New Zealand First ministers.
I support the direction Seymour wants to move government in, but I would go even further. In 2011 I proposed a Government of just 12 Ministers and 12 Ministries – one Minister and one CEO for each sector.
He also supported scrapping all associate ministerial roles, aside from the associate finance ministers, of which he is one.
The proposal, which Seymour says could be Act Party policy for next year’s election, plans to abolish some of the 82 ministerial portfolios and to either cut or merge the roughly 40 Government departments.
In his speech, he mentioned several portfolios in his sights: Racing, Hospitality, Auckland, the South Island, Hunting and Fishing, the Voluntary Sector, and Space – all currently held by either National or New Zealand First ministers.
I support the direction Seymour wants to move government in, but I would go even further. In 2011 I proposed a Government of just 12 Ministers and 12 Ministries – one Minister and one CEO for each sector.
- Ministry of Internal Security – Crown Law, Corrections, SIS, Justice, SFO, Police
- Ministry for Environment – Environment, EPA, Conservation, Biosecurity
- Dept of Administrative Affairs – DIA, LINZ, Building & Housing, Customs, Stats
- Ministry for Economic Development – Labour, MAF, MED, Fisheries, MORST, Transport
- DPMC – DPMC, PSC
- Ministry of Education – Education, ERO, TEC
- Ministry of External Relations & Security – GCSB, Defence, MFAT, NZDF
- Treasury – Treasury
- Ministry for Incomes – IRD, WINZ
- Ministry of Culture – Culture & Heritage, Nat Lib, Archives, NZ on Air
- Ministry of Health – Health
- Ministry of Social Policy – Pacific Island Affairs, MSD, CYF, Youth Development, Community Sector, Senior Citizens, Families, Women’s Affairs, TPK
- Parliament – Parl Serv, Min Serv, Office of Clerk, PCO
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
7 comments:
Nice to dream. Why not just have Ministries of Plenty, Peace, Truth, Love.
With that would come a massive reduction the headcount.
With the trimmed dept number will come a fall of at least 25,000. Given the earthquake risk in Wellington decentralization would make the changes possible.
To sell this concept describe all changes as 1000 public serpents less or a tax cut per person of so much.
My pick is 1000 public serpents cost $250 million if you include all ancillary costs so maybe we have 3 million taxpayers so around $100 back to taxpayer.
The unseen benefit is Tax cuts are a huge stimulation to the productive sector, or growth through productivity improvement
It is a neccessity to focus on a smaller NZ government . Ministry of Environment and Social Policy combined and replaced with Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries - Infrastructure and Mineing
The proposed list appears cobbled together by someone who despite having worked in parliament learned next to nothing about why or how a government is supposed to be structured.
It's nothing more than conglomerating entities into arbitrary groups rather than any giving any thought into improving efficiency or saving money.
If this so-called proposal is to fracture the "intelligence community" split "border security", risk greater privacy breach's and in general create an even more unwieldly multi headed bureaucratic ogre, then congratulations on the success.
I am all for improving government services, but knee jerk reactions championed by bitter and resentful "snakes" themselves will not help.
Reality check - a Left govt will re-bloat the government. Must place all their pals in lucrative non-jobs. The Marxist playbook... but this time , NZ has become too fragile to weather the Ardern storm again.
Whilst the number on high salaries is bloated, I am not convinced numerous ministers is such a bad thing. At least can get to .whoever is in charge. And as a designated role for someone the topic presumably receives some attention.
Start by scrapping the Maori Seats in Parliament, Then scrap all of the ethnic Ministries such as Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Ministry of Maori Development, then other Ministries for specific areas such as Auckland and the South Islan: and get rid of the associated departments, agencies, and commissions at the same time such as the Waitangi Tribunal under the Ministry of Justice. About 60 years ago we had about 60 MPs, now we have 120--122. The population has grown but the land area is constant. Population growth is not a compelling reason to grow the number of MPs. And half of those are not elected by voters thus reducing democratically elected representation by 50%. MMP does not represent democracy. Get rid of that as well and do not replace the List MPs.
How many billions of dollars would that save our beleaguered Treasury ? Get to it David !
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