It was partly informed by observation and partly by New Zealand Initiative paper on the subject.
Luxon's government has 81 portfolios, significantly more than similar-sized countries and far more than most larger ones.
Ireland, Norway, Singapore and Finland all have fewer than 20.
The UK, Canada, United States and Korea have fewer than 30.
Australia’s population is five times larger than ours, but even they have almost half the number of portfolios.
The number has shot up under MMP.
Winston Peters’ got the reincarnated rail portfolio.
Michael Wood got Auckland.
James Meager got the South Island.
Judith Collins got space.
This has all got a bit out of hand. I argued then, as I argue now, there are too many reporting lines and departments designed to report into them.
We have a plethora of related portfolios that get chopped up and spread out for no good reason; think universities, vocational education and education.
We have three portfolios for young people; children, child poverty reduction and youth.
Imagine if we had 15 Ministers with 15 portfolios. If you're health, you're health. If you're transport, you're transport. Yes, that would include infrastructure.
Nicola Willis last week hinted that change was coming. "Wait 'till you see the budget, I think you'll like what's in there".
Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
'Wait until you see the budget' wow, the arrogance of that statement. We have been waiting three years and have had nothing but missed targets and broken promises. Now, with her last budget, we will get some more promises of what they won't follow through with if they are re-elected.
I would predict one the lowest turnouts ever for this election. Labour+ is just dangerous, National+ are incompetent. Neither deserve to be in charge.
I predict whatever small, incremental merger of departments is announced, the PSA and the Left generally will scream ‘Slashing jobs!’ regardless. But since ACT has signalled a similar approach for a while now, going further and faster may become a viable condition in a new NAT/ACT coalition agreement come November. So there’s good reason to believe we might see real action in time.
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