David Farrar: Which govt departments have grown the most?

 

There has been a 34% increase over six years in the size of the public service, in terms of EFTS. But not all agencies have grown by the same proportion. Here are the 10 with the largest relative increases between 2017 and 2023.

Bryce Wilkinson: Public Service bloat - The evidence

New Zealanders need a competent, productive, merit-based public service. Those attributes matter for effective government and, thereby, community wellbeing.

New Zealand’s public service employs many competent people. It pays them handsomely by the standards of the median income earner.

Their performance is impaired when the public service is poorly led, ill-structured, or hamstrung by poor quality government. Any or all of those can easily happen.

This research note looks at public service performance overall. It is not about public servants as individuals.