The Greens’ policy to reverse the Coalition
Government’s plans to cut 8700 public service jobs and
replace them with AI is a necessary step to rebuilding
public services, the PSA says.
The Greens announced
the policy at the PSA office in Wellington today.
“The
coalition Government has dismantled our public service and
dismissed thousands of public servants with no regard for
the consequences. These people had more to give New Zealand
and their work was important,” said Public Service
Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi National Secretary
Fleur Fitzsimons.
“New Zealand will need to invest in
stronger public services to meet the challenges of climate
change, the housing crisis, infrastructure deficit, an aging
population, technological change and global
uncertainty.
“In the last few days New Zealand’s 24/7
geohazard monitoring centre has shut down twice because
of staff shortages after brutal funding cuts. That’s
irresponsible in a country that experiences 20,000
earthquakes a year.
“The slashing of the Ministry of
Social Development’s workforce by hundreds of
jobs led to 6,270 pensioners missing out on Winter Energy
Payments and 14,450 people having their main or
supplementary benefits incorrectly cut.
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“Without a
change of government, things will get only worse. Recently,
Inland Revenue – a core government agency – has said it will
have to axe hundreds of jobs as its budget is
slashed by 20% in the next three years.
“The
Government’s new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions
and Transport (MCERT) this week told staff it won’t be able
to keep doing the same level of work, as
it proposes to cut 400 roles, 25% of its
workforce.
“This is the Ministry meant to lead New
Zealand’s response to climate change, fix our housing
shortage, and plan the roads, rail and infrastructure the
country badly needs. This is a Ministry that is likely to
need more funding not less.”
“The Government’s cuts
have been made with no plan and no thought to the current
and future needs of New Zealanders. They have been made to
paper over the Government’s financial mismanagement and
poor choices a such as handing out hundreds of millions of
dollars to tobacco companies and tax cuts for wealthy
landlords.
“No country in the world has evidence that
AI can replace public sector workers at the scale this
Government is betting on.
“Countries like Singapore,
which the Government often cites as a role model, use AI to
improve public services not to reduce headcount.
“To
stop this cycle of damaging restructures, the PSA is calling
for a
mandatory public good test before government agencies
and other publicly funded employers can embark on major
restructures and cut jobs,” Fitzsimons says.
“Agencies
should have to stop and properly weigh up the impact on
services, on workers and on the communities who rely on
them, before ploughing ahead with a restructure, not after
the damage is done. (See summary of criteria
below).
“When restructures are rushed through as this
government has done without any real assessment of the
impact, it’s the public who ultimately pay the price,”
Fitzsimons said.
Background: the proposed public good
test
The PSA proposes a statutory requirement for
public sector agencies and other publicly funded employers
to assess any significant restructure against a public good
test before proceeding.
The assessment would need to
cover a range of criteria including:
– Impact on the
services the agency delivers to the public
–
Compliance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the agency’s
ability to meet its obligations to Māori under Te
Tiriti
– Impacts on workforce capability, both within
the agency and across the public and community
sectors
– Health and safety impacts, both physical
safety and the impact of workload stress on remaining
staff
– Long-term, intergenerational impacts,
including impacts on New Zealand’s ability to mitigate and
adapt to climate change
– Impacts on population groups
at risk of being disadvantaged in their access to public and
community services, including women, Māori, Pasefika,
migrants, rainbow communities and disabled people
–
Consistency with undertakings made by the Government in
response to a Royal Commission of Inquiry or Auditor-General
recommendations
The PSA says the test should apply to
core public service agencies under the Public Service Act
2020 and be extended to local government and publicly funded
community services as a condition of public
funding.
