At a time of turmoil in the international economic
landscape, it doesn’t make sense to kneecap one of the key
agencies dedicated to helping New Zealand meet its
challenges.
The Government today announced a deep 25%
cut in the bank’s five-year operational funding
arrangement.
“How does this fit with the
Government’s economic growth agenda?” said Fleur
Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service
Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga
Mahi.
“The bank’s inflation mandate is a
key tool for economic management. It fights inflation so the
economy can flourish without the damaging impacts of runaway
inflation.
“This will see highly skilled
people lose their jobs and for what end? Once again, we are
seeing the Government happy to cut people without producing
the evidence that the cuts won’t impact
outcomes.
“As we have seen across the public sector,
this is a government happy to axe experienced people charged
with doing critical long-term thinking and gathering the
evidence for making good policy
decisions.
“Undermining the Reserve Bank is just more
short-term thinking without regard to
consequences.”
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