The Government’s reduction in consultants and
contractors is set to save $800 million, while the public
service workforce has shrunk by 4 percent to 62,968
FTEs.
Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Rhys
Hurley said:“Fewer consultants writing pointless
reports and sucking up taxpayer dollars is good
progress—but let’s not pretend this is some kind of
fiscal detox. Back in 2017, the public service was a smaller
beast at 47,252 FTEs.”
“That means
we’re still paying for nearly 16,000 more mandarins to lap
it up at the taxpayer buffet. These aren’t frontline
workers like doctors or teachers—these are the back-office
bureaucrats pulling the strings and doing the Ministers’
bidding.”
“The Government needs to go full cold
turkey and ditch the extra public servants. Trimming a
little off the top won’t cut it. Nicola must show she’s
serious in Budget 2025 and bring staffing at least back to
2017 levels. New Zealand deserves a healthy fiscal
future—not one weighed down by an overstuffed
bureaucracy.”
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