Mike's Minute: The Govt hasn't followed through on cutting the public sector

It is with real enthusiasm that I see the Public Service Commissioner potentially doing what the main Government should have done two years ago. 

What the Government did two years ago was say they were going to rectify the absurd size of the public service. 

It had blown out to gargantuan proportions under the Labour Government, who knew no bounds in terms of fiscal largesse based on debt. 

What the new Government actually did with the public service, sadly, was tinker. 

It peaked at a bit over 65,000 and it sits at over 63,000. In fact in the ensuing period, it's gone up again. 

So rough math will tell you they got rid of about 2,000 jobs. As a raw number it's a lot of jobs. A percentage it's tiny. 

As an effective exercise in efficiency and savings, it's a joke. 

The shame of it was the new Government of the day had licence. Yes, it was controversial. Yes, the unions bleated and moaned. Yes, the media went to town on a Tory slash-and-burn exercise. 

But the trick was always simple – if you're going to dish out the bad news go hard, DOGE it, blow it up, do it once and do it properly. 

The fall out, headlines, and anger will be exactly the same whether you trim a couple of thousand for no effect or 6,500 and make a difference. 

So they blew it. They took the heat but got few, if any, results. In an odd way it’s symbolic of the weaker parts of this Government; the ideas, rhetoric, and execution are never quite aligning. 

But now the Commissioner Brian Roache looks to be having another crack by merging departments. The Ministries of Women, Pacific peoples, disabled peoples, and Māori Development could all be in for an upending. 

I'd go further. The never-ending series of commissioners and their offices that have no actual power and really only write reports would not be missed. 

But ministries for ministries sake is what holds this country back. They all fill a space to meet their budget and so-called mandate. 

If this is on, and I pray it is, wait for the bleating. Every one of them will tell you the critical nature of their existence but I defy anyone of you to list me the profound and productive change they have made to all our lives. 

Given you can't they then fall into the category as largesse, waste and tokenism. 

Do it once and do it right. That's how change should happen. 

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