Two years ago, around 6000 public servants lost their jobs. Now more cuts have been announced, with 8700 jobs to go (yes really, more than last time). Sarah Lang – who is based in Wellington – takes a look at the most recent cuts whilst reflecting on the impacts of the last round…
OPINION
“We all saw their last round of cuts and the damage it did. They thought there was fat to cut and removed muscle. Now they are aiming for bone.” So said one commenter under this Stuff.co.nz story, alongside 1757 other comments.
In June 2024, we wrote about the devastating effects of more than 6000 public-servant jobs being cut. It’s no coincidence that, since then, cafes around the central Wellington have emptied, stores have closed, businesses have gone bust. Thousands of former public servants are still unemployed because of the flooded job market. The financial and mental impacts on them and their families have been devastating.
Now, the devastation is spreading and intensifying. Finance minister Nicola Willis and Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith announced on Tuesday in a pre-Budget speech that public-service jobs are to be slashed by about 14% by July 2029. Their target is to have 8700 fewer jobs than there were in December last year. That’s more job losses than last time.
Of course, the government wants us to concentrate on numbers, touting “$2.4 billion of savings”, which, ya know, we doubt they’ll spend on pressing problems like, ya know, reducing child poverty or mitigating climate change. They prefer not to talk about the human cost. But we will. 8700 people. Many have children. More families are now living in fear.
Many live in Wellington. Others live elsewhere.
As the Public Services Association points out, with 10 agencies exempted from the cuts, about one in four people at the remaining 30 agencies will lose their jobs. For example, the Ministry of Social Development will lose 2000 jobs.
Duane Leo, National Secretary of the PSA, says “this is an act of wilful destruction”.
“People see it for what it is, the Government swinging a wrecking ball through the agencies that keep them safe at work, protect our borders, build our roads, collect our taxes, protect our precious native forests and birds and respond to emergencies”.
But Artificial Intelligence is coming to the rescue? Willis said AI will be embedded “as a basic expectation for all public entities”. Hey, who needs humans?
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said “the announcements looked similar to the Elon Musk-led cuts by the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency”.
“It absolutely is in the style of the DOGE-type approach, where it’s just take as many cuts as you possibly can to the public sector, privatise and farm things out. It seems as though the government’s approach is kind of government GPT.”
However, let’s remember that this will happen only if a National-led government wins the election. Another commenter on the Stuff story says: “National reverting to its roots and thinking the public are anti public servants still in an effort to try and claw back some votes. Clearly they’ve lost the ability to read the room. Let’s see the next poll after this one and see how they go”.
Or see that they go.
You can read that initial story here
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