Act leader David Seymour says the number of public servants exploded between 2017 and 2021 and they could be costing the taxpayers $1.21 billion in wages alone.
He's calling for a cutback and says there is "too much hui and not enough do-ey."
Seymour says the public isn't getting bang for its taxpayer buck.
"The number of public servants exploded between 2017 and 2021. Labour added 13,845 full-time equivalent workers at an average salary of $87,600 over that period. That’s an extra $1.21 billion in wages alone," the ACT leader says.
Public Service and Education Minister Chris Hipkins says ACT's claims insult the efforts of hard-working public service staff who've committed to better outcomes for the people of New Zealand. He says 1,400 additional nurses have been funded and over 7,500 new teachers have been supported since 2017.
But Seymour isn't convinced, "We can take all the people from the Ministry of Education and send them to the principal or the kura and, if the principal doesn't want them, they can get the person's salary instead."
Hipkins says the Ministry of Education's hires have targeted key areas, which most often impact on the lives of young New Zealanders. The ministry has hired people:
- to work on the curriculum refresh and changes to NCEA. This is a long-term project that's still in progress;
- to work on increased spending on school buildings and maintenance work resulting from an increase in our capital expenditure of almost $450m to a record $1.44b; and
- to provide services directly to children, schools, and early learning services, especially during the COVID pandemic, and to bolster Māori education advice, support information and data-gathering, and provide improved corporate support.
Hipkins says the government doesn’t believe cutting services like health and education and increasing unemployment are the best ways to assist New Zealanders with the cost of living.
"Instead, we are targeting support to families through things like cutting fuel excise by 25 cents a litre and increasing Working for Families payments."
But Seymour says he has no quarrel with frontline staff, "Bear in mind I'm not talking about frontline people, the teachers, the nurses and the police officers, I'm talking about people that sit mainly in Wellington and the public service...I don't think they're adding value."
it's the backroom bureaucrats that are the problem for Seymour. "They’re administrators who make work for themselves competing with the private sector (for example, Kainga Ora) or dream up new bureaucracy to make life harder for workers (for example, the Ministry of Education)."
Seymour says after next year's election he wants a review of public services to cut spending and the cost to taxpayers.