“While Kiwi battlers tighten their belts, and businesses cut costs left, right and centre, Wellington bureaucrats are creaming it. It’s time to zero base government and ask whether some departments need to exist,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Labour announced in 2021 it would freeze the pay of public servants earning over $100,000, but more than 3,000 highly paid bureaucrats have received a pay rise anyway.

“Hipkins made the announcement as Public Service Minister in 2021. ACT revealed in April last year that 2,670 highly paid back-office bureaucrats received a pay rise anyway, since then another 427 have also been given a pay increase.

“The fundamental problem is that the Government is trying to take on too many non-essential functions instead of doing a few things well. The Government’s inability to reign in its spending is why inflation is skyrocketing and hardworking Kiwis are getting poorer by the day.

“Private sector employees have every reason to be furious. It’s one rule for Government employees and another for the people who pay for the Government.

“People outside the public sector are working incredibly hard and cutting costs wherever possible. They will look at this and rightfully question whether many of the roles that exist within the public service are even necessary?

“I suspect there will be many examples of public service roles and even entire departments that have no practical reason to exist. Instead, they act as a drain on taxpayers and develop meddling policy that makes life harder for people just for the sake of doing something.

“Look at Jobs for Nature, spending $1.2 billion to compete with private businesses in a tight job market, or Kainga Ora who is competing in the market against private developers and first-home buyers, bidding up the price of land and homes while selling off its own.

“It’s clear Government departments aren’t delivering better bang for our buck. They are not faster, the services aren’t better, and they are not more transparent. In many cases they actively make life harder for people by creating needless regulation and rules.

“ACT says we need to go back to zero and ask ourselves, if the departments and bureaucracies we have now didn’t exist, would we establish them today?

“Hardworking New Zealanders are making the tough decisions to stay afloat. It’s time the Government supported them and did the same.”

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