The PSA has called National heartless and thoughtless with its plan revealed today to cut public services and jobs by Christmas.

"It’s heartless, it’s reckless and lays bare how ignorant National is about how the public service actually works," said Kerry Davies, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

In Stuff today, National finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the planned first wave of public service cuts - $600 million - would be done by Christmas.

She said: ‘I was fortunate to work for John Key when he first formed a government in 2008. And I can tell you that in the first 100 days, a huge amount was done.’

Ms Davies said this approach was naive and again exposed the thoughtless nature of how a National-led government would operate.

"There are many thousands of public service workers whose jobs are at risk and National needs to treat them fairly and with respect should it be elected, and not rush a restructure for the sake of affording income tax cuts and tax breaks for landlords.

"If National forms the next government, Ministers would only just have read their briefings by November and would only be starting to understand the current state of their ministries, and yet she would expect them to have also worked out the implications of what they were cutting by then.

"You also can’t simply cut jobs that quickly. There are well established employment obligations to ensure that any restructure treats workers with respect.

"This is arrogant and shows again National’s attitude - they think they know best how to do public service jobs and are not interested in involving those who know the work best in finding where things can be done better.

"National is simply not in the ‘real world’ here and to be a credible alternative government we need more than sound bites from them.

"We urge National should it form a government to take a breather, talk to unions and workers, before rushing headlong into cutting services and jobs which will impact all New Zealanders."

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