Source: PSA
The Government is continuing its damaging campaign to hollow out the public service with 133 roles (69 being fixed term) proposed to go from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).
Staff were told today of the latest proposed job cuts which could result in the net loss of 64 permanent roles, plus 69 fixed term roles which are not being renewed beyond 1 September, for a total reduction of 133 roles. These are spread across all five branches of DIA.
The latest cuts aim to save approximately $8 million a year. They follow a wave of restructuring last year which saw, among many changes, the loss of key staff keeping children safe from online harm, and those stopping scams and international crime syndicates engaging in money laundering.
“Once again, we see the Government hell bent on downsizing the public service, regardless of the consequences,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“The Government is blind to the fact that the public service is right sized for our population and economy and should in fact be expanding to meet our many challenges from a growing and ageing population through to climate change and the infrastructure deficit.
“It’s all about ideology and doing more with less. But the reality as we have seen with cuts across the public service, the Government will be doing less with less – there will be fewer workers at DIA able to support the needs of New Zealanders.
“For example, the disbanding of the Ministerial and Monitoring Group, which has already had roles cut, will slow down decision making, impacting the provision of timely and quality advice to Ministers.
“The proposal to cut back on Personal Assistants is a false economy that will see senior managers spending more time doing administrative tasks.
“The proposed downsizing of the Digital Services branch, which has faced constant restructuring since 2019 will see among other things a loss of product testing roles. These roles are vital to ensuring a smooth introduction and upgrading of technology that New Zealanders rely on to do things such as apply for, or renew, their passports.
“The proposed disbanding of the Workplace Services and moving some staff into other teams means there will no longer be a proper focus on ensuring maintenance is carried out for government buildings and equipment. This will affect productivity and will raise health and safety issues over time. Workplace Services is also responsible for security of Government property.
“Internal Affairs purpose is to serve and connect ‘people, communities and government to build a safe, prosperous and respected nation’. These cuts coming on top of the damaging cuts from last year will make achieving that purpose all the more difficult and the PSA will be opposing them.”
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