PM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for May 20, 2026 – Full Text

Source: New Zealand Government

Good afternoon everyone. It’s my pleasure to join Business North Harbour once again and to speak with you about this year’s Government Budget.

Let me acknowledge my colleague, Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for the Public Service and Digitising Government.

Most importantly, let me acknowledge the business leaders, employers, entrepreneurs and Kiwi battlers represented in this room today. I know you work hard for a living, that you take seriously the people who depend on you for their jobs, and that many of you have been through a hard slog these past few years.

First there was Covid, then there was out-of-control inflation and spiralling interest rates, then there was the inevitable economic downturn and the massive efforts you’ve taken to leave it behind. That’s before we mention the actions of the current occupant of the White House or the fuel crisis the world is now facing.

Doing what we can to make economic conditions easier for you is front and centre for me every time I put together a Budget. When you do well, New Zealand does well. Jobs are created, pay rises can be paid and life can be more affordable for every Kiwi. Thank you for what you do.

As the Prime Minister highlighted last week, this year’s Budget takes place in challenging times. The world is more volatile than ever and things we once took for granted – like secure fuel supply or a rules-based trading system – are no longer a given. Across the globe, countries are struggling to deliver the improving living standards and basic affordability citizens rightly expect.

As a small, trading nation, already carrying high levels of debt, New Zealand is heavily exposed to these global trends. We’re still carrying a deficit from the Covid spend-up and international credit rating agencies are watching us closely. The interest bill on our debt has soared to about $9 billion a year, unemployment has only just started falling, and Kiwis are, fairly, focussed on what it will take to make life more affordable in this country.

I have to say, with an election around the corner, it’s tempting to proffer another spending band-aid in response. To suggest a superficial solution that sounds good today, even if it doesn’t deliver tomorrow. You know the genre – the kind of announcement that comes with a catchy slogan, typically about something “free”, or promising a cash hand-out we can’t really afford. Well, we’ve seen that movie before, and we didn’t like the ending.

Consider the last government’s cost-of-living payment, a $350 band aid that ended-up being paid out to French backpackers and dead people and only added more fuel to the underlying inflation fire. It was a band-aid on a bullet wound. The wound was still in need of treatment long after the band-aid had worn off.

Tempting as it is, our Government is not going to repeat those mistakes.

Instead, we’re doing the substantive reform work to address the underlying drivers of today’s affordability challenges, so that New Zealand can be a more affordable place now and in the years ahead.

Making consumer prices more affordable by keeping underlying inflation in check, with clear accountabilities for the Reserve Bank supported by a sensible spending approach by Government.
Making the business of government more affordable by driving value-for-money in all we do – from service delivery through to infrastructure planning.
Making housing more affordable – to rent and to buy – by fast-tracking new housing developments, planning reform, ending the war on landlords and with interest rates having tracked lower on our watch.
Making household rates more affordable by legislating for rates caps, supported by work to simplify and re-focus local government.
Making electricity more affordable by consenting and incentivising the generation investments needed to ensure abundant, affordable and resilient energy supply.
Making childcare more affordable by providing the FamilyBoost tax rebate to families who are working hard for their kids.
Making insurance more affordable by pausing hikes in the Natural Hazard Levy while we get to the bottom of what’s really driving insurance costs.
Making groceries more affordable by carefully doing the overdue and complex work needed to enhance competition between supermarkets.
Making work, investment and savings affordable, by stopping Labour’s constant march towards more taxes and instead reducing them where we can.
Making hard work and entrepreneurialism affordable by continuing the growth reforms needed to make this a better place to establish and grow a business, whether that’s by signing new free trade agreements, lifting education standards, or delivering growth-enhancing public infrastructure.
A larger envelope of capital spending, to support the building of major new job-rich public infrastructure projects that support economic growth and resilience.
A major lift in funding for our health system to support better primary healthcare, along with specialist, elective and emergency services.
Targeted investments in frontline services including those delivered by our schools, police and corrections services.
A continued enhancement of the capability of the New Zealand Defence Force so it can properly contribute to the defence relationships on which our national security depends.
More progress towards our goals of balanced books and lower debt.

Let’s be clear, none of this work delivers overnight and I’m with every Kiwi who wants it done as fast as possible. But I believe our government’s approach – of addressing our country’s underlying challenges with durable reform – is the only honest and responsible response to today’s affordability concerns.

Put simply, in an uncertain and fast-changing world, New Zealand simply can’t afford another failed spend-up.

Now, more than ever, you need your government to hold a steady hand on the tiller, ensuring the country’s finances are in fit condition to withstand whatever comes our way. That the public services you depend on are delivered well and can be sustained. That we are putting in place the building blocks for a more affordable tomorrow.

That’s why this year’s Budget will continue our ongoing work to get the books back in balance and the debt curve bending down. With a global fuel crisis underway, some would have us put those plans on hold, we say no, those goals are more important now than ever before.

In this year’s Budget, we’ve reduced the amount of new money we’re giving ourselves for day-to-day spending and we’ve carefully prioritised your precious taxpayer dollars towards the things that really matter.

With careful budgeting and ongoing reprioritisation we have been able to achieve a lot. On Budget day we will announce a series of investments needed to make this a stronger, more resilient, and more affordable country now and in the years ahead.

Let me pick out some highlights of what Budget 2026 delivers.

You’ll hear more from me on all of these fronts just under two weeks from now.

For today, I want to share with you the details of one important initiative in this year’s Budget: the next phase in our plans to transform the public service.

Phase Two of Public Sector Reform

A driving goal for our Government is to deliver better public services for New Zealanders, not by just blithely spending more, but by driving better results from the spending we already do.

Our perspective is simple: a Government’s compassion shouldn’t be judged by the size of the cheques it writes on your behalf, but rather it should be judged for the results it gets for that spending.

Ensuring value for taxpayer money shouldn’t be a radical position, but the need to re-state it is evidenced by recent history.

Cast your mind back to 2023: Labour tripled government debt in dollar terms, lifted spending by 73 per cent, and left behind a structural deficit.

What’s worse, there was almost nothing to show for this historic spend-up. Educational achievement went backwards, health waiting lists grew, immunisation rates fell, violent crime increased and social housing waiting lists ballooned. Grand visions for light rail across Auckland resulted in little but a canned cycle-bridge and a massive consultancy bill.

So what did New Zealand have to show for the structural deficit bequeathed to us? In part we had the wage bill of a truly historic hiring spree, with the number of public servants having exploded from 47,250 to 65,700.

To put that into context, that growth in public sector roles outpaced job creation in the private sector at a ratio of almost three to one. Worse, most of the growth occurred in the back-office, with ballooning costs for policy analysts and consultancy invoices, rather than for frontline positions.

The country was on a completely unsustainable course, with the books in tatters and public services in decline.

Since being elected, this Government has been on a mission to reverse those trends. Our belief is that you don’t need to break the bank to get better results.

That belief may be poo-poohed by my Opposition colleagues but I know the people in this room get it.

Your mission for increased productivity isn’t a debating point, it’s essential for staying in business.

You think carefully about every extra dollar you spend and seek to constantly squeeze more bang out of every buck.

You relish the opportunity to use new technologies and tools, to deliver better for your customers and to get greater returns for the work you put in.

You should expect the same focus from your Government. After all, it’s your money we’re spending.

The good news is we’ve already made significant progress.

When we came to office the Prime Minister set clear targets for the outcomes we want to achieve from the public service. We are rigorous in measuring our progress against them, and in prioritising our resources to achieve them.

We’ve had an ongoing focus on stopping poorly targeted spending and have put every new idea to the affordability test.

A tougher stance on law and order, accompanied by more visible policing, has driven a considerable decline in violent crime. Our targets have been met well ahead of schedule with 49,000 fewer victims of violent crime since we were elected, and a 25 per cent reduction in the number of children and young people with serious and persistent violent behaviour.

Hospital wait times have stabilised and are now improving. People are waiting for less time in the emergency department and for elective surgery. Last year our “Elective Boost” policy saw us partner with the private sector to deliver an additional 16,000 life-changing medical procedures.

In education, we’re driving reforms to bring back a structured approach to teaching reading, writing and maths. The early results are exciting. Attendance levels are up, maths students are making faster progress and new entrants are reaching literacy benchmarks in far greater numbers. Through modern delivery we’ve significantly reduced the cost of building new classrooms.

Another example is housing. The last Government left us with a heavily indebted state housing agency Kainga Ora, record waiting lists for social housing, soaring rents in the private sector and thousands of children living in emergency motel rooms. We’ve turned that around: Kainga Ora’s debt is down $9.5 billion even while the number of social houses has increased by more than 7000, waiting lists have reduced by more than 5000 people, rents have stabilised and 2000 children have been moved out of motels.

All of these performance improvements have come alongside a period of cost restraint and fiscal consolidation, as we chart a path back to balanced books and debt reduction.

Our first two Budgets included $44 billion of redirected spending. We’ve driven hard to reduce back-office costs: spending on consultants is down $915 million, clerical and administrative positions are down 15 per cent, managers are down 6 per cent and policy analysts are down 10 per cent.

What this shows you is that, even with more limited resources, our public service can achieve a lot. I can tell you honestly that some of New Zealand’s best, brightest and most publicly-spirited individuals are employed in our government agencies. With good leadership at the top, they are capable of extraordinary things.

But, if you’re listening to this record of progress and quietly thinking – there’s still so much to do – then let me say, we agree.

Yes, progress to date has been promising, we’ve fixed up the basics, but so much more is needed to achieve the modern, efficient and productive public services Kiwis expect.

Our Government is as frustrated as you are by the fragmentation and silos, the complexity, the status-quo thinking and the dangerously slow take up of digital and AI technologies.

In too many parts, the back-office of Government still looks like an eighties relic, run on old-fashioned systems, with slow bureaucratic processes that are too often about box-ticking rather than improving outcomes.

In truth, we are reaching the limits of the current public service operating model.

The current system is failing to meet the expectations Kiwis have in 2026, let alone what they‘ll expect in 2036 and beyond.

So today I’m announcing that as part of this year’s Budget our government is embarking on a fundamental overhaul of the public service, to drive better services, more productivity, and better value for taxpayer resources.

We’ve set three key goals and set a sinking lid on agencies’ operating budgets in order to guarantee progress.

Goal Number one. We are going to streamline the number of government agencies and entities.

Comparisons are not exact, but New Zealand has, by latest count, 39 departments and ministries administering Budget lines. That compares with 16 in Australia, 24 in the UK and around 12 in Finland.

More departments equal more managers, more HR departments, more comms teams and more administrators. More departments also equals more statutory compliance requirements, more silos, more inter-departmental consultation and more costs for the citizens and businesses forced to multiply their interactions with government.

So, over the next three to five years, we are going to significantly reduce the number of public service agencies.

Following today’s announcement, public service agencies will be asked to come up with proposals to logically merge their existing activities around citizen-facing functions, using common technology platforms. We expect to announce more detail in the coming months.

The creation of the new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions Transport is an example of what is possible.

Merging the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry for the Environment will reduce duplication and ensure a faster, more integrated approach to issues like housing affordability and climate adaptation. It will also create significant savings along the way.

Goal number two. We’re going to ensure government is fully on board the digitisation and AI revolutions sweeping the world.

While New Zealanders are increasingly conducting more of their business digitally, the public sector hasn’t been keeping pace. For too long, the public service has been scared of AI, slow to move to the cloud, and has procured a complex and fragmented set of overlapping IT solutions.

We need to digitise both customer-facing services and back-office systems to make it easier and more affordable for people to interact with government agencies.

We have a Government Chief Digital Officer with responsibility for overseeing digital investments. His mission: to improve services and drive down cost.

The Chief Digital Officer will oversee investment in digital systems to move human resources, payroll, case management and other systems to the cloud and to embed AI deployment as a basic expectation for all public entities.

An example of what is possible is the recent trial of an AI scribe tool in hospital emergency rooms which has reduced the amount of time clinicians have to spend on file notes and increased the time they spend with patients. Feedback from doctors and nurses has been overwhelmingly positive.

Goal number three. We’re going to get public servant numbers back in step with historic norms with a focus on hiring and retaining talent.

Every business leader here today knows it’s not how many people you employ, it’s the talents of those people that counts.

We are going to going to bring renewed focus to the essential task of attracting, retaining and developing public service talent.

The Public Service Commission is already working to identify and develop future public service leaders, is actively tracking our 100 highest potential leaders, and will soon launch a public service academy to professionalise its talent-development efforts.

At the same time, we’re going to pull the brakes on the increase in overall public servant numbers.

Historically, New Zealand’s core public service has equated to about 1 per cent of the population. After a period of largesse under the last Government it now hovers around 1.2%.

One of Labour’s first moves was to remove the cap National had previously put on the number of people employed in government administration. Unsurprisingly, that spurred a huge hiring spree, with the number of workers in service support roles rocketing up by 46 per cent.

That’s unsustainable, it’s unaffordable and it’s out of step with international trends.

In Canada, Mark Carney’s government is reducing the size of the federal public service workforce by 10 per cent over the next few years. In Singapore, growth in the public service is pegged to not exceed overall growth in the labour force. The UK is systematically shrinking administrative budgets.

Our Government has therefore set a goal to get our core public servant numbers back to the historic norm at 1 per cent of the population, roughly equivalent to what it was before Labour took office.

We will be tracking progress towards a numerical target of no more than 55,000 full time equivalent public service employees by July 2029. That’s 8700 fewer than were employed in December last year.

Let me stress that these targets apply to the core public service and do not include teachers, nurses, doctors, police or people employed by Crown entities. We fully expect that with good budgeting we will be hiring more nurses, police officers and others in critical frontline roles.

How will we achieve this reduction in numbers? By doing the things your business considers routine: allowing for natural attrition, stopping duplication, streamlining back-office functions, accelerating uptake of digital tech and requiring government agencies to report every quarter on their progress towards the targets.

The result?

A modern, high-performing public service that is more connected, productive and efficient, and that ensures more resources are directed toward better outcomes for New Zealanders.

We’ll also deliver some big savings. To reflect and drive the efficiencies expected from these reforms, this year’s Budget reduces most agencies’ operating budgets by 2 per cent in the coming year, followed by a further 5 per cent in each of the following two years.

Those savings add up, and have created significant headroom for higher-priority investments, a total of $2.4 billion over the forecast period, averaging $597 million a year. These savings will now be deployed to better purposes – to delivering more services in our health system, to increasing educational resources for our schools, to building infrastructure and strengthening our defence force and police.

I look forward to detailing these investments on Budget day.

Some like to pretend we can have all that investment without saving a dollar elsewhere. They’re wrong. Their promises don’t add up, and the future they invite is bleak: a future of increasing taxes, heavier borrowing, shaky finances and unaffordable debt.

Sensible political leaders owe it to Kiwis to face seriously into the increasing volatility of a changing world. We simply must ensure our own house is in order and that our government books are under control. We must do the work now to ensure we can face the future with confidence.

In closing, let me say once again, thank you for listening and for your continued work to realise the great potential of this country.

Despite our many challenges, there’s no place I’d rather help lead than New Zealand: a country free from armed conflict with undisputed borders and access to abundant natural resources, a history of tenacity and innovation, strong community spirit, smart people, savvy business leaders and – may the voters agree in November – a country that had the wisdom to elect a government with the drive and common sense to secure a better and more affordable future for us all.

Budget 2026 will help secure New Zealand’s future, your future and your children’s future. Thank you.

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has announced plans to slash public service jobs by about 14 percent over the next three years in a shake-up it says will deliver $2.4 billion of savings.

The changes announced in a pre-Budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Tuesday would result in about 8700 job losses by mid-2029.

“Historically, core public service numbers have been equivalent to about 1 percent of the population. After a period of largesse under the last government it now hovers around 1.2 percent.

“We will be tracking progress towards a numerical target of no more than 55,000 full-time equivalent public service employees by July 2029. That’s 8700 fewer than were employed in December last year,” Willis said.

There are currently just over 63,000 full-time public servants, which is a slight decrease under this coalition government from the high of approximately 65,000 in the 2024/25 year.

Willis has outlined an overhaul of the public service designed to “reduce the number of government departments, increase the use of AI and other digital tools, and deliver significant savings”.

“Businesses and households are using AI every day and, while parts of the public sector have seized the opportunity to innovate, others are still locked into outdated ways of doing things that prioritise box-ticking over outcomes,” she told a Business North Harbour audience.

“Our government is as frustrated as you are by the fragmentation and silos, the complexity, the status-quo thinking and the dangerously slow take up of digital and AI technologies.

“In too many parts, the back-office of government still looks like an eighties relic, run on old-fashioned systems, with slow bureaucratic processes that are too often about box-ticking rather than improving outcomes,” Willis said.

The current public service operating model is reaching its limits, according to the finance minister, and “failing to meet the expectations Kiwis have in 2026, let alone what they’ll expect in 2036 and beyond”.

The government plans to put a “sinking lid on agencies’ operating budgets” over the next four years to drive progress in the three areas Willis has outlined as her priorities.

“Over the next four years these initiatives will deliver savings of $2.4b which will be re-deployed to deliver more health services, lift educational outcomes, build infrastructure and strengthen the defence force and police.

“New Zealanders expect public services that are responsive, effective and easy to use, but too often people and businesses are still navigating fragmented systems, duplication and outdated processes,” Willis said.

Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith said the job cuts announced would be specific to core public services, and would not include teachers, doctors, nurses, other Health NZ staff, police, or defence personnel.

“Progress will be monitored regularly, with agencies expected to demonstrate improvements in productivity, delivery and value for money,” Goldsmith said.

Speaking to reporters at Parliament on Tuesday morning, Christopher Luxon said there was a “real opportunity to leverage technology” to be more efficient with taxpayer dollars.

Luxon said it would be case-by-case when it comes to what and how agencies could be amalgamated.

“There will be cases where it doesn’t make sense for it to come together, but there are also lots of cases where we have endlessly duplicated IT services, accounts payable services, lots of back office functions … and what I’ve observed coming from outside of politics is that you know the system has just been the system for 30 to 40 years, and no one ever asked the fundamental question of, right, well, why do we have 16 ministers interfacing with an organisation like MBIE.”

Having just recently visited Singapore, the prime minister said it was a good example of a country better applying AI and technology in the public service.

“Even look at the work that’s been happening in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia as well.

“You’ve got people who need to purchase a house, they go around a very convoluted process, trying to prove their identity, trying to prove their income, that can be automated. You think about a Mum with an 11 and a nine-year-old, and one needs eye glasses, and she’s trying to work out her working for families tax credits. There’s a whole bunch of better ways in which we can deliver those results,” he said.

Infrastructure Minister and Hutt South MP Chris Bishop is overseeing the amalgamation of the ministries for the environment, housing and urban development, transport, and the local government functions of internal affairs.

The stand-up date for the new ministry – MCERT – is 1 July but Bishop says it will be years before the savings are seen.

“This is about setting the public service up for the future. It’s not about immediate savings in the next six months or even the next year, it’s about setting the public service up to be firstly a better partner for local government.

“One of the points I make to local government is that central government has been a useless partner with them in terms of grappling with the great challenges facing us, from housing through to climate adaptation, through to infrastructure funding and financing, we’ve been hopeless at it, and part of the reason we haven’t been very good at it is that we haven’t organised ourselves properly.

“So that is the big driver for the creation of MCERT,” he said on his way to caucus.

Bishop also pushed back on the idea that Wellington and the Hutt Valley are public service cities and would be deeply impacted by the proposed cuts.

“This idea that the Hutt Valley is just made up of public servants who get on the train in their walk shorts and go to Wellington every day for work is offensive and wrong about the Hutt Valley.

“It is an amazing place, in the same way that every suburb of Wellington is, with incredible businesses, and we’ve got to stop stereotyping Wellington as just this boring public service town. It is so much more than that, and we need to stop thinking about it like that,” Bishop said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the changes on the table were “not good news for New Zealanders”.

Speaking ahead of his party’s caucus meeting on Tuesday, Hipkins said “more than half of the jobs in question are outside the Wellington region”.

“So, these are frontline people working all over the country, they’re social workers working with vulnerable kids and families, people working in our prisons, people working at our border, people working in the conservation estate, they are frontline jobs.”

Hipkins told Morning Report there were a lot of contradictions within the proposal so he wanted to see the details.

“Bigger isn’t always better, bigger government departments aren’t always more efficient than smaller departments. Some of the bigger agencies are the most bureaucratic, with the most double handling,” he said.

“So I don’t think bigger is always better.”

Hipkins isn’t against a more integrated and technology driven public service, but said there were limitations to that.

“All of those could potentially be good things, but setting arbitrary targets to potentially reduce the public service by 10,000 people. There is no way you could reduce that many people working for our public service without reducing frontline services.”

Labour proposed its own cuts to the public service in late 2023, when in government, to the tune of 2 percent.

Asked about how many jobs would have been lost then, Hipkins said the advice he had was “there were a lot of vacancies that would be unfilled, and that they would just disestablish those jobs, so they wouldn’t have resulted in people losing their jobs”.

“There would have ultimately been a disestablishment of a number of jobs,” he said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Brokerage and financial services firm Jarden is in for a significant restructuring, with the wealth and asset management operations to be split off and the investment banking business to be retained in an employee-owned structure, sources have told RNZ.

The divestment of the wealth management business is complex and expected to meet some resistance from existing shareholders, given it was part of a major shake-up in the industry three years ago.

Jarden’s wealth and asset management businesses merged with National Australia Bank’s (NAB), JBWere NZ, and private equity fund manager Pacific Equity Partners, to form FirstCape in 2023, which has become the parent company of JBWere NZ, Harbour Asset Management and Consilium.

If the restructuring goes ahead it would give control of FirstCape to Pacific Equity Partners and NAB.

Jarden’s staff have yet to be fully briefed on the details, which would be subject to shareholder approval.

However, the deal was expected to meet some resistance as some of Jarden’s existing shareholders would have to relinquish their stake in the investment bank, while others would be left without exposure to the wealth management part of the business.

Existing Jarden staff would likely be asked to reinvest their bonuses in the new structure, which would include sharebroking, portfolio management, investment banking, financial and economic research services.

Jarden Group executive chair Aidan Allen has been approached for comment from RNZ, but has not responded.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The government is set to announce proposals which RNZ understands will seek to reduce the number of government agencies, with amalgamation, more work on digitisation and using AI, and setting a target to reduce the public service headcount to 1 percent of the total population by 2029.

There are 42 ministries and agencies currently in the public sector and just over 63,000 full-time workers.

Willis says the headcount blew out by far too much under the previous Labour governments. It was 48,000 in 2017 and increased to 57,000 by 2020.

Getting the number of public servants back to 1 percent of the total population by 2029 could require thousands of jobs to be cut.

In 2024 RNZ kept a count of cuts in the sector, to get a sense of the changes, and in May 2025 RNZ published an explainer about why it is not easy to finding consensus on the right way to count cuts.

RNZ has republished that below.

Explainer: How many public sector jobs have really been axed?

By Lauren Crimp

First published 28 May 2025

When the coalition government came to power in 2023, it set out to slash public spending, pledging to “move resources out of bureaucracy and into the front line”.

As a result, jobs across the public sector were on the chopping block. Of course, economic pain was also being felt in the private sector, where jobs were also being culled.

The coalition’s cuts followed a 34 percent growth in the public service between 2017 and 2024, much of which was under the Labour government.

The moves were slammed by the opposition and unions, but Finance Minister and then Public Service Minister Nicola Willis said the public had not got bang for buck under the former government.

From April 2024 to the end of the year, RNZ kept careful count of jobs lost as belts were tightened, using information provided by the organisations themselves to understand the scale of the changes.

And in October RNZ asked every ministry, department, Crown entity, Crown agent, departmental agency and Crown research institute (113 in total) whether they had made cuts in response to the government’s cost-saving initiative – 56 had.

The process involved clarifying with organisations things like whether job loss numbers they provided were net or gross, to ensure we were consistent in our approach.

Earlier this month TVNZ’s Q + A host Jack Tame put RNZ’s count – around 9500 – to Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche.

“I’m not sure it’s the correct number actually, because I’m told it’s 2000,” Roche said.

Willis expressed a similar sentiment, saying the media – including RNZ – had reported incorrect numbers.

So why the disagreement?

The Public Service Commission supports the government to implement policies and deliver services, and collates workforce data.

Its figures showed between December 2023 and December 2024 there were 2731 fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.

RNZ’s count reached 9520 by the end of December 2024. That is the net number – taking into account that while organisations disestablished roles, some also created new ones as they reshuffled their workforce.

Read RNZ’s detailed reporting of public sector job cuts.

The Commission’s numbers do not include vacancies, nor jobs gone at every single Crown organisation, because they do not fall under its jurisdiction. RNZ included both in its tally.

“This might explain the discrepancy between our number and the much larger number some media have been using,” a spokesperson for the Commission said.

Should Crown entities be included?

RNZ included jobs lost at Crown entities in its count – as well as those in the core public service – to show the breadth of agencies affected by the government’s savings initiative.

Crown entities are responsible for a range of public services and while they’re part of government and owned by the Crown, they’re run by independent boards.

They include big employers like Health NZ, Kāinga Ora, Police and the Defence Force, as well as smaller entities such as AgResearch, GNS and Niwa.

The head of Victoria University’s School of Government, Karl Lofgren said RNZ’s tally of jobs lost was “as good as any”.

“I’m a bit confused why the current government is surprised by your numbers.”

It was difficult to assess the size of the wider public sector (Crown entities as well as the core public service) because solid workforce data only existed for the core public service, he said.

Another school of government professor and senior fellow at Motu Research, Arthur Grimes said job loss counts would differ depending on what was being measured.

“It’s legitimate to include Crown entities along with the core public service, if that’s what you’re trying to measure. If you’re only trying to measure core public service, obviously you wouldn’t,” he said.

“But if the question is jobs lost from entities, core public sector or otherwise, that are funded by the state sector, then I think adding them [Crown entities] in makes sense.”

Lofgren agreed – “I find it a bit difficult to understand why that should be excluded” – as did associate professor at the university’s school of management, Geoff Plimmer.

“When people think about cuts to public servants, they don’t draw a distinction between Crown agencies and … core Wellington-based government departments,” he said.

“People will want to know how many people have lost their jobs, and whether they meet the fine-grain distinction in the Public Finance Act between a core government department and a Crown agency or a Crown entity is by the by.”

But there is some disagreement over the issue of vacant jobs.

Are already vacant jobs ‘jobs’?

RNZ decided to include vacancies because they represented jobs that once existed, but no longer do because of the belt tightening.

Victoria University school of management senior lecturer Stephen Blumenfeld said it was legitimate to count vacant jobs, but it was impossible to know whether someone would have ever been hired into those positions.

“There’s an assumption being made that the position is vacant but it’s intended to be refilled at some time in the future, whether or not that’s the case,” he said.

“If they’re intending to fill the job, I think it is fair to call that a job that is not filled. But the question is, really, how many of those jobs would have been filled otherwise?”

But Plimmer said vacant jobs should not have been included in the tally of those lost.

Some went unfilled for a long time and were not intended to be filled, he said.

“They’re very much just paper abstracts, they don’t really exist until someone is in the job, doing the job.”

Agencies might hold vacancies without filling them to attract budget funding, said Plimmer.

But for the most part it was simply a nuisance to get rid of vacant jobs and keeping them gave organisations flexibility, he said.

Comparing apples with apples

RNZ has now tallied up a best estimate of what our count might have been if we had matched the Public Service Commission and counted jobs lost only in the core public service, not including vacancies.

Let’s break it down a bit.

RNZ’s count of jobs lost in the public service alone, including vacancies, was 5247.

It gets tricky to subtract vacancies from that, because not all organisations made the distinction between vacant and filled roles. When organisations specified how many of the disestablished positions were vacant, RNZ sought to report that.

Our best estimate, from the organisations that did provide that information, was that 1090 vacant jobs were cut.

Taking that number off the 5247 jobs lost in the public service gets us to 4157 – a little closer to the Public Service Commission’s 2731, but with the caveats noted.

And some of those that didn’t confirm vacancy numbers had reported pretty big cuts – for example, the Ministry of Social Development which slashed about 900 jobs and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment which downsized by about 400 roles.

And it’s worth noting that in some cases, vacancies made up a big portion of roles gone: for example, the Department of Conservation had a net loss of 124 jobs, by disestablishing 257 permanent positions (of which 114 were vacant) and creating 133 new ones.

Growth in public service important context

Grimes said it was vital that any count of job loss numbers were put into context, including significant growth in the public service.

“Otherwise you get a very distorted picture of job losses if you’re only looking at it over a very short-term period,” he said.

“I think it’s very misleading to just look at the short-term figure.”

The public service – not including Crown entities – grew 34 percent between June 2017 and June 2024, Public Service Commission workforce statistics showed.

It had been increasing about 5 percent a year until 2022, but in the year from June 2023 it rose 0.7 percent.

At the end of June 2024, there were 63,537 full-time equivalent staff – up slightly on a year prior, but down from 65,699 in December 2023.

At the end of December 2024, there were 62,968 full-time equivalent staff – down 0.9 percent since June 2024, and down 4.2 percent since December 2023.

Willis stands by comments, Collins clarifies differences

RNZ laid out the differences between its numbers and the Public Service Commission’s, and asked Willis whether she stood by her comments that RNZ had been incorrectly reporting job losses.

“Minister Willis stands by her past comments that RNZ’s job tallies were wrong and completely inaccurate,” a spokesperson from her office said.

They said other questions, about whether including Crown entities and vacancies better reflected the number of public jobs lost, should be addressed to Public Service Minister Judith Collins.

Collins said RNZ was conflating job losses in the public service with those that have occurred in the wider public sector, which are accountable to their boards.

“The job losses that occurred in the public service were the result of the Government’s Fiscal Savings Programme where departments were asked to find savings of 6.5 – 7.5 percent.

“Additional job losses have occurred in both the public service and the wider public sector for a variety of reasons, but these weren’t subject to the Fiscal Savings Programme and are not included in how job losses were calculated and communicated.”

They did not count vacancies being disestablished as job losses, Collins said.

“These were vacant roles, so no one lost a job as a result.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government’s latest job cuts in the public sector have a “DOGE-type approach” say the Greens, but it is “just what the doctor ordered”, according to ACT.

The government announced today that public service jobs are to be slashed by about 14 percent over the next three years in a shake-up that is expected to deliver $2.4 billion of savings.

The changes were made public in a pre-Budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Nicola Willis, and would result in about 8700 job losses by mid-2029.

There are currently just over 63,000 full-time public servants, which is a slight decrease under this coalition government from the high of approximately 65,000 in the 2024/25 year.

Are you a public servant affected by these job cuts? Email iwitness@rnz.co.nz

ACT leader David Seymour celebrated the government’s announcement as “just what the doctor ordered”.

The ACT party has long called for less government departments and Seymour said “we’re absolutely thrilled to see it.”.

Last year, Seymour made the case for streamlining the executive government. Under his proposal, there would be only 30 government departments and the executive would be limited to just 20 ministers.

On Tuesday, Seymour said other people in the government had written off the proposal, saying “there’s no need for it.”.

“Now we’ve seen a change, so I’m proud of the direction.”

Seymour said he was very happy about the goal to reduce the number of public servants from 62,000 to 55,000, but acknowledged the ACT Party would have done it “faster and harder”.

Initially, he would not provide a figure for the final number of government agencies following the plans to amalgamate. He said the government needed to understand first what services New Zealanders need, and how many ministries are required to deliver that.

“I suspect we might get to 30, but it can’t stop with the departments.

“It’s got to go to the top. We actually need fewer ministers, so that there is one minister, one department, one budget, maximum accountability to get better results and efficiency.”

Seymour eventually revealed he did know the number of agencies proposed to be cut, and said it was “close to the ACT Party policy”.

Asked if the public service would determine the number, Seymour said “hell no”.

In response to questions about Winston Peter’s dismissing potential cuts for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seymour said “nobody is above scrutiny of taxpayer money”.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was not worried about job losses at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, because he has a record of standing up for them.

“I know all of our embassies are going to be retained, everything is going to stay the same, and there’s the small matter of election on the 7th of November, and the Budget next year. I’m not concerned about it.”

Reporters put to Peters that this year’s Budget – which he would presumably vote for next week – would set out the savings across four years.

He denied that, and took a swing.

“The Budget doesn’t stretch four years, if you believe that with an election coming, you know nothing about democracy,” he said.

“That’s knucklehead stuff, mate.”

Willis said it was “always the case” that the Minister for Foreign Affairs would prefer more money went into the diplomacy network, to offshore embassies, and to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“And I always seek to communicate to him what I hear from everyday voters,” Willis said.

“Which is, ‘can you please make sure I can get my hip operation faster, that my kids are getting educated better at school, and yes, invest in foreign affairs, but not at the expense of the things Kiwis really care about’.”

Asked if it was a “tough” conversation with Peters, Willis said “yes”.

Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the government was constantly asking for more, faster and better from the public service – then demanding cuts.

She 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,” she said.

Swarbrick said the responsible approach to the size of the public service is deciding what should be done, then figuring out what’s needed to do that – but instead, frontline services would be cut.

“What we hear loud and clear from those in the front lines, in education and in healthcare, and across the board, is these apparent back room office cuts impact and increase the workload for those on the frontline,” she said.

Asking departments to come up with their own merger plans was “outsourcing any kind of meaningful decisions” and “taking a blowtorch to the public service”, and the 1 percent-of-the-general population target was “arbitrary figures plucked out of thin air”.

Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said Willis should set out exactly where the mergers and job cuts were going to be before it said how much it would save.

“She should provide a list of what those jobs are, what that role entails, who’s going to cover that gap, so New Zealand can make a judgement call on whether this is actually value for money, of if they’re going to be losing the frontline services that they depend on.”

Public sector job cuts will cause anxiety in Wellington – mayor

Wellington mayor Andrew Little held a press conference shortly after the announcement and said it was “naturally” going to cause anxiety for people in the capital.

Little said it was important to wait for more details to come out to learn the significance of the cuts.

Although he remained optimistic given the rest of Willis’ announcement centred on the government’s plans to use tech – and AI – more.

Little said Wellington had a strong tech sector and if the government wanted to partner with tech companies – Wellington was the city for it.

The mayor said there were a number of “pretty significant” ministries and departments excluded from the job cuts.

Until “precise detail” was known, it was hard to say what impact it would have on Wellington.

However, Little said any cuts wouldn’t just affect public servants – but local retail and hospitality businesses too.

He said those businesses relied on public servants to buy from them – and in situations like this, the first thing people do is stop spending.

Little said the council’s role was to bring vibrancy back into the city.

There had been a “spring” back in people’s step earlier this year – but the fuel crisis and now this announcement – wouldn’t help.

Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith said there had been a hiring “spree” under the previous government and now there was a “harder task” to reduce numbers to historic averages.

“It’s the right thing to do, because we want to deliver better outcomes for New Zealanders through public service. Like everyone else in the entire economy, everybody’s looking to use technology better, but also be more productive, and that’s what this is about.”

He said there were “enormous opportunities” for using AI and digital technologies, pointing to the justice sector, where the court process was being digitised after years of paper-based systems.

“Change is always frightening. But it’s also an opportunity.”

Willis said there were thousands of people employed in the public service who did roles that only a human could do.

“Only a social worker can sit with that family when something terrible has happened. Only the corrections officer can lock the cell. And there will be the need for physical biosecurity inspectors. Absolutely, our plan allows for all of that.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government is embarking on a fundamental overhaul of the public service to improve services, lift productivity and deliver better value for money, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Minister for the Public Service and Digitising Government Paul Goldsmith say.

“The overhaul will reduce the number of government departments, increase the use of AI and other digital tools, and deliver significant savings,” Nicola Willis says.

“Businesses and households are using AI every day and, while parts of the public sector have seized the opportunity to innovate, others are still locked into outdated ways of doing things that prioritise box-ticking over outcomes.

“That is not acceptable or sustainable so the Government is putting a sinking lid on agencies’ operating budgets to drive progress on three key goals.

“Those goals are streamlining the number of government agencies and entities, digitising customer-facing and back-office government functions, and restoring public service numbers to historic norms.

“Over the next four years these initiatives will deliver savings of $2.4 billion which will be re-deployed to deliver more health services, lift educational outcomes, build infrastructure and strengthen the defence force and police.

“New Zealanders expect public services that are responsive, effective and easy to use, but too often people and businesses are still navigating fragmented systems, duplication and outdated processes.

“A more connected and digitally enabled public service will improve services, reduce duplication, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Paul Goldsmith says New Zealanders also expect a public service that grows smarter, not simply larger.

“Between 2017 and 2023, the size of the public service expanded from approximately 47,000 people to more than 65,000. That growth rate was nearly three times faster than the overall labour force, while back-office and support functions grew significantly faster than frontline service delivery roles.

“Some of that growth was necessary during the Covid pandemic, but over the long-term New Zealand cannot sustain administrative growth outpacing the productive economy.

“This overhaul is about ensuring more resources reach frontline services and fewer are tied up in duplication and administration.

“Historically, core public service numbers have been equivalent to about 1 per cent of the population. Between 2017 and 2023 those numbers ballooned out to about 1.2 per cent of the population. As part of the programme, the Government will restore public service numbers to the historic norm by mid 2029. That will be an in-principle target of about 55,000 public servants.

“Reductions will be achieved progressively over several years through digitisation, mergers, simplification of systems and processes and natural attrition.

“These changes apply to the core public service so do not include teachers, doctors, nurse or other Health New Zealand staff. Nor do they apply to police or defence personnel.

“This is about ensuring the public service is modern, focused, productive and financially sustainable over the long-term, with a core focus on frontline delivery.

“Progress will be monitored regularly, with agencies expected to demonstrate improvements in productivity, delivery and value for money,” Paul Goldsmith says.

“Every dollar saved through fixing duplication and inefficiency is a dollar that can be redirected toward improving productivity, supporting growth, and improving New Zealand’s long-term economic resilience,” Nicola Willis says.

Source: Radio New Zealand

The tourism industry is hopeful an influx of international travel buyers will spark millions of dollars in new business.

TRENZ, the country’s largest international tourism business event, is underway in Auckland.

More than 370 overseas travel buyers will meet with tourism operators from across the motu this week, showcasing the variety of visitor experience New Zealand has to offer.

Recent Stats NZ figures show visitor arrivals totalled nearly 360,000 in March, up close to 15 percent from March 2025.

But fuel prices have rocketed this year due to the conflict in the Middle East, causing airlines to cut capacity.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said this TRENZ aimed to boost the industry’s visibility on the international stage and create connections with buyers from around the world.

“We have more buyers this year than any time since 2019; they will attend over 16,000 meetings over the course of TRENZ, creating millions of dollars of new business for the industry,” she said.

“TRENZ is the platform that elevates our tourism industry to the world, ensuring that New Zealand is competitive and well represented on the global tourism stage.

“TRENZ is also expected to generate at least $3 million of new spend in Auckland this week.”

The event is organised by Tourism Industry Aotearoa on behalf of the Tourism Industry New Zealand Trust.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/20/tourism-industry-hopes-to-woo-international-travel-buyers-at-trenz-2026-trade-event/

MIL OSI

MIL OSI

Source: Media Outreach

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Media OutReach Newswire – 19 May 2026 – SUBCON Thailand — ASEAN’s largest industrial sourcing expo — closed its 20th edition with an estimated USD 705.5 million in parts trade (approximately 23 billion baht), as manufacturers worldwide pushed deeper into Southeast Asia to broaden industrial partnerships. The event ran May 13–16 in Bangkok, drawing more than 50,000 participants and generating over 9,600 business matching pairs. It is co-organized by the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), the Thai Subcontracting Promotion Association, and Informa Markets Thailand.

“SUBCON Thailand is not only the largest trade exhibition in ASEAN. It is a mechanism the BOI uses to connect Thai entrepreneurs to global supply chains, at a moment when massive global industrial restructuring is forcing every country to build a stronger base for its own manufacturers,” said Mr. Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of the Thailand Board of Investment. “Thai entrepreneurs will be the backbone of Thailand’s economy in the years ahead. We will develop SUBCON into a platform that elevates their capabilities and plants Thailand more firmly on the global industrial supply chain map — in AI, semiconductors, modern vehicles, and automation.”

Companies said SUBCON Thailand let them source across electric vehicles, semiconductors and advanced electronics, automation and robotics, medical devices, and aerospace — finding buyers, suppliers, and industrial partners across all of them — in a single venue.

“SUBCON Thailand serves as a key platform where automotive and electronics companies connect and explore business opportunities. Through business matching sessions, good potential has been identified to deepen collaboration with Thai entrepreneurs and enhance local industry partnerships,” said Mr. Paulino Mendoza, Team Lead Global Processing Manager, BMW (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

“SUBCON Thailand is where Thai manufacturers prove their quality to the world. Business Matching connected us with buyers and partners we would not have found elsewhere. This is how Thai companies build the confidence to compete internationally,” said Ms. Waranchalee Suwanpimolkul, Assistant Managing Director, S.K. Polymer Co., Ltd.

Many BOI-network companies left with concrete results — procurement agreements, follow-up negotiations, and technology partnerships. Business Matching drew the highest satisfaction scores of any activity at the show, reflecting how central buyer-supplier connectivity is to the event’s appeal. The results point to broader confidence: companies at the show said Thai manufacturers are internationally competitive on quality and ready to integrate into global supply chains.

Looking ahead, the BOI plans to widen SUBCON’s scope — targeting AI, advanced electronics, modern vehicles, and logistics. The BOI will also expand Business Matching to reach a broader set of industries and build closer ties between Thai companies and overseas investors.

“SUBCON Thailand is a mechanism the BOI uses to put Thai entrepreneurs at the center of global supply chains — and to keep them there. The world is going through the biggest industrial shift in a generation. Every country is racing to build a stronger base for its own manufacturers. Thai entrepreneurs will be the backbone of Thailand’s economy, and we intend to make SUBCON the platform that gets them there — in AI, semiconductors, modern vehicles, and automation,” Mr. Narit said.

USD conversions based on an exchange rate of 32.6 baht per USD.

https://www.boi.go.th

Hashtag: #BOI #thailandboardofinvestment #SUBCONThailand

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.