Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi
The Greens’ policy to reverse the Coalition Government’s plans to cut 8700 public service jobs and replace them with AI is a necessary step to rebuilding public services, the PSA says.
The Greens announced the policy at the PSA office in Wellington today.
“The coalition Government has dismantled our public service and dismissed thousands of public servants with no regard for the consequences. These people had more to give New Zealand and their work was important,” said Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons.
“New Zealand will need to invest in stronger public services to meet the challenges of climate change, the housing crisis, infrastructure deficit, an aging population, technological change and global uncertainty.
“In the last few days New Zealand’s 24/7 geohazard monitoring centre has shut down twice because of staff shortages after brutal funding cuts. That’s irresponsible in a country that experiences 20,000 earthquakes a year.
“The slashing of the Ministry of Social Development’s workforce by hundreds of jobs led to 6,270 pensioners missing out on Winter Energy Payments and 14,450 people having their main or supplementary benefits incorrectly cut.
“Without a change of government things will get only worse. Recently Inland Revenue – a core government agency – has said it will have to axe hundreds of jobs as its budget is slashed by 20% in the next three years.
“The Government’s new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) this week told staff it won’t be able to keep doing the same level of work, as it proposes to cut 400 roles, 25% of its workforce.
“This is the Ministry meant to lead New Zealand’s response to climate change, fix our housing shortage, and plan the roads, rail and infrastructure the country badly needs. This is a Ministry that is likely to need more funding not less.”
“The Government’s cuts have been made with no plan and no thought to the current and future needs of New Zealanders. They have been made to paper over the Government’s financial mismanagement and poor choices a such as handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to tobacco companies and tax cuts for wealthy landlords.
“No country in the world has evidence that AI can replace public sector workers at the scale this Government is betting on.
“Countries like Singapore, which the Government often cites as a role model, use AI to improve public services not to reduce headcount.
“To stop this cycle of damaging restructures, the PSA is calling for a mandatory public good test before government agencies and other publicly funded employers can embark on major restructures and cut jobs,” Fitzsimons says.
“Agencies should have to stop and properly weigh up the impact on services, on workers and on the communities who rely on them, before ploughing ahead with a restructure, not after the damage is done. (See summary of criteria below).
“When restructures are rushed through as this government has done without any real assessment of the impact, it’s the public who ultimately pay the price,” Fitzsimons said.
Background: the proposed public good test
The PSA proposes a statutory requirement for public sector agencies and other publicly funded employers to assess any significant restructure against a public good test before proceeding.
The assessment would need to cover a range of criteria including:
- Impact on the services the agency delivers to the public
- Compliance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the agency’s ability to meet its obligations to Māori under Te Tiriti
- Impacts on workforce capability, both within the agency and across the public and community sectors
- Health and safety impacts, both physical safety and the impact of workload stress on remaining staff
- Long-term, intergenerational impacts, including impacts on New Zealand’s ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change
- Impacts on population groups at risk of being disadvantaged in their access to public and community services, including women, Māori, Pasefika, migrants, rainbow communities and disabled people
- Consistency with undertakings made by the Government in response to a Royal Commission of Inquiry or Auditor-General recommendations
The PSA says the test should apply to core public service agencies under the Public Service Act 2020 and be extended to local government and publicly funded community services as a condition of public funding.
Related media releases
- New mega-ministry admits it can’t do the same job as it plans to cut 400 roles
- Geohazard centre goes dark again – more proof Govt. is breaking the basics
- MSD errors just the beginning as the impact of cuts is felt
- Enough is enough: public good test needed to stop Govt’s reckless restructures
- Axe hovers over hundreds of IRD workers as agency faces 20% budget cut
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, Health NZ and community groups.