Op ed re ACT policy to downsize MBIE
Kerry Davies
National Secretary
Public Service Association
National has been deliberately vague about its plans to downsize the public service, but on Sunday, ACT Leader David Seymour revealed a telling glimpse of a possible future with the party’s new policy to halve the size of MBIE – slashing 3000 jobs to save a billion dollars.
Could this be part of the new reality for a National-ACT Government? ACT on current polling will wield considerable power in any possible coalition, so this is either a recipe for coalition tensions or maybe this is part of National’s agenda too.
How times have changed. Back in 2012 ACT, with one MP in leader David Seymour, supported the National-led government MBIE was launched with much fanfare. This new “super ministry” was supposed to be a panacea for so much.
The Government in its media release of 24 April 2012 promised MBIE would be all about building competitive and well-regulated markets, ensuring demand for skills matches supply, ensuring safe and fair workplaces, and supporting a high -performing science and innovation system.
ACT’s plan with a stroke of a pen would abolish the good work underway in recent years to position the economy for a low emissions future.
It’s things like the $100m investment to build a green hydrogen industry in Southland so the region can thrive once the smelter closes. It’s jobs and investment in building an innovative food and fibre economy in Taranaki as it transitions away from oil and gas.
Now ACT seems to be saying much of the work is no longer needed, that maybe the economy can get along fine without the support of the Ministry, even though right now, New Zealand is facing some of the most challenging economic conditions in recent memory.
But this is not just about irony or inconsistent policy thinking. Cutting 3000 jobs leaves 3000 people, and their families, worrying how they’re going to manage in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
Let’s face it, ACT has said often enough that it does not believe New Zealand needs a strong public sector, citing the desire to cut 14,000 jobs.
And yes, there has been an increased investment in the public sector since 2017 to address previous chronic underinvestment. New Zealand has a trusted and efficient public sector that has grown in line with New Zealand’s population, got us through the pandemic and is still on a per capita basis similar in size to Australia and the UK.
But back to MBIE and the valuable work that public sector workers do across a range of priorities that ACT reckons New Zealanders don’t need as outlined in its media statement on Sunday.
How about the new space frontier where Rocket Lab employs hundreds of high skilled workers? No role it would seem for MBIE to help grow this innovative sector.
What about the Major Events Fund? Irony again, how does ACT think New Zealand successfully bid for and staged the co-hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup which has focused the eyes of the sporting world on us and filled stadiums up and down the land? Football NZ could not have done that alone. It needs the muscle of multiple Ministries coordinated through the Fund.
Fair Pay Agreements – gone too – even though they are about fair workplaces, ensuring vulnerable workers secure minimum conditions.
The Just Transitions Unit – does ACT not understand that we need to build new industries and support old industries to adapt to a low emissions economy? Extreme climate events like Cyclone Gabrielle and Auckland’s floods seem a distant memory already for Mr Seymour.
Workforce Development Councils – set up to improve the connection between skills and vocation training and businesses so the economy trains the workers we need in the future. Hang on – was strengthening that connection also not part of the original MBIE promise? Isn’t improving skills not how you drive productivity?
Let’s face it David Seymour is all about ideology and small government – not about actually how do you do all the things a government needs to do to build a more competitive and productive economy.
Mr Seymour also seems ignorant of basic employment law with his plan for “Stop Work Notices”. He seems to think at a stroke of a pen you can fire people from their jobs. And where is the evidence that 3,000 jobs need to go or even the cost of making them redundant?
At least ACT is doing something that it’s potential coalition partner National has been unwilling to do, and that is to spell out exactly how it intends to cut public sector services and jobs – for one Ministry anyway.
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi represents 90,000 workers. We are rightly concerned that both parties are pushing plans that will have a real impact on the services New Zealanders rely on, and the support a government should be providing to grow the economy and share the dividends of that growth fairly.
Both parties have made their intent clear. If ACT and National form a government after 14 October, they will take an axe to the public sector. ACT has given us a glimpse of what that looks like – and it’s a bleak future for New Zealand and New Zealanders wanting a more prosperous and fairer society.
