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The government had promised to fire some public service spin doctors in its drive to save taypayer dollars - but never set a savings target.
So ONE News has used the Official Information Act to find out just how expensive media managers are and how many jobs have been cut.
Public Relations (PR) staff endeavour to make sure their bosses get a fair rap, but where politicians have a media minder, government departments have teams.
"I did a quick calculation ... there are nine times as many government communications people as there are reporters who are in a full-time sense covering parliament," says Jim Tully from Canterbury University Journalism School.
In March, State Services Minister Tony Ryall vowed to fire some of the 321 government department spin-doctors and to get an idea of just how much they are costing the general public ONE News looked at six of the bigger departments which racked up a bill of nearly $7.3 million.
"I think the public will think that's a lot of money, especially when people are being asked to tighten their belts and we've seen the recession affecting jobs," says Tully.
An example of the growth of communications is the Conservation Department which in 2000 employed eight communications staff. In the space of nine years that number doubled and the wage bill that went along with it almost tripled from $360,000 to nearly $1.3 million.
In the meantime, DOC put actual conservation work on hold because of a lack of money.
Labour's State Services spokesman Grant Robertson says he thinks Tony Ryall has played a "big game" when it comes to communications staff.
"I think the reality has been smaller reductions in comms staff but much bigger reductions on what most people would consider the frontline," Robertson says.
But Ryall says 30 jobs have gone and more will go.
"There's been this huge growth over the last nine years of the number of PR and communication staff. We've put a cap on it and in the last nine months the number's dropped by 10," says Ryall.
PR professionals, like Paul Dryden from the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand, say they are a legitimate expense.
