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Source: ONE News -
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The Government is taking the scalpel to $200 million worth of
public sector spending as it looks to save $1 billion over the next
three years.
Finance Minister Bill English today announced the likely
disestablishment of five crown entities, three tribunals and the
merger of two government agencies, many with a limited public
profile.
A group of senior civil servants and external advisers has been appointed to oversee the changes and to ensure they improve public services.
English said New Zealand currently has 39 government departments, over 150 Crown entities of various types, not including school boards of trustees, and more than 200 other agencies.
The changes mean a nervous wait for 900 people employed by
organisations facing a very uncertain future.
The plan to scrap the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) and put its
resources into a broader health promotion agency is drawing special
concern.
Rebecca Williams of Alcohol Healthwatch says alcohol harm costs New Zealand about $5.3 billion a year for social and health services. And she says the small tax take AlAC gets for dedicated work nowhere near addresses that.
But State Services Minister Tony Ryall said the Government is committed to improving the quality and co-ordination of public services.
"We expect these changes will result in savings over the medium term, which will be offset by some initial upfront costs. However there are no goals for staff reductions or money saved," he said.
"We expect the changes to happen, unless the due diligence produces better alternatives or there are compelling reasons not to proceed with the proposed changes."
Ryall said the Government will wait until the end of July when it gets the results of the due diligence to give a firm answer on the level of savings and what jobs might go.
In total the organisations in question cost about $200 million a year.
Decisions on the proposed changes are due by March next year, but amalgamation of the back office functions of the Treasury, State Services Commission and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will go ahead and should be complete by then, the Ministers said in a statement.
"We would expect in that context that some of these smaller back office savings could amount to...10,15% of costs," English said.
With over 600 employes, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Education Review Office are the biggest bodies facing a merger. Like all of the organisations in line for cuts, they were not allowed to speak to media today.
Robin Duff of the secondary teachers' union, the PPTA, questions
the reason for the NZQA-ERO merger.
"The question will be whether it's a marriage of convenience and
something done on the basis of ideology or cost saving, and if it
is that then of course we would be a lot more suspicious."
And the testing times aren't over for the state sector because a new government advisory group will investigate further cuts.
'Death by a Thousand Cuts'
The PSA, the public sector union, said the Government's review of more of the state sector looks suspiciously like a continuation of its "Death by a Thousand Cuts" strategy that has already seen over 2000 public service jobs gone, 10% of jobs remaining vacant, and vital services cut within the public sector.
"Despite assurances that the reviews are not being undertaken to reduce staff or save money it is clear from the Minister of Finance and Minister of State Services' media presentation that while they do not anticipate service losses they do think jobs will be lost," said Richard Wagstaff, PSA National Secretary.
"This is double talk from the Government - more job losses will inevitably impact on services. Agencies are already looking at how they can find the $1 billion the Government is clawing back from public services."
Wagstaff said the PSA recently met with both English and Ryall and made it clear that the association expects to be involved in this review process and sought assurances from both that it will be.
"Consolidation of, and collaboration between, state agencies is welcomed if it improves effectiveness and efficiency and is not used as a covert means of further cost-cutting," Wagstaff said.
He said it is ironic that the Government is using arguments of efficiency in favour of mergers and consolidations that are very similar to those used by the National Government in the 1990s when the public service was split into so many different agencies.
"Our experience shows that these processes work best if staff are fully engaged in the decision-making, through their union.
"Mr English has consistently said good arguments are needed before deciding to merge agencies given the disruption and cost of such moves. While the due diligence approach may be welcomed, we are not convinced that such a rationale has been applied up to now or will be in the future," Wagstaff said.
The changes announced today seek to:
- Merge the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC), Health Sponsorship Council and health promotion elements of the Ministry of Health into an "arms-length health promotion agency".
- Abolish the Crown Health Finance Agency and transfer its lending functions for public hospitals either to the Ministry of Health or the Treasury's Debt Management Office.
- Abolish the Mental Health Commission either on or before its August 2015 date for disestablishment, by delegating its advocacy role to the Mental Health Commissioner and other functions to the Ministry of Health.
- Merge the ERO and NZQA to form a single education quality assurance agency.
- Transfer functions of the Charities Commission to the Department of Internal Affairs, while preserving controls to prevent ministerial interference.
- Abolish the Health Act Boards of Appeal, the Maritime Appeal Authority, and Land Valuation Tribunals, all of whose functions would be handled in the District Court, as part of a broader Ministry of Justice push for streamlined tribunals.
- Transfer Vote Employment work from the Department of Labour to the Ministry of Education.
- Encourage more collaboration between the New Zealand film Commission and Film New Zealand; more joint archiving by the Film Archive, Radio New Zealand, and Television New Zealand.
- Consolidate heritage property management, which currently are shared by the Historic Places Trust and Department of Conservation.
