Public service chief executives have come under increased scrutiny from ACT after leader David Seymour released an open letter this afternoon promising change on 15 October. 

Seymour has frequently identified overspending in the public service as being problematic and has promised to cut jobs and issue “stop work notices” to projects a National-led cabinet would agree to halt. 

In the letter, the ACT leader criticised the public service for making New Zealanders’ lives more expensive and dividing them by race. 

“The amount of their money government departments spend each year has increased from $80 billion to $139 billion. But access to quality public services is worse than it was in 2017.” 

He said this reckless spending to deliver less is driving up inflation and cost of living. 

Seymour also accused Government departments of twisting the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi to justify giving different rights to different groups. 

“They tell us they want to live in a country where two children born side by side are treated equally by their government.” 

“We will work as hard to protect every taxpayer dollar as they worked to earn it by going through the budget line by line and requiring departments to justify how their money is being spent. We will demand better healthcare and education for every dollar spent. 

Meanwhile, Labour in August pledged $4 billion worth of savings through cuts in the public sector, by trimming baseline reductions by between 1 and 2 percent, while some specific programmes, like the Covid-19 emergency response, have been cut or had “underspends” returned to the Crown. 

Both Seymour and National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis have said that the cuts were “far too little and far too late”. 

Labour would also cut back spending on consultants and contractors to pre-Covid levels to below 11% percent of Public Service workforce spending to save about $165 million a year – down 18% on the current level of spending. 

National is planning on a first wave of cuts to the sector by Christmas – by about $600 million.  

The Public Service Association National Secretary Kerry Davies called that plan “reckless” and “ignorant”, urging them to discuss with the sector before rushing into job cuts. 

National also hopes to make public service chief executives identify back-office savings and report spending on consultants within its first 100 days. 

It also wants the sector to stop relying on contractors and set out targets for its delivery.