The Government is embarking on a fundamental overhaul of the public service to improve services, lift productivity, and deliver better value for money. “Fewer departments, fewer bureaucrats, and the public service sucking up less taxpayer money is just what the doctor ordered” – David Seymour
Over the next four years, the Government will deliver $2.4 billion in savings, which will be redirected into frontline health services, improving educational outcomes, building infrastructure, and strengthening the Defence Force and Police.
New Zealanders expect public services that are responsive, effective, and easy to use. But too often, people are still forced to navigate outdated and inefficient systems.Under Labour, the size of the public service grew from approximately 47,000 people in 2017 to more than 65,000 by 2023. That growth rate was nearly three times faster than the overall labour force, while back-office and support functions expanded significantly faster than frontline service delivery roles.
The Government plans to return the public service workforce to the same share of the population it represented in 2017 by 2029.By then, New Zealand will have benefited from 12 years of advances in technology, systems, and institutional knowledge.
Outside Wellington, improving efficiency is standard practice. Businesses and households constantly adopt new tools and technologies to do more with less. It is reasonable to expect the same from the agencies taxpayers fund.
If we do not actively work to streamline government, we risk locking ourselves into a permanently larger and more expensive state.
New Zealand’s regulatory landscape revealed
The Ministry for Regulation was established in 2024, born out of a simple question: Why is it so hard to get things done in this country?
So David established a ministry with one clear purpose: cutting red tape and improving the quality of government rules. Its role is to ensure the regulatory system is efficient, easy to understand, and does not place unnecessary burdens on everyday New Zealanders and businesses.
For years, New Zealanders have known regulation makes getting things done too slow, too complex, and too costly. Now they can see why. This week, the Ministry for Regulation revealed that New Zealanders are subject to 267 regulating entities.
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That includes:
95 central government regulators
79 local government regulators
57 statutory bodies, committees, or tribunals
29 charities and companies, including Crown-owned entities, with regulatory functions
We even have five different regulatory agencies somehow connected to regulating dogs.
Speaking on the findings, David said:“I suspect they either don’t all need to be involved in regulating dogs, or don’t all need to exist. Now, we can identify overlap, duplication, and unnecessary complexity. This work will drive change in the size of Government and our mission to give taxpayers a fairer deal.” – David Seymour
Every dollar not wasted on bureaucracy is a dollar that can stay with the people who earned it, or be spent on the frontline services New Zealanders actually rely on.