CTU Slams Willis Over Public Service Cuts
The CTU says Nicola Willis is gambling with New Zealandβs public services β pushing deep cuts, outsourcing and AI-driven restructuring while ordinary New Zealanders face worsening cost-of-living pressures and weakening frontline support.
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi President Sandra Grey has today blasted Nicola Willisβs pre-Budget announcement on public sector job cuts. βAfter years of failing to make her economic plans work, failing to get the economy back on track, and failing to get the cost of living under control, the Minister of Finance is looking for someone else to blame. This is just a cynical ploy designed to prop up the Coalitionβs Budget, rather than a coherent plan designed to tackle New Zealandβs public service needs,β she says.
Deep cuts disguised as βefficiencyβ
βThe Minister outlined cuts of 12% over three years to affected departments. With inflation on top, thatβs around a 20% real-terms cut in funding to departments that look after biosecurity, customs, online exploitation, and public health β with staff to be replaced by AI robots and contractors who donβt count as permanent staff. 8,700 fewer staff delivering essential services, but bonus times for international consultancy firms. This is the opposite of what value for money means,β Grey says.
βNew Zealand needs skilled and talented people to deliver the public services we all rely upon. The Minister has just guaranteed a minimum three years of disruption, change, and employment insecurity. Rather than making our public services better, the Minister has just provided another reason for people to leave both the public service and the country. Some of the functions likely to be cut by departments will end up back in government agencies to save money. That simply makes it a cut to frontline public services in disguise,β Grey says.
Critics say the Government has no real plan
βKiwis deserve better than this frankly desperate gamble from the government. Arbitrary cuts to public services. Vague hopes that technology will save billions with no plan. No real understanding of the huge and often unmet public service needs of New Zealanders. Ministers arenβt even being required to do the work of making decisions β they are passing that down to departments. This is simply the government confirming how out of touch they are,β Grey says.
Everyone is talking about Willis’ “death by a thousand cuts” brain fade. Appears this CoC is staffed with loonies, who have nowhere else to go as our mental health facilities have also been closed down! She was never, and still isn’t, fit for the role of Finance Minister. So 10,000 public service staff will lose their jobs, go on the dole, or flee the country, while robots, yes robots, will do their work for them which means 10k people will not longer be paying tax on earnings. Permission to panic – but it’s too late for that now, isn’t it? It was always such an easy fix in the first place – to not take the party donation bribe! More fool them…..