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Govt figures confirm job losses


NBR staff and NZPA
Wed, 30 Mar 2011

The number of core government jobs continues to decline, according to figures released today.

The figures come a day after Finance Minister Bill English warned the Government intended to hasten public service reforms, and some public services, which he dubbed "nice-to-haves", were likely to be cut.

"Something has to give, and that has to be lower-value activities the government is currently funding," he said.

"This is not a time we can afford to indulge in a whole lot of nice-to-haves even though, for sections of the population, they feel the loss of those services or funding streams."

State Services Minister Tony Ryall today released the fourth six-monthly update on the Government's cap on core government administration numbers.

Mr Ryall said the figures showed there were 2000 less fulltime equivalent positions in core government administration, but that there had been an increase in the number of full-time equivalent employees working in frontline roles in the last two years.

"We have more than 300 additional frontline police officers, around 1600 extra teachers in our schools, over 1000 more nurses, and more than 500 extra doctors working in our public health service," Mr Ryall said.

"The Government is determined to see better results from public services and expects that resources are shifted to the frontline services where they are needed most."

Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott told NZPA she did not know where the figures for the new staff had come from.

"I definitely haven't heard the education unions say they have that number of extra teachers, or that there are 1000 more nurses."

Ms Pilott said she could not comment on the accuracy of the figures, but they were surprising.

"Cutting 2000 public service positions wouldn't fund that number," she said.

"The jobs they've cut are tending to be back-office admin people, who are not earning what doctors earn, or police officers for that matter."

Mr Ryall's office said the staff increase figures had come from individual ministries.

NBR staff and NZPA
Wed, 30 Mar 2011
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Govt figures confirm job losses
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