Reacting to the recent announcement that the Government plans to reduce staffing levels at the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“This fat-trimming goes nowhere near far enough. Since 2017, MPI’s bureaucracy has grown by 52%, forcing taxpayers to pay the wages of an additional 1,227 public servants.

“The cries of austerity simply do not stack up when less than one in five of the additional bureaucrats are being laid off.

“The Health Ministry can also go a lot further by cutting most of its outright dumb spending and the jobs that go with it. From the $330k advertising campaign highlighting how bad the Ministry was doing to the $100k new Smokefree2025 logo, the Government is spoilt for choice for savings if it’s willing to look for them.

“While job losses in the public sector are very visible, we cannot forget that every job in the public sector costs private sector jobs, as money is sucked away from consumers and productive businesses. We cannot let fear-mongering from the self-interested PSA union get in the way of the changes this country desperately needs.”
 

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