Dom Post on public service numbers

The Dom Post endorses National’s policy to freeze staffing levels in the non-operational areas of the public service.

National Leader John Key is right to target waste in the public service, and right to draw attention to the blossoming in numbers and wages that has taken place under Labour. The spend-up on mandarins has been large, the pay packets bloated and much of the work produced of, at best, dubious value, The Dominion Post writes.

However, it is also right to draw attention to his double standards, and to caution that he should use a scalpel, not an axe, in seeking savings.

The statistics highlighted by Mr Key underscore what has been apparent for some time: The Government, flush with cash from taxes that have been too high for too long, has spent that money with the insouciance that comes from having full pockets and an insufficient regard as to whether it is getting value for the spending.

Mr Key has been at pains to say that National will not be going to cut what he calls front-line staff – teachers, doctors, nurses, social work ers and so on. Instead those numbers on the front line will increase. But National will “pull hard on the handbrake” to stop any more growth in the bureaucracy.

That is a laudable goal, and one which deserves to gain public support.

The Dom Post also suggests less junkets for retiring MPs would equally save money!