Ministerial Staff Numbers
As I did under Labour, I blog every so often on how many staff in total are employed in the Beehive (well in Ministerial Offices). The latest staff list has numbers slightly declining, so no blow out in numbers, as happened under previous Governments. The data is:
| May-08 | Jul-09 | Nov-10 | Aug-12 | |
| Managers | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Comms | 45 | 34 | 39 | 36 |
| Political | 35 | 42 | 36 | 33 |
| Portfolio | 111 | 112 | 113 | 117 |
| Admin | 67 | 61 | 56 | 53 |
| Total | 286 | 277 | 272 | 267 |
So there are 20% fewer comms and media staff than under the previous government. A couple fewer political advisors, a few more portfolio advisors, and a lot fewer admin staff.
Staff numbers are a bit like PQs. You don’t want too few, or too many. Generally each office has one manager and one press secretary. The frontbench Ministers often have a second comms person, but Ministers outside Cabinet often have no dedicated media person at all.
Most offices have a political or ministerial advisor. They are the ones who are meant to give some independent advice to the Minister about what their departments want them to do.
The portfolio staff are often seconded, and often work for Ministers of all parties.
The admin staff, well they administer.
No surprise the office with the most staff is the PM, who has 26 staff. The previous PM had 31. The smallest is Simon Bridges with a frugal five staff.