Wednesday, 24 April 2024 14:25

Cut with care

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

OPINION: The new government has clearly signalled big cuts across the public service.

Given the 34% blowout in the size of the Wellington bureaucracy in recent years, The Hound is all for it.

Between 2017 and 2023, ten departments increased staff numbers by more than 64%.

As for growth in absolute numbers, MBIE led the way at 2917 new staff.

MPI added 1300, so will no doubt be looked at.

All the same, despite the need for savings, it was pleasing to hear Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard say frontline biosecurity services at MPI will not be cut.

This is vital to defending our biggest export earner.

Cuts to MPI, if any, will need to be chosen very carefully.

More like this

Witchunt?

OPINION: Newsroom is running a series of articles looking into the influence of lobbying and has kicked it off with agriculture.

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Featured

Ballance Kapuni plant hit by gas supply issues

Fertiliser co-operative Ballance has written down $88 million - the full value of its Kapuni urea plant in Taranaki - from its balance sheet in the face of a looming gas shortage.

Horticulture roadmap aims to double farmgate returns by 2035

The Government and horticulture sector have unveiled a new roadmap with an aim to double horticulture farmgate returns by 2035.

Canterbury farmers and Police Association slam proposed rural policing cuts

Canterbury farmers and the Police Association say they are frustrated by proposed cuts to rural policing in the region.

Tasman farmers and orchardists struggling with flood recovery and mental health pressures

The strain and pressure of weeks of repairing their flood-damaged properties is starting to tell on farmers and orchardists in the Tasman district.

Fonterra consumer business sale price jumps to $4.22b

The sale price of Fonterra’s global consumer and associated businesses to the world’s largest dairy company Lactalis has risen to $4.22 billion.

Dawn Meats deal 'won't solve industry's structural problems'

Alliance Group's proposal to sell a 65% shareholding to Ireland's Dawn Meats won't solve the red meat industry's structural problems, says former Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams.