Today saw the latest release of Tony Ryall’s statistics on the number of people employed in the public sector. Let’s recap on how these figures come about;
- National says they will cap, but not cut the public service. (see John Key’s speech to PSA Congress 2008)
- In order to “measure” this National creates something called “core government administration” and says that resources will go from there to the “frontline”.
- Tony Ryall admits in Parliament that he has no definition of what “frontline” services are, and later that there are jobs in “core government administration” that might be considered frontline, and may have been cut. (think DOC rangers, Fisheries and Biosecurity officers)
- After two years more than 1800 positions are gone, with the promise of more, and morale in the public service and public confidence in services sink further.
National Party supporters crow that this is just what is needed to reduce wasteful bureaucracy, and celebrate thousands of New Zealanders losing their jobs. Remember this is a government that supposedly has a “relentless” focus on jobs and keeping people in work. And as Bill English has told us this is just the beginning. These jobs don’t exist in a vacuum, they are linked to services we all need and use.
There is no doubt the Christchurch Earthquake showed the value of those who are “at the frontline” like the rescue workers crawling through rubble, and those who back them up, like the staff at the Ministry of Health who coordinated the moves of disabled Christchurch people and set up the emergency response network with DHBs. They are both important, and we need strong public services for all New Zealanders.
As with Tony Ryall in health this is all just slogans and manufactured targets. There is nothing here about the quality of public services New Zealanders are receiving, how they will be more responsive, innovative and linked to their communities. Just scratching a political itch. To make matters worse, he claims credit for more teachers and doctors, which a) may not actually exist and b) if they do began their training under Labour.
Lets have more efficient public services, by all means, but New Zealanders deserve better than Tony’s twaddle.
the country gets what it votes for, sadly those of us who see through the spin and dont vote for the right still have to put up with it.
i hope im wrong but it looks like it will take another 3 years for those voters to wake up and realise who they voted for for.
the worst we had with labour was the nanny state and the possibility of less water in our showers, how come labour struggles so much to make the country see what national is doing when it is so much worse for the average kiwi?
This isn’t a very erudite response and a bit off thread, but our household DID install reduced flow shower heads and guess what our showers still feel the same, replaced our light bulbs with long life bulbs, replenished our roof insulation, plus other energy savings and what do we get – lower water and power bills. Nanny State, bring it on!
I see the effects of this on my coworkers every day in a department I’m not willing to name here. I’ve noticed there’s a lot more stress and it’s extremely disheartening when the leadership of this country is basically telling us that what we do is useless and unimportant. I don’t directly interact with our customers, but our service would be far poorer without the kind of work I and my colleagues do.
I’m fortunate that I don’t have a wife and kids, so I can be far more mobile and Australia – or the private sector – is starting to look more and more attractive. I think there’ll be quite a flood of resignations of the more talented public servants once the recovery takes place. We’re getting fed up with worrying about our jobs every time there’s a change of government.
Jilly Bee, the same nanny state ads are still running:
improve your energy efficiency
dont drink and drive
careful when climbing ladders
support your partner for breastfeeding.
All thats missing ? The wild invective about nanny state!
Plus there is one extra thing you should do. Improve the door locks as there is a creeping tendency for jackboot state .
but dont expect any ads other than somehow its all more ” efficient”
The nice round figures that Ryall uses like 1500 teachers that he has added to the frontline are simply beyond belief. Especially since it would take much longer than 2 and a half years to recruit and train that many over and above the normal intake. More providers of training? No. Lower class sizes? No. So Ryall is at least deliberately misleading, and probably being downright untruthful!
In regard to the extra police officers, the police commissioner said that only 60 of the 300 extra were funded by National.
The remainder were funded under labours last budget.
National doesnt believe in more police they believe in more prisons.
I had reason to be at the Auckland District Cour ton Monday until midday. Over 3/4 of those appearing were for drink driving violations. Alcohol was involved in sevral other appearances. And the aggravated burglary I was there for was drug related.
More prisons and more police wont solve the problems I saw on Monday, wont prevent the same parade next Monday.
My assumptions, which may be way off, was that the majority were by far from lower socioeconomic circumstances by which I dont mean to imply beneficiaires. Well over 60% had jobs.
So are lower income people more susceptible to alcohol and drugs? I wouldn’t have thought there was a biological reason for it, so there must be other factors.
Perhaps there isnt alot of joy in a minimum wage or low paying job, either from the money or the job itself. Perhaps running into problems there isnt a family with financial resources to offer help, counselling etc etc so you deal with it as best you can? Again I dont know.
It was food for thought, and it is 15 years since I spent a morning at the District Court and the demographics didnt appear to have changed much, even the lawyers were predominately white males.
Tracey. Perhaps the less “lower income people” are not so readily charged?
I was able to convince my relatively right wing brother that he recognising one of the duty solicitors as a partner in a race horse they owned, saw us getting alot more ear-time from the people in and out of court than others around us.
It was of interest to me that those with their own lawyers were, exclusively white.
I saw a job advertisement for Electoral staff – one of 350 positions.
I contacted the number in the ad to enquire if it was just 350 staff that would be running the election.
Their response?
“Yes”
Is this a normal number? It seems abnormally low for a general election.
Jasper , thats Nationals new plan, to have queues out the door at polling booths, so punters walk away in disgust. Of course not likely in small towns and provincial cities.
They still have a lot of surprises to come about more ‘efficient elections’