From the New Zealand Herald, May 19:
Budget 2026: Nicola Willis’ public service cuts to save $2.4b, 8700 jobs to go, Govt agencies to be slashed ‘significantly’
The Government expects to save $2.4 billion overhauling the public service, including reducing the number of departments, increasing artificial intelligence use, and cutting public servants by nearly 9000.
As the Herald reported last night, Finance Minister Nicola Willis is using a pre-Budget speech in Auckland today to outline three legs to the Government’s public service reforms, which she expects to improve services, lift productivity and deliver better value for money.
Over the next three to five years, the Government will “significantly reduce” the number of public service agencies, with the new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) being used as an example of “what is possible”, Willis said.
Customer-facing and back-office systems will be digitised, with artificial intelligence (AI) embedded “as a basic expectation for all public entities”.
The aim is to make services “easier and more affordable” for people to interact with.
At the same time, Willis said the Government will “pull the brakes on the increase in overall public servant numbers”, with a target of public servants being about 1% of the population....
....MUCH MORE
For the center-right government the key to making this palatable politically is to not make the AI work too hard:
"Overworked AI Agents Turn Marxist, Researchers Find"And to be kind to the recently redundant.
