ACT Party leader David Seymour says New Zealand is ‘over governed’, announces his party will be campaigning for a ‘smaller, more efficient Government’

The ACT Party will be campaigning for a Government that has no more than 20 ministers who all sit in Cabinet and no more than 30 departments.

ACT leader David Seymour made this announcement as part of his State of the Nation speech in Christchurch on Sunday. But this proposal is not a surprise, with Seymour initially bringing up the concept of a smaller Government in a speech to the Tauranga Business Chamber in May.

Seymour says New Zealand is “over governed” and questions why a small country has such a large Government.

Currently, there are 28 ministers, two under-secretaries, 81 portfolios (77 ministerial portfolios and four other ministerial entities like Child Poverty Reduction, Auckland, Ministerial Services and South Island) and over 40 departments.

“Norway, a similar size to us, governs with 20 ministers across 17 coherent ministries, each clearly aligned to a broad policy domain,” Seymour says.

“The whole structure is set up to preserve itself. Why are there barely fewer bureaucrats than when we started trying to cut the numbers two years ago? Because the structure is set up so nobody is completely in charge of anything.”

Seymour says one department, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, works with several ministers and some ministers have several portfolios.

“Nobody is solely responsible for getting a set of outcomes for a budget.”

And some ministers exist without any department at all, he says. “Labour appointed a Minister for Auckland without any actual budget, department, or responsibility. I call them vanity portfolios.”

Seymour says the net results of this are “unsatisfying” results, “running all these agencies costs one third of the economy” and “the regulatory activity and interference from these agencies puts another layer of costs onto New Zealanders”.

“We’ll never balance the budget, raise wages, or restore trust in democracy when Government is so large, inefficient, and unaccountable to New Zealanders.”

As part of this proposal, Seymour says there would be:

• No more than 20 ministers who all sit in Cabinet
• No more than 30 departments so most ministers have only one
• No department answers to more than one minister
• No minister has a portfolio, there are only departments with budgets to manage

“Instead one minister will be solely accountable for getting results for their budget of taxpayer money from their department,” Seymour says.

He says there would be “no more vanity portfolios designed to appeal to a group of people”.

“Reducing the number of ministers will save money, but it will also change the point of being a minister.”

Seymour says with a smaller Government, “a small business owner will spend less time and money battling paperwork and bureaucracy - an immediate productivity boost”.

“Over time, they’ll benefit again as the Government takes less of what they earn, returns to surplus sooner, and needs less of their taxes to sustain itself. More productivity, more jobs, higher wages – all the Government needs to do is less.”

“The Public Service Commissioner has said he wants to see a consolidation. The Government actually has merged Environment, Housing, Local Government, and Transport into one Ministry,” Seymour says.

“This is an idea whose time has come, and we will be campaigning to ensure it happens completely.”

'That starts at the top'

During his speech, Seymour also talked about how the cost of living crisis was also a productivity slump, the Government not balancing the books, people losing faith in institutions, and his party's views on an "inclusive" New Zealand society and identity.

“If we’re going to make life affordable again, raise productivity, balance the budget and restore faith in our democracy, we need to take three key steps," Seymour says.

“We need an inclusive and uniting story about ourselves as pioneers and adventurers. The good news is, that’s a pretty good description of our actual history. We just need to tell it.

“We need to stop reaching for easy fixes, and finding a different group to blame each time there’s a problem. The good news is that our pioneering history sets us up well to navigate a fast changing world and find those smart fixes.

“We need a smaller, more efficient government, that frees up people’s time and money to provide for themselves and their families. That starts at the top.”