ACT Party leader David Seymour shares details of plan to make government smaller

ACT Party leader David Seymour says his party will be taking a simple message to any coalition government negotiation: 18 ministers, 19 departments.

Seymour has never made it a secret that he thinks New Zealand is “over governed” - bringing this up at his State of the Nation speech in February and in a speech to the Tauranga Business Chamber in May 2025.

Speaking at his party’s AGM and rally in Auckland on Sunday, Seymour outlined the details of his party’s plans for a “radically simpler, smaller government.”

“Today ACT is setting out the next level of detail in our policy with fewer departments, fewer ministers, and clear lines of accountability so taxpayers pay less and get better services.”

Here's the ACT Party's plan:

• 43 departments to be consolidated into 19 departments
• 78 overlapping portfolios with 28 ministers collapsed into 18 ministers
• Each department would report to one minister for its budget and outcomes (except for MCERT since it has been newly established)
• Ministers would be allowed to appoint chief executives for a fixed term, renewable once, with clear protections for officials
• Chief executives could be removed by Ministers for specified reasons such as non-performance or policy misalignment but they would have public service protections and the right to return to a lower classified role
• Operational independence would be protected by law for agencies that need it such as Police, NZSIS, and NZDF

Currently there are 28 ministers, two under-secretaries, around 78 ministerial portfolios and over 40 departments.

In its policy document, ACT’s plan for a consolidated bureaucracy, the party said: “The Public Service Commission will no longer act as a gatekeeper between ministers and key appointments. Instead, the functions of the Commission will sit within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.”

The document said consolidation targets duplicated head-office functions such as “multiple communications offices, HR teams, finance teams and executive layers, not nurses, teachers or police.”

“Savings from cutting duplication can be redirected back to frontline services, or back to taxpayers or paying down debt.”

'The fish rots from the head'

At the rally, Seymour said: “We won’t get better results when everybody and nobody is in charge of everything and nothing. We won’t make life affordable or restore faith in our democratic system of Government if we don’t make Government smaller, and more responsive to people’s needs, starting at the very top.”

"All of this may sound like a Wellington beltway issue, but believe me, the fish rots from the head."

Alongside sharing more about its plan to make Government smaller, ACT also announced its welfare policy, which includes tightening medical certification for health-related benefits, and making this mandatory, and managed assistance for long-term jobseeker recipients.

Seymour said ACT wouldn’t pretend this would be easy and they knew the challenges were complex, “but we think that New Zealand is worth fighting for”.

In a separate statement, Seymour said: “The Coalition Government has accepted the argument for a smaller Government, but current changes are tinkering around the edges.

“Kiwis are tired of piecemeal change that takes forever, so ACT is proposing a thought-out plan for the whole government, that we can start rolling out immediately in the next term," he said.

“That is how we unlock New Zealand’s potential. A government with clear structure and limits, not the tangled result of accidental growth. Small enough to be accountable, simple enough to act, and focused on results for New Zealanders instead of managing itself.”