How do you reduce 43 govt departments to 19? ACT releases plan as public service bosses prepare proposals

The ACT party has released a detailed proposal on reducing the number of government departments down to 19 - wanting to say goodbye to the likes of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and create new agencies such as the Department of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce.

Significant consolidations would see the new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport - which already houses the merged Transport, Environment, and Housing and Urban Development agencies - to pick up a large portion of the MBIE. That would include its building and construction, Auckland, regional development, infrastructure groups, as well as rail from Treasury.

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage would absorb Ethnic Communities, Pacific Peoples, Women and Māori Development ministries. 

A new ‘Department of Home Affairs’ would take immigration from MBIE, most of the Department of Internal Affairs functions, and Statistics New Zealand. 

A Ministry of Justice and Law would pull the Justice and Corrections agencies together, as well as NZ Police, the Serious Fraud Office, the National Emergency Management Agency, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the Office of Treaty Settlements. 

ACT proposed a Ministry of Health and Wellbeing, which would re-merge the Ministry of Health and Health NZ, and also pull in the Cancer Control Agency and ACC. 

The Ministry of Social Development would absorb the Ministry of Disabled People, the Social Investment Agency, the Independent Children’s Monitor, the Veterans functions from the NZ Defence Force (NZDF) and Whānau Ora. 

A new Ministry of Commerce would comprise the business, economic growth, innovation, workplace relations, and science and technology functions of MBIE. 

Ministry for Primary Industries, Oranga Tamariki, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Regulation and Treasury would remain the same.

The proposal also included the merging of non-public service departments such as the NZDF into a 'Ministry of Defence and Security', which also included the Ministry of Defence and the NZSIS and GCSB.

Central agencies, which coordinate the public service, such as the Public Service Commission and Social Investment Agency, were also not spared from proposed changes.

On Sunday, Seymour described the current size of New Zealand's public service as having grown like a hedge over time.

"ACT said time and again it needs a trim, we have too many departments, too many ministers, too many bureaucrats."

"It is now official government policy to reduce the size of the bureaucracy back to 2017 levels by 2029. It’s not as fast as ACT would do it, but does anyone think this would be happening without ACT?"

While ACT’s vision for a smaller public sector is not new, the timing of Seymour’s more detailed plan is interesting - Public Service Commissioner Brian Roche has been working with public service leaders on proposals for agency wide reform, due in the next week.

"Literally in the next few months, we have to reimagine a very different operating model, and get our thinking and advice straight for the brief to the incoming government," Roche said.

Green Party public service spokesperson Francisco Hernandez called ACT's proposal "deeply ironic and reveal Seymour’s utter hypocrisy."

"It is completely telling that he has refused to actually include the Ministry for Regulation in his portfolio consolidation plan because he is desperate to protect the political fiefdom he has created for himself."

Hernandez said New Zealanders deserve strong public services, and the Government proposed cuts "will further degrade the services that New Zealanders need."