Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Fleur Fitzsimons: PSA National Secretary on the Government asking about further cost cuts in the public service

Transcript

Fleur Fitzsimons: PSA National Secretary on the Government asking about further cost cuts in the public service · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But the public service has been asked by the government
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  Speaker 1: to figure out how they could make more cuts. Thousands
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of workers have been asked in an internal census to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: identify areas for further cost cutting across every government agency,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and the results are expected in July. So PSA Assistant
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Secretary Flurfit Simon's joins me. Now, helloflur good morning. SO
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Commissioner Brian Roach commissioned this. He's been very insistent that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the public service start to drive performance themselves. How open
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is the service to this sort of thing.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of people are very willing to share their
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: ideas about how the public service can be run better.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: But it's hard to take this government seriously on this
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  Speaker 2: given they imposed harsh and deep cuts without any consultation
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  Speaker 2: of this nature with public servants. They had government departments
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  Speaker 2: come up with proposals in compete isolation from what people
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  Speaker 2: actually think who are doing the job. So it's really
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  Speaker 2: hard to take them seriously. But also it's important to
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  Speaker 2: remember this is a regular census. It happens every five years.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: We don't think that it's going to be able to
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  Speaker 2: deliver the kind of harsh cuts that the government's already
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  Speaker 2: imposed in the future because there is just nothing more
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  Speaker 2: to cut, all right.
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  Speaker 1: So you're saying there's nothing more to.
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  Speaker 2: Cut, that's well, the government has already dismissed hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: public servants, including people like dog trainers and customs people
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  Speaker 2: who work on the front line of stopping the digital
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  Speaker 2: harm and exploitation that happens to children, people who try
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  Speaker 2: and help intercept scams that often target the elderly. So
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  Speaker 2: if the government is actually serious about investing in public
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  Speaker 2: services that deliver to New Zealanders, it won't make further cuts.
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  Speaker 2: Are there rooms for efficiencies? Absolutely? Do public servants have
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  Speaker 2: good ideas about how to find them? Yes, they do,
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  Speaker 2: and we really hope that the government will listen to
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  Speaker 2: what public servants say. That not just through the survey,
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  Speaker 2: through all sorts of interactions that including the union actually
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  Speaker 2: does and we actually did ourselves prior to the round
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  Speaker 2: of cuts surveys with public servants and came up with
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  Speaker 2: a whole range of ways that the public service could
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  Speaker 2: be more efficient that the government never listened to.
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  Speaker 1: But this is why the census has happened, this is
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  Speaker 1: why Brian Roach has asked for it. They're asking you
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  Speaker 1: for the ideas and you've just said to me there
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  Speaker 1: are no more places for cuts, and there is there's
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  Speaker 1: a perception that the public servants are so reticent about
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  Speaker 1: this and they don't want to provide better value for money.
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  Speaker 2: No, the sensence happens every five years anyway. What I'm
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  Speaker 2: saying is it asks a whole range of questions. For example,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: it asks about the appetite for risk in a particular agency.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: It asks for the workloads, how high are your workload?
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  Speaker 2: Is it manageable? It asks a whole lot of questions
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  Speaker 2: about working from home, are you paid fairly? But it's
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  Speaker 2: not going to deliver the kind of roadmap for further
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  Speaker 2: cuts that the government is looking for. There is no
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  Speaker 2: room to cut further. It's been cut to the bone.
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  Speaker 2: You are going to further undermine the services that New
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  Speaker 2: Zealanders rely on if you make cuts to our cherish
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  Speaker 2: important public service.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you keep saying there's no room for cuts, and
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  Speaker 1: you're making an assumption before you know. The results aren't
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  Speaker 1: out until July, and you're already making that assumption.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what I'll tell you is that there's already been
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  Speaker 2: so significant a cut to the work that our public
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  Speaker 2: servants do. We are unable to attract and retain people already.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: This government is not going to find through this survey
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  Speaker 2: a whole lot of ways that can cut more jobs
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  Speaker 2: or save more money. What we actually need to see
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: is a commitment to the public service and more investment.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And this isn't That's not the purpose of the survey anyway.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: One final question though, I don't know if you watched
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Q and A yesterday and had the outgoing on. Woodsman
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Peter Bouchier very critical of the public service, particularly health
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  Speaker 1: and corrections, and he said they were talking about our
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  Speaker 1: public servants dedicated to providing value for money.
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand has a corruption free, high quality public service
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  Speaker 2: that is renowned worldorldwide. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely?
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  Speaker 2: Are we going to stand in the way of positive
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  Speaker 2: improvement that makes the ability of public sements that deliver
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  Speaker 2: their jobs. Well, no we're not. But yes, there's work
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  Speaker 2: to do. But let's also value the people that do
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  Speaker 2: this important work to blur.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today for Fitzimon's
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  Speaker 1: PSA's Assistant secretary. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 4:22
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• 4:25
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