Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: A clean up of Cabinet is overdue

Transcript

Ryan Bridge: A clean up of Cabinet is overdue · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In February last year, I wrote a piece for The
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Herald about government departments and ministerial overload. It was partly
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: informed by observation, partly by a New Zealand Initiative paper
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: on the subject. Luxeon's government has eighty one portfolios. Eighty one.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: That is a massive number, more than most similar sized countries,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: far more than most larger countries have Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Finland.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Countries we like to compare ourselves to all have fewer
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: than twenty. Fewer than twenty, we have eighty one. The UK, Canada,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: US career massive countries they have fewer than thirty. We
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: have eighty one. Australia's population is five times larger than ours,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: but even they have almost half the number of portfolios.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Why well, MMP, they've shot up under MMP. Winston Peter's
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: got the reincarnated rail portfolio as a stop. Remember Michael
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Woods got Auckland because Labour was doing badly there. Pr
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Comms James Meagher got the South Island to balance out
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the Auckland Comm's job. We'd Judith Collins got space. I mean,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: how many do you need? This has all got a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: bit out of hand and I argue. Then, as I argued, now,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: there are too many reporting lines and departments designed to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: report into them. We have a plethora of related portfolios
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to get chopped up and spread out for no good reason.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Think universities, vocational education and education three different portfolios. Why
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: we have three portfolios for young people, children, child poverty,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: reduction and youth. How are we going there? Imagine if
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: we had fifteen ministers with fifteen portfolios. If you're health,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: your health, If your transport your transport, and yes, that
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: would include infrastructure. Nikola Willis last week on My Herald
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: show hinted that change is coming. She says, wait till
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you see the budget. I think you'll like what's in there. Well,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: we're waiting, and surely a cleanup not just of the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: public service, but of the cabinet reporting lines more generally
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: is long overdue. For more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.