Some public service mergers were likely to go ahead with
resulting job losses, Prime Minister John Key said today.
The Dominion Post has reported that mergers were planned in
the Internal Affairs, Research, Science and Technology, and
the Agriculture and Forestry Ministries.
The paper said the mergers were understood to include rolling
the National Library and Archives New Zealand into the
Internal Affairs Department, merging the Food Safety
Authority with MAF, and amalgamating the Foundation for
Science, Research and Technology with the ministry of the
same name. The paper said consideration was being given to
amalgamating Women's Affairs into either the Social
Development Ministry or the Labour Department.
Mr Key told TVNZ's Breakfast programme that the issue was not
on today's Cabinet agenda: "But ministers will be looking at
that... some time this week."
Mr Key said there were going to be fewer jobs in some areas.
"It's not just sacking people, what you want to do is deliver
efficiency," he said.
"We have more ministries than most other countries. In my
view you can merge them, part of it is cost saving and part
of it is about efficiency."
Labour Party state services spokesman Grant Robertson said at
the weekend that mergers would be a breach of National's
pre-election promise in September 2008 that "a new National
government is not going to radically reorganise the structure
of the public sector".
Mr Robertson said the mergers amounted to radical
reorganisation which would be costly and distract workers and
there were fears that other public service departments were
in line for similar treatment.
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