Seymour’s Ministry Exposes New Zealand’s Regulatory Spaghetti Service

The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the Ministry for Regulation’s new report The State of New Zealand’s Regulatory Systems, saying it confirms what taxpayers and businesses have long suspected: New Zealand’s public service has become an tangle of regulators, legislation, and bureaucracy.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Tory Relf, said:

“The challenge now is whether the Government act on it under their plans for the public service, or whether this becomes just another report gathering dust.”

“Having at least 267 organisations involved in regulation is an obscene number for a country of New Zealand’s size, and shows just how far the Wellington bureaucracy has been allowed to sprawl. Even ministerial oversight has become absurd, with Simeon Brown alone responsible for 32 regulatory organisations across his portfolios. ”

“The creation of MCERT must learn from the mistakes of MBIE. Mergers should eliminate duplication, simplify legislation, have clear Ministerial responsibility and reduce staffing numbers - not simply create even larger bureaucratic empires.”