Trim the Fat: How to cut the bureaucratic bloat

   NZTU Media

 

The Government has finally decided to start right-sizing our bloated bureaucracy. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has promised to reduce the core public service to 55,000 staff by July 2029.

That only goes about halfway towards undoing the damage of the last Labour government, and their 18,000-strong hiring spree. But it's a start.

Departments have been told to showcase plans for where these savings can be made, and we all know exactly how that's going to go:

"There's no fat left to trim."

"Any cuts will hit frontline services."

"We couldn't possibly cope with less staff."

Relying on bureaucrats to police their own bloat is never going to work. So we're cutting out the middle man. By tracing exactly where every extra bureaucrat has ended up since 2017, right down to the occupation, this is a guide for where Minister Willis should start swinging the axe.

But first, how bad is the problem?

The bureaucracy keeps ballooning

Since 2017, the Public Service has swelled in size. In 2017 there were 47,251 public servants. As of March 2026, there were 64,535. That is an increase of 17,284, or around 1,975 a year, or more than five additional public servants every day. And despite some light trims after the last election, the government is back to growing again.

 

 

And of course, the total Public Service wage bill ballooned at the same time. From $3.58 billion in 2017 to $6.48 billion in 2025, an increase of almost $2.9 billion, or 81 percent. That's more than $3128 per household. 

 




Where to start trimming

There have been entire new departments and agencies created since 2017. Ignoring them completely, and only looking at those agencies which have grown since 2017, there are an additional 16,105 full time equivalent (FTE) roles created between 2017 and 2025.

Of that increase, 9,295 FTE (almost 58 percent) came from just seven roles: managers, HR and finance professionals, legal, ICT staff, clerical and admin workers, information professionals, and policy analysts.

 

Some of the biggest increases include:

                    • Ministry of Social Development: +635 information professionals
                    • Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment: +369 information professionals
                    • Ministry of Justice: +309 managers
                    • Corrections: +288 managers
                    • Ministry of Education: +267 managers

And some of the largest percentage increases are:

                    • Public Service Commission legal, HR and finance staff: +1,443%
                    • Ministry for the Environment information professionals: +1,069%
                    • Ministry for Culture and Heritage information professionals: +3,758% 
                    • Ministry for the Environment managers: +158%

 

What changed in eight years that means the Ministry for Culture and Heritage needs 38 times as many information professionals, or the Public Service Commission needs more than 14 times as many legal, HR and finance staff? Rolling back growth like that is simply common sense.

 

Department-by-department guide 

Department-by-department guide Department-by-department guide

The cuts are there to be made 

Since 2017, the Public Service has added more than 17,000 FTE and almost $2.9 billion to its annual salary bill. As our guide shows, most of that growth has gone straight into the back-office. Managers, information professionals, policy analysts and HR.

So, when departments claim further reductions must come from the frontline, Ministers should treat that for what it is: self-serving pleading, not a credible assessment of where the savings are. 

A 1,443 percent increase in legal, HR and finance staff at the Public Service Commission, hundreds of additional managers across major departments, and hundreds more information professionals do not put more nurses in hospitals, more police on the beat, or more teachers in classrooms. But they do mean more government debt for our kids and grandkids to spend the rest of their lives paying off.

We’ve shown exactly where the excess roles have landed, so Minister Willis doesn't need to rely on bureaucrats to mark their own homework. Every department now needs to be asked to go line-by-line and justify why it needs so many extra staff.

The bureaucracy expanded department by department, role by role. Ministers can't pretend they now don't know where to find the cuts.