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If you have a husband or wife, son or daughter who works for the public service you should be very worried about their future job security if a National Government is elected later this year.

National Party Leader John Key has used evasive language when talking about the future of the public service but his less experienced National MPs, who are not as bright as he is, have used much clearer descriptions. Whanganui National MP Chester Borrows, in a live radio interview with me on Monday 14^th July, referred to education sector workers as "petty bureaucrats". If this is how National MPs refer to teachers, support staff workers and those who work with children with special needs, I can't imagine what they might say about them in the safety of the National Party Caucus Room.

I have worked in the public service in the health and education sector and Mr Borrows has been a policeman. We've both been public servants for most of our working lives. An aware public servant knows they cannot deliver a good public service without the support of people who work behind the scenes. Front-line workers are only able to deliver the service the public demands of them because other workers are helping to put systems in to effect.

National is on record as stating it will cap the core Wellington bureaucracy. It's all very easy to throw rocks at people we don't know who work in Wellington. It takes a bit more time to think about the people who put policies in place that make our lives better and ensure superannuation payments, health and education services and customs and border protection are working for us and our country. People who grew up in Wanganui now work in the Wellington bureaucracy. Is it their job National's after? Are these people, our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, the petty bureaucrats Mr Borrows and National are talking about?

National has also said it has no plans to cut the wages of public servants. Strange then that National has voted against wage increases seven times in the last seven years. National also says it will reduce the number of bureaucrats by attrition and that it will do more with the bureaucrats we have. Oh really? We have a skill shortage in NZ at present and people are changing jobs all the time. So, your son or sister's work mate leaves their job in Wellington. That vacancy won't be filled. Guess who ends up doing the work of two people? That's right, your son or sister. This policy is madness and we know from experience that a run down public service doesn't deliver the kind of service the public demands and expects.

The policy slogans from National will affect your family and friends. Don't say no one told you! The facts are there were more public servants engaged under National in 1990, - 50,500 for 3.5 million people. That's 1 public servant for 69 other NZ'ers. In 2008, under Labour, there are 42,000 for 4.2 million people. That's 1 per 100 people. In world terms our public service isn't very large at all. At 42,000 it's about one per cent of the total population.

National wants you to think bureaucrats are anonymous bean counters. They're not. They're members of our families and National is after their job.

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