Labour

Rebuilding front line services is vital to ensure an effective, innovative and efficient state sector that works for all New Zealanders, Labour’s State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson said.

Releasing Labour’s State Services policy today Ruth Dyson said Labour is committed to rebuilding frontline services which have been systematically run down under National.

A Government hell-bent on cutting costs has left Maritime New Zealand without the frontline expertise it needs to function in emergencies, says Labour’s Conservation and State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

Minister for the Environment Nick Smith has confirmed in Parliament that staff within the Ministry of the Environment are writing National Party election policy, says Labour’s State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

“This is a clear misuse of public funds within the regulated election period,” Ruth Dyson said.

The National Government has cut the number of government workers by 2400 since December 2008, Labour state services spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

Today’s announcement that 240 MAF staff are to lose their jobs is further evidence that the National-led Government doesn’t have a job creation plan, but a join-the-dole-queue policy, says Labour’s Acting State Services spokesperson, Grant Robertson.

The indiscriminate nature of National’s public service job cuts is reinforced by today’s news that nearly 200 Inland Revenue jobs are set to be axed in regional offices, says Labour’s State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

The Government’s announcement of more cuts, mergers and rationalisations amount to nothing more than ‘shuffling the cards’ and is not the plan we need to turn the economy around, says Labour’s State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

The National Government's review of policy advice functions in the public service is more about election year politics than streamlining policy, Labour State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

"Labour supports an efficient public service, but all we have seen is review after review, duplication of work and pointless tinkering," Ruth Dyson said.

 Funding cuts to essential state services in the wake of the Christchurch quake is short-sighted, says Labour’s spokesperson for State Services Ruth Dyson.

“Keeping as many people as possible in paid work, state sector or otherwise should be the primary focus,” Ruth Dyson said.

 The National Government is deliberately failing to provide New Zealanders with the full story on cutbacks to public services, Labour State Services spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

“Labour supports having the most innovative, responsive public services we can, but that is not the vision National is delivering,” Ruth Dyson said.