IRD to hire 300-400 staff to administer KiwiSaver

Craig Foss MP
National Party Associate Finance Spokesman

31 October 2006

IRD to hire 300-400 staff to administer KiwiSaver

Plans to hire 300-400 Inland Revenue staff to administer KiwiSaver are yet another example of the Labour Government's public sector hiring binge, says National Party Associate Finance spokesman Craig Foss.

"This hiring will increase IRD's staff numbers by around 8%. IRD already has 5,358 full-time equivalent staff on its books.

"These plans show just how hell-bent Labour is to boost the size of bureaucracy. This, in turn, is putting further pressure on the real economy.

"IRD's plan to hire these processing staff also shows how complex the Government anticipates KiwiSaver will be to administer.

"Yesterday, I released papers obtained under the Official Information Act showing the Government ignored officials' advice and added mortgage diversion to the KiwiSaver scheme.

"One of the papers argued that mortgage diversion would make KiwiSaver 'unnecessarily complex'.

"KiwiSaver is already complex enough - and we're all paying for that complexity through these new IRD staff.

"Such a massive boost to the bureaucracy is typical of Labour, which has to start showing some restraint."

ENDS