Behind the spin, public services are struggling

Behind the spin, public services are struggling

State Services Minister Tony Ryall is continuing to hide behind PR spin as cuts to public services are beginning to affect the quality of services and the morale of those that deliver them, Labour’s State Services spokesperson Grant Robertson said today.

Mr Robertson was commenting on the release of the results of surveys from 2009 measuring the commitment of public servants to their jobs and their employers.

"The surveys show the vast majority of public servants are working hard, and believe in the importance of their work. But within the statistics it is obvious key agencies are struggling,” Grant Robertson said.

“Almost all of the agencies where large cuts and restructuring have taken place have either shown drops in engagement or where they surveyed for the first time results well below the median.

"Mr Ryall need only look to his own agency, the State Services Commission where there was a dramatic drop in staff engagement. Large falls were also recorded for Inland Revenue and the Ministry for the Environment. The Ministry of Health, which took part in the survey for the first time last year, recorded the second lowest result for New Zealand agencies.

“Given that Bill English announced yesterday there are to be more cuts, we can expect more departments to have poor results. Cuts and low morale will see more staff leave, loss of continuity and the public receiving poorer services.

"Rather than spinning the results to make him look good, Mr Ryall needs to support public servants to so New Zealanders get a quality service. This is more in danger than ever with Bill English's announcement that there will be a further $1.8 billion cut from public services in the Budget.

“Mr English says this is low priority spending, but in the last Budget that included hundreds of millions of health spending, funding for Polytechnics, adult and community education and frontline services from agencies such as biosecurity, child youth and family and the school library service.

“There is the potential for improvement in our public services but it will not come from PR spin and indiscriminate cuts." Mr Robertson said.

ENDS