National to lower the public service cap

Prime Minister and National Party Leader John Key says National is focused on getting better results from public services for New Zealand families.

"National will continue to modernise the way public services are delivered and find back-office savings to put into better frontline services," says Mr Key.

"We are committed to getting back to surplus in 2014/15 and that significant challenge will require ongoing spending restraint across the public sector and a focus on innovation and results."

In contrast, over Labour's last five years total public service numbers grew almost 30 per cent, and overall government spending grew 50 per cent.

National's State Services spokesman, Tony Ryall says, "As an incoming Government we put a cap on staff numbers in core government administration. The level we inherited was unsustainable and unaffordable.

"The cap has been effective in stopping the growth in staff numbers, and FTEs have in fact reduced by six per cent since 2008. Today we are announcing that National will maintain a cap on staff numbers, but will lower the cap to the current level of FTEs.

"We first set the cap at 38,859 FTEs and with the current number of people working in core government administration now 36,475 we are lowering the cap to this number.

"During our first term, a Fairfax Media-Research poll found that more people believe the quality of core government services has improved under the National government, and we will continue to build on that public confidence," Mr Ryall says.

As well as lowering the cap, National will:

* continue to find savings from the public sector, including $980 million of expected savings over three years,
* continue to merge departments and other government agencies, where the benefits of those changes exceed the costs,
* focus on modernising public services, exploring new approaches to service delivery, and ensuring that the system delivers results.

"On the other hand," Mr Ryall says, "Labour wants to grow the public service to the excessive level it was at in 2008, and that means more borrowing."

Visit National's policy at: http://www.national.org.nz/PDF_General/Modern_Public_Services_policy.pdf

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