Gerry Brownlee MP
National Party State Services Spokesman

4 November 2008

HR explosion tracks bureaucracy boom

“The number of human resources staff employed by government agencies has more than doubled from 266 in 1999/2000 to 638 in 2006/07,” says National Party State Services spokesman Gerry Brownlee.

“The Wellington-based core bureaucracy has boomed under Labour. It follows that there would need to be an explosion of HR staff to keep pace.

“The cost of HR staff has also more than tripled in that time, from $16.3 million to $51.2 million.

“The cost of getting recruitment consultants to fill vacancies has also quadrupled from $3.5 million to $15.2 million.

Mr Brownlee has previously revealed that the number of staff employed to communicate the Labour Government’s message has grown by at least 112% in the past six years. Government departments employ 505 public relations, communications, media staff and contractors. Six years ago, they had 238.

He has also released figures showing over the past five years Labour had overseen an increase in the amount of extra floor space leased for bureaucrats in central Wellington equivalent to almost 19 rugby fields.

“National has a clear policy to get more resources to the front line. We will cap the Wellington core bureaucracy and exercise real discipline in the way government spends workers’ taxes.

“Labour has not yet released a state services policy. There isn’t much time left, so clearly David Parker believes no change in focus is necessary. National believes a fresh approach is required.”

NOTE: Information sourced from requests made under the Official Information Act – table attached – 6 pages.

ENDS

Brownlee__HR_spreadsheets.doc

© Scoop Media