3 December 2010

Media Statement

Dunne can’t have it both ways

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne can’t have it both ways ---- either service changes are to be made that will inevitably affect staffing levels in regional Inland Revenue offices, or no changes are to be made, says Labour’s Revenue spokesperson Stuart Nash.

“I was surprised that the normally unexcitable Mr Dunne reacted with such venom in a personal attack on me when I told local media in Napier that my office has been contacted by IRD staff members in Napier to say their office is being closed down with the loss of 100 jobs.

“Mr Dunne’s response to the media was to accuse me of ‘exploitative, abusive and lazy politics’ --- a reaction that was unexpectedly over the top given that I was voicing the concerns of staff members,” Stuart Nash said.

“I can only assume that where there is smoke, there’s fire, and I’m not talking about what Peter Dunne’s breathing through his nose. In fact, I’ve had calls from staff this week that support my earlier information that big staffing changes are afoot, whatever Mr Dunne says.

“What I am being told in Napier is clearly only part of the story of job-cutting in IRD,” Stuart Nash said. “Reports from Timaru suggest heavy staffing losses there as well as in Gisborne and Greymouth.

“In his response to the information I gave to media, Peter Dunne conceded that the ways IRD deals with taxpayers are being reviewed to provide value for money, and he also said that no decisions on staffing levels have been made.

“That’s political double speak for saying cuts are coming, but we haven’t decided just how many we can get away with yet,” Stuart Nash said.

“Like every other minister in John Key’s cabinet, Mr Dunne has to walk a fine line between fulfilling National’s ideological commitment to cutting the size of government and its political pledge not to cut frontline services.

“The only way Napier and other regional centres can keep the frontline services they currently enjoy, and the staff numbers that support the local economies, is to make their voices heard before it is too late,” Stuart Nash said.

“Staff members in all the centres deserve to be given certainty before Christmas.”

ENDS

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