Act leader David Seymour wants the number of ministers to be capped at 20. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Act leader David Seymour wants the number of ministers to be capped at 20. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Act leader David Seymour is taking aim at the size of government, calling for a limit to the number of Cabinet members, scrapping or merging Government departments and abolishing ministerial portfolios, including some created by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
In a speech to Tauranga Business Chamber members today, Seymourproposed capping the number of ministers at 20, with no ministers outside Cabinet. There are currently 28 ministers, including eight sitting outside Cabinet.
He also supported scrapping all associate ministerial roles, aside from the associate finance ministers, of which he is one.
The proposal, which Seymour says could be Act Party policy for next year’s election, plans to abolish some of the 82 ministerial portfolios and to either cut or merge the roughly 40 Government departments.
In his speech, he mentioned several portfolios in his sights: Racing, Hospitality, Auckland, the South Island, Hunting and Fishing, the Voluntary Sector, and Space – all currently held by either National or New Zealand First ministers.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sitting with his fellow Cabinet members. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seymour described portfolio creation without a designated department as an “easy political gesture”.
“The cynics among us would say it’s symbolism. Governments want to show they care about an issue, so they create a portfolio to match.
“Portfolios shouldn’t be handed out like participation trophies. There’s no benefit to having ministers juggling three or four unrelated jobs and doing none of them well.
“With such a large executive, co-ordinating work programmes and communicating between ministers inside and outside Cabinet is difficult and, as a result, Governments run the risk of drifting.”
The South Island portfolio was created by Luxon and given to new MP James Meager earlier this year at a time when the Government was being criticised for its decisions concerning Dunedin Hospital.
Speaking to the Herald, Seymour said he hadn’t raised his views with Luxon directly and didn’t believe his proposal would be seen as criticism of his coalition partners.
“I hope that my partners, like me, respect that Act’s a party of ideas, and MMP enables parties to both maintain their identity and work together to support a government.
“There [are] people that could take quite a, I guess, combative approach to new ideas … we recognise this doesn’t threaten the current [arrangement] but we also respect that everyone’s allowed to float their own views of the world.”
Act leader David Seymour hopes his proposal doesn't go down badly with his coalition partners. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seymour said his comments didn’t reflect any upcoming changes in the Budget, set to be revealed on May 22.
In the current Government, National ministers Chris Bishop and Judith Collins held the most portfolios, with seven each.
Seymour holds one primary portfolio as Regulation Minister but has four associate roles, in finance, education, health and justice.
Central to his concern was the number of ministers holding partial authority over one department. He cited the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and claimed its officials reported to up to 19 different ministers.
“When you have 19 ministers responsible for one department, the department itself becomes the most powerful player in the room.
“Bureaucrats face ministers with competing priorities, unclear mandates, and often little subject-matter expertise.”
Within his proposal was the claim that the Government’s 40-odd departments could be trimmed back to about 30. He would not detail which ones he would cut.
“I know that, if I start talking about specific ministries, people will start talking about the examples and the politics of who survives and who is cancelled and so on.
“Let me just say that I’ve been through the current list and I believe we could easily get to 30 departments.”
The Ministry for Regulation was created by this Government, inspired by an Act Party policy.
Seymour defended its establishment, claiming a department focused on assessing regulation was a core function of government.
Despite his claim that the changes would make the Cabinet more “manageable, focused and accountable”, he maintained the current Cabinet had been effective in progressing policy.
“On the things that the three parties campaigned on, we can say we’ve been successful, but I don’t think anyone would deny that a smaller group with fewer lines of accountability would be faster and more efficient.”
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
