Act leader David Seymour is setting out his policy to reduce the size of government. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Act leader David Seymour intends for the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage to absorb the ministries of Ethnic Communities, Women, Pacific Peoples, Seniors, Youth, and Māori Development as part of his proposal to reduce the size of government.
In his State of the Nation address on Sunday, Seymour said his party would campaign at this year’s election on cutting the number of government departments from 41 to no more than 30, and limiting the number of ministers to 20, all of whom would be in the Cabinet.
Currently, there are 28 ministers and two under-secretaries, with only the top 20 in the Cabinet.
Parliament will today debate the Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill, which is needed to achieve the Government’s intention to merge the Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Transport, and the local government functions of the Department of Internal Affairs into the proposed Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT).
Welcoming the new mega-ministry as a “step in the right direction”, Seymour laid out his case to have the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage take over responsibilities concerning ethnic communities, women, Pacific people, seniors, youth and Māori development.
“That would be more coherent than having a litter of small agencies spending time and money justifying their existence instead of one ministry focused on delivering essential services.
“Most of these ministries replicate work which is already being done in policy ministries or the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, yet each agency has its own chief executive equivalent, comms department, policy shop, ministerial servicing, HR, finance, reporting, strategies, and consultation processes.”
While Seymour has previously called for the scrapping of the likes of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, he told the Herald it would be up to the relevant minister and chief executive whether specific units related to those portfolios were created within a ministry should a merger occur.
“If you say, ‘Yep, we’re a ministry that makes sure that we’re connecting with everybody’, then they have to decide what are our priorities for doing that, rather than just continuing kind of a hodgepodge of often quite historic ministries whose purpose might not be as relevant as it once was.”
Part of Seymour’s policy, which he intended to lay out in full closer to the election, would include scrapping associate ministerial portfolios, except for associate finance and associate immigration.
None of the ministries Seymour proposed to merge into the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage has an Act minister. All are headed by National ministers, apart from Seniors, headed by NZ First’s Casey Costello.
Since Sunday’s announcement, Seymour had been questioned about how his reform would apply to the ministries currently led by Act’s ministers, including the Ministry for Regulation, which he created and leads.
He acknowledged there was an argument for Act MP Andrew Hoggard’s biosecurity and food safety portfolios to be absorbed into agriculture, which was led by National’s Todd McClay.
“I could certainly see that change. I think Andrew’s doing an excellent job with the cards he’s been dealt, but frankly, I think he’d make an excellent agriculture minister.”
He also accepted that Act MP Karen Chhour’s role as Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence wasn’t considered necessary.
“The problem is that, while I think Karen’s done quite a good job of bringing ministers to work together … she doesn’t actually have a budget or a department. That’s quite challenging.”
However, he said his regulations ministry would remain under his plans.
“The Regulatory Standards Act has been a very long, hard slog to pass, but now that you have that infrastructure in place, and even [though] it’s only been going since March 2024 … we can point to savings that exceed the cost of the thing.
“I think that, because there is so much red tape out there, it’s got a pretty healthy future.”
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.