Public sector cuts: 130 net roles face chop at Department of Conservation

Public service agencies have been directed to find cost savings. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Department of Conservation (DoC) is looking at axing more than 100 net roles in its cost-cutting drive.

Agencies are looking to deliver savings between 6.5 and 7.5 per cent on average – DoC is looking at cutting 6.5 per cent off its books.

Public Service and Finance Minister Nicola Willis admits some agencies may fall short, and some will over-deliver on the targets urged by the Government.

The union representing public servants, the Public Service Association (PSA), has confirmed the changes DoC is proposing would result in 130 fewer roles overall, as 270 positions face the axe, and 140 roles are proposed to be created.

The PSA says 101 of the roles proposed to be disestablished are currently vacant.

The Department of Conservation confirmed in a statement it has “tried to find options that would have the least impact overall on people and on conservation outcomes”.

DoC added the final number of redundancies will not be known until people have been consulted.

“We recognise this is in the public interest but these proposals impact on our people and we need to take the time to hear from them,” the Department said in a statement to media.

Fifty-four of the roles on the chopping block are in regional operations, 24 are in biodiversity, heritage and visitors, 22 are in policy and regulation, 18 in public affairs, nine in organisational support, two in the director-general’s office, and one in treaty relationships, according to the PSA.

PSA national secretary Duane Leo said we should be investing more, not less, in such an important agency.

“The Government talks a big game about growing the economy yet wants to shackle DoC which plays such an important role in boosting tourism, our second biggest export earner,” Leo said.

Analysis by the Herald has confirmed there are more than 1000 roles on the chopping block across a variety of ministries and agencies.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast today, Willis said in the past six years more than 18,000 public servants had been added and the Government was “making the public service more efficient”.

Willis told Hosking the Government’s Budget will create more jobs for frontline workers than it will remove roles from the back office.

“New Zealanders don’t want more policy advisers and administrators. What they want is more people restoring law and order, teaching our kids and making our people healthy,” she said.

Willis added that things, such as taking roles out of the Suicide Prevention Office, will “upset a lot of people and create a lot of silly headlines” and said there were “a few journalists in Wellington, probably many of whom flat with public servants, who are very focused on this”.

The news comes on the back of this week’s confirmation of job losses at Crown research institute Niwa and Callaghan Innovation.

Department of Conservation deputy director-general Mike Tully has previously said in a statement, “like all government agencies, DoC has been asked to make savings”.

“We have a programme of work in place to address cost pressures and identify where savings can be found,” Tully said.

The Department of Internal Affairs has confirmed it will also announce cost-cutting plans this week.

Azaria Howell is a Wellington-based multimedia reporter with an eye across the region. She joined NZME in 2022 and has a keen interest in city council decisions, public service agency reform and transport.