Public sector PR staff numbers grew 15 per cent in National's final days
Thursday, 8 March 2018
The final year of the National government saw the number of public sector 'spin doctors' growing by close to one a week.
On Thursday the State Services Commission released what could be the final version of what is called 'capping data', set up by National to monitor the growth of the public sector.
As well as a continuing rise in the number of overall public servants, the report revealed the number of PR and communications staff, hired to help control the message of their employers, rose by almost 15 per cent in 12 months.
Across the public service there were 311.4 full time equivalent equivalents at the end of June 2017, up from 271.9 a year earlier. The number is still slightly below the level of 2008.
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The Department of Internal Affairs was responsible for more than a quarter of the increase, with its public relations team now numbering 55.7, up 11.5 in a year.
As part of its drive to cut the size of the public sector National set caps on the number of 'core' public servants, created six monthly reports to monitor progress and introduced measurement of public relations and communications staff.
The number of core public servants also climbed in 2017 by 403 to 36,378. The cap excludes thousands of employees who would tend to be considered public servants. By the more traditional measure, the number of public servants grew by 1358 in 12 months.
Most departments took on more staff in the year of the report, led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which increased its headcount by more than 5 per cent to 3493.
The official cap is 36,475 although the number is notional. The cap is projected to be breached in the year to June 30, 2018 (meaning it has probably already breached the cap) before dropping away as a result of job number reductions at Inland Revenue.
Even before National came to office in 2008 it pledged to cap the size of the public sector, with then State Services Minister Tony Ryall saying that the Helen Clark Labour Government 'let the bureaucracy get out of control'.
While the number of 'core' public servants fell during National's nine years in office, most of the fall was sleight of hand, with hundreds of jobs reclassified from 'core' to 'front line'.
Without the reclassification the number of public servants would have breached the cap years ago.
The latest SSC report continues the trend: when some functions of the Ministry of Social Development were transferred to the new Oranga Tamariki, Ministry for Children, 278 jobs no longer count towards the cap.
Previously staff who worked at MBIE who left as Worksafe New Zealand was created were reclassified to be outside the cap.
In the latter years of the National Government less attention was paid to the capping efforts.
The State Services Commission has confirmed that at some point since December 2016, the Cabinet passed a resolution changing the capping reports from six-monthly from annually, a decision that does not appear to have ever been announced.
In a statement, National's state services spokesman Todd McClay said the decision to create a new communications division, increasing the size of the communications staff was taken by the State Services Commissioner.
'This was in response to a very busy work program to drive significant change in how public services were delivered to New Zealanders.
McClay said criticism from the Government was ironic given 'burgeoning' staff numbers in the Beehive under the new administration.
'The last Labour Government created a bloated public service and this one will be no different.'
The report does not itself give details of how much of the growth has taken place in Wellington, however a previous report said the capital had 19,802 workers from the public sector workforce.
At around 41.9 per cent of the total, Wellington's share of the public service remains roughly as it has for much of the past decade.
How Labour will manage the reports remains to be seen. A spokesman for State Services Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed the reports are 'under review' but has repeatedly refused to elaborate.