Most public servants say they aren’t able to do their jobs properly, even before cuts

Wednesday, 27 May 2026

Public servants say they lack funding and staff to do their jobs.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the Government will cut the public service by 8700 roles.

Only 20% of public servants surveyed said their organisations have adequate funding to deliver services for New Zealanders.

With Finance Minister Nicola Willis about to swing the axe on the public service, those public servants say they’re already struggling to do their work.

The Public Service Association (PSA), a union for public servants, surveyed 7600 of its members in March. It asked if its members if their organisations had the funding and staff at hand to do the tasks their organisations are required to do. Most of them answered no.

This survey happened before Willis announced a headcount reduction target, of 8700 fewer public servants, to accompany a 2%, then 5%, and another 5% annual baseline savings targets. That announcement will be included in her third Budget, set for release on Thursday.

Asked if their organisation was “adequately staffed” so that it could “do a good job”, 58% said no. Just 24% thought their organisations were “adequately staffed”.

And only 20% of respondents said their organisations had the funding it needed “to deliver for New Zealanders”. For this question, 54% said their organisation did not have adequate funding.

And things were getting worse, the respondents said. Around 52% said the ability of their organisation to deliver what it needs to had worsened over the last year.

For the majority of public service departments, budgets are about to get tighter and work forces will soon shrink even further.

Willis said she wanted the public service to lose 8700 staff by mid-2029.

She said Thursday’s Budget would set a baseline savings target to cut budgets for most departments. However, 13 departments would be immune from those savings targets. Those were organisations such as Police, Corrections, the Defence Force, Ministry of Justice, Oranga Tamariki and Parliament itself. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also Education were partially exempt.

Associate finance minister David Seymour said Thursday’s Budget would be “The Tough Love Budget,” while Willis said the public service needed to do more with less.

“I’ll tell you what happens if New Zealand doesn’t start getting more bang for our buck; if we allow an inexorable rise in the number of public servants delivering the services you rely on, disproportionate to the growth in the overall working population.

“What we will have is an unaffordable public service, higher taxes, and more borrowing. That is unsustainable,” she said.

Her Budget was set to request $2.4 billion in savings, across four years, from those baseline reduction targets.

But PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said those cost savings would cut the quality of reliability of vital public services.

“These public servants are ringing alarm bells about the current state of the public service. We cannot afford to face further cuts on top of what's already occurred. What we need to be talking about is significant investment in public services, not constant cumulative cuts,” she said.

She said the PSA and public servants would support efficiencies, and finding ways to do things smarter. She said they did want to see ‘bang for buck’, but the Government looked set to bank savings without first working out how to find those better ways of working.

The Government had been talking about cutting the size of the public service for some time, she said, but she argued they hadn’t found a way to do so without risking public services. This survey, she said, showed previous cost cutting attempts had failed.

“The stakes are too high for us not to take the survey results seriously. These are workers who protect our borders, who protect children from online harm, who stop methamphetamine coming into our country, who keep children safe through Oranga Tamariki, and play many other absolutely critical roles in New Zealand.

“We should listen to them, we should respect them, and the Government should not be embarking on this round of cuts,” she said.

It is expected to be outlined how those cuts would be actioned in Thursday’s Budget.