Nicola Willis accuses ‘hysterical’ PSA of 'misleading' members over job cuts
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has accused the public servant union of “misleading“ its members with ”hysterical“ information about her planned job cuts.
She has suggested that the Public Service Association (PSA) engage in the process “proactively and positively”.
The PSA says it is just trying to work out where the 8700 job losses Willis announced on Wednesday would fall.
Willis has said the public service will shrink by 8700 roles by mid-2029 through a mixture of redundancies, attrition, and departments amalgamating or making greater use of AI.
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She has refused to provide further clarity on what exact roles will go from which departments, but has indicated she wants to protect front-line positions.
Her spat with the PSA concerns a press release put out which mapped the 8700 jobs onto the agencies excluded from Willis’ “baseline cuts” of 12% announced alongside the job cuts.
The PSA used this to predict how much various agencies would lose, saying one in four workers at the remaining agencies would lose their jobs.
'Look at the real human cost. MSD loses more than 2000 workers - these are the case managers and support workers who help families in crisis and get people into jobs. MBIE loses nearly 1400 - the people enforcing building standards, processing visas and protecting tenants,“ PSA National Secretary Duane Leo said.
But Willis said in her press conference on Tuesday that the agencies exempted from the fiscal savings were not exempted from the expectation to reduce headcount, meaning the reductions would be widely spread - and the PSA was misleading its members.
“Can I just say quite sincerely that the PSA have an obligation to their members not to provide them with misleading or hysterical information?”
“There are many very good public servants who want to be part of transforming the system they are part of, so it can deliver better for the New Zealanders that they serve, and who actually want to go in this in a way that embraces the opportunity. And I think that the PSA does have an obligation to take part in this proactively and positively.”
Leo said all the PSA was trying to do was work out where exactly the job cuts would happen - and that the Public Service Commission had rebuffed its questions.
“It is the Minister who is being misleading, not the PSA. She is misleading New Zealanders about the ability of AI to do the work of public servants and the devastating impact of her cuts on the delivery of public services,” Leo said.
“The fact is, we're looking at one in seven jobs being cut across the public service.
“Workers deserve straight answers, not insults. New Zealanders deserve to know which services they are going to lose. Stop calling public service workers ‘bright cookies’ and tell them if they still have a job.”
Willis said she had sympathy for a public servant not sure where the job cuts would happen.
“It is very challenging to hear that the workplace that you're part of is going to have fewer jobs in it in the future. I completely understand that, and anyone who loses their job or who is made redundant, that is a very difficult life experience to go through.
“But I also just want to point out we're still talking about having 55,000 public servants employed. Stats NZ data shows that literally every month, tens of thousands of new jobs are created, even while tens of thousands of other jobs end.”