Public sector cuts: What happens when you look in the mirror and see Ruth Richardson staring back?

Prime Minister Jim Bolger and his Finance Minister Ruth Richardson are all smiles as they enter Bowen House to present the 1991 budget. Photo / Herald archive

OPINION

The stupidity of job cuts at Oranga Tamariki (447 jobs) and the Ministry of Education (565 jobs), and across the public sector comes at a time when the current Government’s only strategy is to cut jobs with no actual plan other than to say they are going to measure outcomes.

And it’s not just the estimated 5000 jobs going in government - it’s also the hundreds that have already been lost in business and industry. Unemployment overall is up to 4 per cent and that’s the highest rate since the June quarter of 2021.

It’s no longer a case of blaming the previous Government, as this new coalition has been in place now for more than six months.

Some suggest we are seeing a mirror held up reflecting the Roger Douglas (one of the founders of the Act Party) and Ruth Richardson years, when thousands of New Zealanders lost their jobs.

The Ministry for Children and the Ministry of Education will each lose hundreds of positions to meet the Government's cuts to the public service.

Even David Lange, lamenting his time in office, said that they needed to stop for a cup of tea and take a break from the economic changes.

Just as former National minister Richardson didn’t get the memo, it looks like Nicola Willis also didn’t get it.

Are we to expect the Mother of all Budgets? Need they have a reminder of the devastating impact their policies have had not just on working people but also the working poor and middle classes?

There is a deepening sense that the job cuts aren’t over and the unemployment rate in the next quarter will rise.

There is also the fact that not all the jobs being cut are in Wellington. Many of them are spread out across the country and when people are uncertain about their own financial security, we also see increasing rates of anxiety, depression and financial distress. Small business loses with less custom. The only winners appear to be people that don’t need a tax cut.

Matthew Tukaki.

Matthew Tukaki is chairman of the National Māori Authority and former chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Board of Oranga Tamariki, general manager UMA Broadcasting Ltd, Ngāi Te Rangi.

Waatea.News.Com