Minister of Regulation wanted ministry to have ‘two to three times’ more staff than Productivity Commission it replaced

Act leader and Minister of Regulation David Seymour said the Ministry of Regulation will be "a tiny ministry". Photo / Mark Mitchell

New documents, released by Treasury, show the Ministry of Regulation could have up to three times the number of workers than the now-defunct Productivity Commission had, at a time where the fate of many public servants is being learned.

The Ministry of Regulation, set up by the new Government, aims to go line-by-line through new and existing laws, looking at the viability of axing what some see as red tape. It plans to assess proposals to change legislation around recommend whether they should take place.

The Productivity Commission shut up shop at the end of February, as the Ministry of Regulation was being set up. Days after the 22 staff at the commission lost their jobs, it was revealed former Oranga Tamariki leader Grainne Moss would lead the new ministry.

Now, documents reveal the Minister of Regulation, Act’s David Seymour, wanted the ministry to be “around two to three times the size” of the Productivity Commission, in a meeting with Treasury officials.

The revelations, from Treasury’s publicly-released advice on the establishment of a regulation ministry, come amidst mass job-cuts across the public sector, in response to a savings directive laid on agencies by the new Government. Ministries, agencies, and departments have all been tasked with finding cost-savings, of between 6.5 and 7.5 per cent on average; the move is leading to many announcing job cuts, or proposals to cull staff numbers.

The Productivity Commission was set up in 2011 as an independent Crown entity that described itself as providing “evidence-based, high-quality analysis and advice about ways to improve productivity in New Zealand”.

The Ministry of Regulation was set up to be funded initially by disestablishing the Productivity Commission, with expectations the Ministry of Regulation would be a “new agency, with a difference identify, ringfenced resources and senior dedicated leadership,” the Treasury documents reveal.

On the campaign trail, the Act leader claimed he wanted to make 15,000 public servants redundant “as fast as possible”.

When asked about the optics of the ministry having more staff than the commission despite those views, Minister of Regulation David Seymour said red tape and regulation were “out of control in this country.

“The Ministry for Regulation will be a tiny ministry, in fact one of the three smallest, dealing with the enormous cost of red tape and regulation that 30 other ministries create every day,” Seymour said, adding it will conduct sector-wide reviews and provide leadership across the entire Government.

Regulation Minister and Act leader David Seymour has previously said he believes a regulation ministry “could solve much bigger problems for the same funds”.

Ex-Productivity Commission leader Ganesh Nana had called the move to axe the commission, which he found out through media reports, “incredibly thoughtless and unnecessarily cruel to the commission’s staff.”

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, social housing and transport.