However, more still needs to be done.
That's why we've set the public sector 10 challenging results to achieve over the next three to five years, all of which will benefit our community.
Challenges will include reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment, cutting crime, and improving people's dealings with government.
Most importantly, results will be publicly available so you can keep an eye on real progress.
People often tell me they care deeply about the quality of the public services they receive and what those services achieve.
In Rotorua people want to know that their children are getting the chance to achieve at school.
They want to know that the Government is making a conscious effort to increase employment and decrease welfare dependency.
And they want to see the Government tackling crime and looking after the vulnerable in our community.
Those people are taxpayers, they pay the bills and they want to know that the public sector is spending money with the sort of care they would themselves.
For the last three years it has been a single-minded focus of the Government's to put more people on the frontline instead of back office staff and this is something we will continue to focus on.
We've reset the cap on the number of fulltime equivalent roles in core government administration at a lower level of no more than 36,475. We are already below that number and will stay under it.
The cap will count most people working in government departments, but it does not include frontline staff such as teachers, hospital staff, and police officers. These changes need to be looked at as a positive step from excessive spending and cluttered public services to tighter, efficient and more financially savvy services we will all benefit from.
The Prime Minister has announced three changes to help sharpen the public sector's focus on providing better frontline services and achieving better results.
These are setting a result-driven focus for the public sector, lowering the cap on core government administration employees and creating a single, dedicated, business-facing government department.
Our new Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment will help drive the Government's key priority of building a more productive and competitive economy.
It will pull together four departments - the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Department of Labour, and the Department of Building and Housing.
It will strengthen the public service's ability to work on business policy, regulation, and engagement.
Locally owned businesses will see a much more focused approach from government.
Together these changes are a big shift towards better results that matter to New Zealanders, and delivering them within the tight financial constraints we all face.
