An election year budget is a government’s pitch for reelection. For opposition parties, it’s a chance to make their case for change.

Unfortunately for Finance Minister Nicola Willis, her National Party can’t campaign on two of its three big fiscal policy promises from the previous election: to achieve a surplus, reduce debt and cut spending on bureaucracy.

With surplus forecasts moved out by years and government debt having risen, that only leaves the bureaucracy as a viable target.

Willis took the initiative last week with a pre-budget speech in Auckland where she announced three major goals based on National’s 2023 pledge to “reduce spending on bureaucracy”:

cut the number of public service agencies through amalgamations

embed AI into all public entities

return core public servant numbers to a historic norm of 1% of the population.

That would mean, by July 2029, 8,700 fewer public service employees than in December 2025. Willis claims that wouldn’t affect wider state sector employees such as teachers, nurses, doctors or police.

Speaking to Auckland business owners and managers, her message was clear: Wellington is getting serious about value for taxpayers’ money.

Using figures from the Public Service Commission, Willis pointed out that public servants had, since 1993, been around 1% of the........

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