Goudie Sandra: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Goudie Sandra: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16868] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 While hard-working Kiwis throughout New Zealand have struggled this Government has become a bloated bureaucracy. Over the past 8 years the Government bureaucracy has grown out of all proportion to those parts of the State sector that actually serve the public. That is a real concern and a very real issue. How do we know that? I will give members some examples. Since 2000 the number of teachers in State primary and secondary schools has grown by 12 percent and that is a good thing but over the same period the number of people employed in the various educational bureaucracies has grown by 40 percent. 
Hon David Parker 
: That’s wrong. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Clearly those on the Government benches are sitting up and taking notice. We have a figure of 12 percent as opposed to 40 percent and things are not getting any better. Last week the Government spent $52000 on badges; one of them says “Wassup!”. The schools said it was an absolute disgrace and a totally incompetent use of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. These Government benchers are fiscally irresponsible. 
Going back to more about bureaucracy—[ 
Interruption 
] The member can say whatever he likes. Since 2000 the number of doctors and nurses employed by district health boards has grown by 28 percent but over the same period the number of people employed in the Ministry of Health has grown by 51 percent. It is no wonder patients are lining up in hospital corridors for days on end in some cases and not being seen and not having their needs addressed. The Government is failing those people in our health system. It is more interested in people producing plans rules and more and more paper that other people have to fill in just to justify their positions. The bureaucracy is incredibly bloated. Also since 2002 the service delivery part of the Ministry of Social Development namely Work and Income and Child Youth and Family has grown by 23 percent. That is the service delivery side and we are talking front line. But over the same period the policy analysis research and corporate units of the ministry have grown by a whopping 109 percent. 
Judith Collins has expressed her concern and the concern of National time and time again in this House about the loss of front-line staff as the Government builds up the bloated bureaucracy in Government departments. We are losing all those good people who deal with those much-needed cases who work at the front line and look after those people on the front line. Does this Government care? No it does not care because it keeps on doing it. It just cannot seem to get it under control. Treasury reports show that between 2000 and 2006 employment in Government departments that mainly provide services grew by 34 percent while employment in policy departments grew by 72 percent. 
Talking of policy departments let us take the Ministry of Education. I received an answer from the Minister of Education to a parliamentary question. He said that yes it does have common sense and adherence to policy. Quite frankly the ministry cannot do both and it is quite clear from the changes the ministry is proposing to the school bus run from Tairua and Pauanui to Thames for the students who go to Thames High School. Right now at no extra cost to the ministry the bus goes about an extra 10 kilometres to pick up students to take them to Thames High School and the ministry wants to can that. Why would it want to do that? The ministry is being saved money because the bus company out of the goodness of its heart is taking on the extra cost. 
The bus picks up students from Tairua rather than somewhere out in the wop-wops on a State highway where the speed is 100 kilometres an hour. Bearing in mind the safety and the convenience the bus goes into Tairua to pick up these students. What is happening? The Ministry of Education wants to change that. It wants to stomp all over that. It wants to deny those parents and those students their place of educational choice. The ministry is now thumping all over it and the Minister says “Oh yes we consider common sense and adherence to policy.” in the same breath. What a load of codswallop. How fiscally irresponsible is that? We really have to wonder whether the Minister knows how to add. 
We can talk about lots of percentages all over the place but to get a picture of the whole State sector we need to look at survey data from the quarterly employment survey and that shows that since 2000 the number of bureaucrats has grown from 26200 to 36000. That is tantamount to around 10000 more bureaucrats in Government between 2000 and 2008. If that is not bloated bureaucracy I do not know what is. This Government just cannot seem to get a handle on that. It thinks it knows how to manage money. We would not see householders doing that because they are struggling. They could not afford that bloatedness. They are appalled at the growth in bureaucracy. That growth in the number of bureaucrats represents a 37 percent increase. Over the same period the number of other State sector employees grew by only 10 percent. 
In addition this survey shows that the number of jobs in the economy as a whole grew by 22 percent which means that bureaucrats are increasing as a proportion of the total New Zealand workforce. We now have a situation where one in 50 workers in the economy is a bureaucrat. I do not see that as productive; how does that help us here in New Zealand? How does that help the small businesses that my excellent colleague Lindsay Tisch talked about before? How does that help them? How does it help the schools? There are more people in the Ministry of Education than there are out there on the front line teaching. What do they do? They create more bits of paper for the schools to fill in to justify the existence of those bureaucrats back in the departments. Why do they have to keep doing all of these safety assessments around the school buildings—how often is it every 6 months I understand? Why cannot that be dealt to? 
What is it about this Government that it just cannot seem to address that bloated bureaucracy? It is dreaming up more and more ways to pass costs paperwork and red tape on to every single organisation entity business and person. It is definitely out of control. It is not just the number of people in bureaucracy that has grown out of control it is also what they are paid. Kiwi households are tightening their belts and it is way past time that this Government tightened its belt as well. It needs to curb its excess of bloated bureaucracy but I cannot see any will on the part of this current Government to do that. 
That is something National will certainly do. We will make a difference and we will certainly curb that excess growth in Government bureaucrats. We will address the issues around compliance costs and red tape which are absolutely crippling small businesses and also crippling the ability of educational providers to provide the education they want to without constantly having to fill in bits of paper. We will certainly support the education sector and all of those people on the front line who provide those services. They are the ones who really matter not the ones who are sitting back in the office trying to justify their existence with more and more bits of paper. We will not be spending money on putting out little badges that say “Wassup!”. Schools are in dire need of extra funding and the Government has spent $52000 on little badges saying “Wassup!”. How good is that? What benefit is that? I agree with my most excellent colleagues Shane Ardern and Lindsay Tisch that we cannot wait for the election to come forward. Why does the Government not just announce the date and get it over with? We will all be happier. Then those members might get to hear some of the policy which they are absolutely hanging out for.