5. Question No. 5—Public ServiceHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Minister for the Public ServiceQuestion No. 5—Public Service5. Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Minister for the Public Service: Does she agree with Nicola Willis's promise in 2023 that no cuts will be made to any front-line services?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister for the Public Service): I often agree with Nicola Willis although I have observed that from time to time she does fall short of perfection. I would like to add some additional context to her comment for the member. The coalition Government is focused on shifting resource from the back office to front-line services and in making that commitment we are not committing to doing things the way they have always been done. We are not going to ban ourselves from looking at other ways we could do things better or differently to ensure the resources we're employing have a bigger impact for the people we're seeking to serve. Furthermore I anticipate that in some cases where our Government reprioritises resources from back-office functions that member and her colleagues will mischaracterise it as a cut to front-line services. They will be wrong but their political motivations are clear.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: What evidence has she seen that assures her that proposed job cuts at the Ministry of Health won't impact the Government's ability to respond to public health emergencies?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: I have seen the guidelines that were provided to all agencies when they were asked to identify reprioritisation and savings measures and I have spoken with the Minister of Health about his expectations in relation to his agency and his view that we need resources in our hospitals in our emergency rooms immunising our children. And I agree with his priority.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: What evidence has she seen that assures her that proposed job cuts at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) won't impact the Government's ability to respond to biosecurity emergencies?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: This could get a bit repetitive. However I have seen the clear guidelines that were given to Government agencies about the proposals that they would put forward for savings. Furthermore in the case of MPI I've been assured that MPI is not proposing any reductions to its front-line services and that statutory staff—such as veterinarians animal welfare fishery food-compliance officers and biosecurity teams at the border—remain. The primary sector can have confidence that MPI's key functions—including bio security food safety forestry and fisheries—will not be compromised by the proposed changes.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: What evidence has she seen that assures her that the safety of children or prisoners or prison staff will not be impacted by cuts to support services at Oranga Tamariki or Corrections?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Well I have sat down with the Minister for Oranga Tamariki and its chief executive and I have been assured by them that actually they are looking forward to the opportunity to ensure more of our resources are focused on supporting vulnerable children and that less of our resources are focused on middle management.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Has the Minister interrogated the assurances of the chief executives that she cited in response to two of the preceding supplementary questions by requesting evidence that that is the case and if not why should New Zealanders believe her claim that no cuts are being made to front-line services?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Well I'm getting a bit of a flavour for what the last regime might have been like—interrogations and evidence—but actually that doesn't at all marry up with what we saw in practice does it—which is that spending got completely out of control resources were tied up in the back office the headcount in public agencies exploded and New Zealanders were left wondering if spending's increased by 80 percent in just six years what have we the people got to show for it. Well the member's right: there's a different Government in charge now with a different approach and we're going to drive value for those taxpayer dollars.