Delahunty Catherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Delahunty Catherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:673;Page:19379] 
12. 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he stand by his reported statement that there is “too much waffle coming from Government departments” and agree with the Prime Minister’s assertion that the public service is “bloated”; if so why? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Yes I do agree with the Prime Minister. The full quote of what I said was “The previous Government’s decision to massively ramp up spending in the 2000s left behind a large structural budget deficit and a bloated public sector that by 2008 was crowding out the competitive sectors of the economy.” I can reassure the member that the Government is ensuring that the public sector delivers better front-line services better value for taxpayers and helps us to achieve a faster path back to Budget surplus at the same time as meeting New Zealanders’ demands for consistently improving public services. 
Catherine Delahunty 
: What then is his response to the recent survey  
Constructing Workplace Democracy: Women’s Voice in New Zealand Public Services 
 which showed that 50 percent of women workers in the Public Service work many more hours than they are contracted for but that only 14 percent receive any extra payment for this work? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I am not aware of the particular survey but we do have thousands of very well-motivated professional public servants. It is incumbent particularly on the management of our Government agencies to engage with the people whom the member is referring to whether women or otherwise understand why they are working a lot more hours than they are paid for and put better processes in place so that they can meet public expectations for service at the same time as Public Service staff can have reasonable and balanced lives. 
Catherine Delahunty 
: Does the Minister think that receiving an average before-tax salary of $43185 as the survey reveals women do indicates a “bloated” approach to paying female public servants? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No I do not. I think the survey will express what we know fairly well—that is there is a predominance of females in the lower-paid occupations of publicly funded services. What I think is important is that we organise those services efficiently so that those very committed public servants can see that their efforts are leading to an efficient delivery of services. Too often I meet front-line Public Service staff who believe that their management do not always know how their services work and whose contribution could be viewed much more constructively in the time of consistent change that we will see over the next 3 or 4 years. 
Catherine Delahunty 
: Does he consider that the Prime Minister’s and his own recent derogatory comments regarding public sector workers will add to female workers’ stress especially when the survey reports that 43 percent of women workers experience bullying in the workplace? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No I do not think the Prime Minister’s comments will have that effect. But we do know that productive and efficient workplaces are places where the staff are happy to turn up to work and where they can thrive and fulfil their own potential. My guess actually is that workplaces where there is bullying of the sort that the member is referring to are probably not well run. They probably have management who do not understand how the front-line services are working and if they have poor relationships within that workplace they probably offer a poor and inefficient service. 
Catherine Delahunty 
: I seek leave to table the Victoria University survey report prepared for the Public Service Association  
Constructing Workplace Democracy: Women’s Voice in New Zealand Public Services 
. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.