Willis: New Zealand government to lay off nearly 14 percent of civil service workers

The New Zealand government will lay off nearly 14 percent of civil service workers by mid-2029 as part of a strategy to massively cut spending, the country's Finance Minister Nicola Willis said today.

Willis told businesspeople in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, that her administration would also cut budgets for most government agencies over the next three years, reduce the number of departments in the state administration and demand faster adoption of artificial intelligence technology across the sector.

The minister said the entire endeavor would save New Zealand about $1,4 billion.

Many public servants live and work in the capital, Wellington, and the new action would reduce the number of civil servants in that city by 8.700, reducing the share of civil servants in the total population from 1,2 percent to one percent, Willis said.

"It is unsustainable, unaffordable and not in line with international trends," she said today.

Willis noted that the layoffs did not include teachers, the military, and doctors.

The measures would also reduce the number of government offices and agencies from the current 39 to an as-yet-undetermined number.

Unions and opposition parties condemned the allegations in the new statement.

Willis said funding for most government agencies would be cut by two percent in the budget at the end of March, with cuts of five percent per year to follow over the next two years if the government is re-elected.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Lacson said the proposal called the prospect of a more efficient public sector "exciting."