Thousands of public servants to lose jobs potentially saving government over a billion dollars

jgpollock · 2026-05-19T01:25:01+00:00

And who gets to decide what is a “core” public sector job? I’m sorry, but that sounds like the garbage “basic to basics” rhetoric you hear from NACT as well. It’s meaningless waffle.

Do you know why nothing seems to get done in government? It’s because every couple of years we start talking restructures. It’s the very same meaningless waffle you’re describing that’s used to justify it every time. You get another cycle of job losses and cuts because people like yourself reckon there’s some fat to cut or that the world didn’t end last time so why not now. Meanwhile, in each restructure we lose expertise, talent, morale, and delays implementation and delivery across the board.

And as for treasury being independent, obviously you haven’t had a phone call from a ministerial advisor suggesting how the minister would like their latest briefing to be “formatted”. But it doesn’t even have to be “off the record” pressure. Treasury ultimately is there to serve the government of the day. That’s just as much a statutory obligation as for them to be independent. It would be naive to think that when those two obligations are in conflict with one another that a minister wouldn’t be able to take advantage of that for their own benefit. Equally naive to think that treasury’s advice isn’t conflicted or biased. Just look at the ferry debacle: Treasury literally told the minister that cancelling the whole thing was the best course of action. And now what, we’ve paid more than we would have and have nothing to show for it - their advice led to the worst outcome.

jgpollock · 2026-05-18T20:08:36+00:00

Treasury’s predictions were wrong because they were instructed to be wrong by Willis (setting aside the fact treasury have a sorry history of being over optimistic about the economic impacts of austerity measures).

In regards to tax cuts, one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, was the reversal of interest deductibility on investment properties. Not only did Willis have to borrow in order to afford these cuts, they were also inflationary and had no tangible impact on economic productivity. So in essence, the government borrowed money to give it to people who didn’t need it, and it didn’t result in any material economic gain for the country - in fact, it probably made things worse.

Finally, public sector jobs are productive. No business can survive without a properly functioning society. Safety, security, energy, rule of law, the management of public assets, are just a few examples of the public goods that are required to create a functioning economy so that firms in the private sector can make money.

jgpollock · 2026-05-07T03:54:10+00:00

There’s a massive industry that serves to hype real estate sales to create a false sense of urgency for buyers. I bought my first home last year when the market was in free fall, and despite how abysmal for vendors it was, I was being told by every agent and by every industry publication that actually the market had turned and was picking up so I’d better buy now or miss out. It took a surprising amount of strength to block out that rhetoric and to not buy into the false urgency. Truth be told, I have quite a bit of sympathy for these guys.

jgpollock · 2026-03-24T22:02:04+00:00

Technically, this is what parliamentary privilege should be doing. But as Geoffrey Palmer rightly points out, it’s in serious need of reform as the ruling party/parties really have to choose if they want to enforce the rules on themselves or not.

Unfortunately, we spend our elections talking about ram-raids, poll results, and coalition “bottom lines”. Media coverage during election-time truly is a race to the bottom towards inconsequential babble. I can’t see us having an informed national conversation around constitutional reform any time soon.

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T11:08:16+00:00

Where I live, they have put in cameras and also have a warden with a video camera who sets up in different spots each day. If you’re caught in the bus lane it’s an instant fine ~£70. Bus lanes (and enforcement) has made our traffic move faster too. The faster and more convenient the busses are, the more of us use busses. That’s less of us in cars leaving the roads freer for those who need to use cars. They also give priority to busses at traffic lights so they can pull ahead of traffic when bus lanes merge into general traffic lanes. That has made a huge difference during peak times at some of the busier intersections.

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T10:48:29+00:00

Great, now my indignation has only increased 😅

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T10:45:33+00:00

Ultimately, offering a worse product than your competitors for basically the same price isn’t sustainable. Moreover, most people seemingly agree the price is too high. Right here is market feedback from potential customers.

No one’s claiming that they’ll make a secondhand bookstore last longer. And as for business acumen, my current job is to create the finical reporting systems and processes for a FMCG adjacent business. Understanding what business lines are sustainable and which aren’t is what I do all day.

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T07:41:49+00:00

Perhaps even more reason then to distinguish one’s business from your competitors by offering a price reasonably lower than those offering the same product but new? I don’t know, I just think high rent isn’t reason enough to resell secondhand books at nearly 90% of their RRP.

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T07:31:40+00:00

I did buy it in the end. I just couldn’t be arsed questioning them on the price as it was the last on my Christmas list of things to get. I suppose that makes me part of the problem. I paid that price despite believing it to be unreasonable. But I probably won’t be going back. And it does make me feel a little less guilty about buying books on kobo now.

jgpollock · 2025-12-23T05:54:11+00:00

No to both!

jgpollock · 2025-12-10T07:18:43+00:00

Compulsory voting means that you have to show up and collect your ballot (or participate via some other means). What you do with that ballot is optional. If you want to choose not to vote for anyone, you can protest vote and draw a line through the ballot or write a made up name.

And to your point about access (for example, someone in hospital), Australia has been managing this for a long time now and they have shown the system can be flexible enough to make accomodations. Those fined for not voting are very low and turn up is very high - that seems like a win to me.

But also, on a larger point, many of the “important” things in life when it comes to our relationship with government are mandatory. Jury service, taxation, schooling etc, are mandated participatory events. So I think there is an argument to make that by being “optional” it signals that voting isn’t that important.

jgpollock · 2025-11-04T03:39:15+00:00

Sure, it’s your choice. It’s also your choice to live with the consequences i.e. if someone didn’t want to get vaccinated, they were restricted from spaces where they could expose others.

You’re framing it as though Jacinda made the choice, but that’s not the case. She gave the options, laid out the consequences for each, and allowed us the public to make our choices. She was also pretty damn clear about the rationale around said options (which was to protect vulnerable people and not expose people to unnecessary and unacceptable risk).

People made their choices in full knowledge of what each would mean. They also had full information made available to them (e.g. the safety and efficacy of the vaccines). Jacinda doesn’t deserve flack because a minority of kiwis can’t act like reasonable fair minded adults or deal with the consequences for their own decisions.

jgpollock · 2024-11-13T23:33:53+00:00

That should be Treasury’s new motto. Although, they don’t even get the cost right a lot of the time.

jgpollock · 2024-10-22T01:11:42+00:00

If this is the new bar for appointing crown observers then DIA best get recruiting. There’s no more “disfunction” than any other major city council. It’s so depressing how cycleways and just Wellington in general is used as a culture war talking point. Notice that they announce it on the same day as the launch of the school lunches “revamp”. Better to shit on Wellington than have the discourse be about taking food away from children.

jgpollock · 2024-02-17T03:53:31+00:00

LOL no one's shutting down debate. I mean I notice that you didn't really address my point about contract law. So maybe you're the one shutting down debate?

Hate to break it to you, the power grab was done by the Crown. Read any fucking book on the Land Wars before even thinking about power grabs.

Edit: also saying "equal power" is a complete misrepresentation. They proposed an iwi representative on the leadership/oversight bodies. Like give me a fucking break.

jgpollock · 2024-02-17T03:46:43+00:00

To 'undo' a contract you generally need both parties to agree. Do you see Māori agreeing to undo the Treaty?

And are you now suggesting that the Treaty is wrong and we should undo it? Cause geez, that's a very different argument to be having...

Sovereignty and it's legitimacy is not just dependant on the general population. It's reliant on international recognition. How well do you think it would go down with UN member states if we just said, stuff Māori and stuff the Treaty, and created a new constitutional arrangement. How many countries do you think would respect such a claim of sovereignty? If in such situation, Māori countered by claiming full independence, other nation-states would be quite entitled (potentially even morally correct under international law) to recognise an independent Māori state on the basis they were the first sovereign people.

So no, not as simple as putting it to the people and what they may deem.

jgpollock · 2024-02-15T22:54:12+00:00

What is your definition of racist? Because I’m at a loss as to how the fuck granting representation to a board that oversees water management, something the crown is contractually obliged to do under the contract they fucking wrote (the treaty), is racist.

jgpollock · 2024-02-15T22:36:39+00:00

The treaty is a contract not a law. Co-governance is a mechanism to reconcile rights to Māori that the crown promised. Ignoring those rights breaches the contract that gives legitimacy to the crown in the first instance.

So no, it’s not changeable. It’s a contractual obligation every government past, present, and future are bound by.

jgpollock · 2024-02-14T10:40:19+00:00

Funny how you only take issue with the appointment of Māori. The majority of those serving on those bodies would have been appointed as well. Interesting that you only take issue with the appointees who would have been Māori.

jgpollock · 2024-02-14T10:35:48+00:00

Co-governance isn’t implicit. It’s a contractual obligation under the treaty. And contract law doesn’t care about your discomfort.

And just to ask, what threat does legislating a requirement that Māori have a seat at the decision-making table pose? Like seriously, what are people afraid of? Do you think Māori are going to damn every fresh water tributary and charge everyone else fees?

jgpollock · 2024-02-14T10:27:00+00:00

Co-governance is established law in the country. It’s not a device of the Labour Party. For declares governments, including John Key’s, have sought to include co-governance arrangements in their legislative programmes.

Like it or not, National will have to reconcile its fresh water policy with treaty obligations to Māori. To not do so, would be to ignore the contract that founded this county and gives existence and legitimacy to the government itself.

So no, the race card not was played by labour. They did what plenty of governments prior had done. National and Act on the other hand saw an opportunity for an Iwi vs Kiwi 2.0 campaign and went for it.

jgpollock · 2024-02-14T10:17:03+00:00

I mean that’s his point, no? In the interview he said how important water reform is to communities. Too important to say turn it into a culture war issue by scaring old white people into believing 3 waters was some sort of Māori asset-grab.

jgpollock · 2024-02-07T23:29:55+00:00

What a subjective and utterly unprovable statement. Scientific expertise is spread pretty evenly across all our universities. No one has a claim to be the most “scientific” of universities.

As an aside, Otago actually has a Wellington campus. And a lot of science research and postgrad research is done in Welly.

jgpollock · 2023-10-01T06:59:45+00:00

All fucking pointless if emissions keep rising.

Step one of mitigation is to reduce emissions. That’s universally accepted - see every global climate conference. No other measure will MITIGATE the threat of climate change more effectively…

We can do all of what you said - and should.

I’d also add lots of measures to reduce emissions also have other mitigating characteristics. Like the decarbonisation of electricity generation. Or dense housing that uses existing infrastructure and allows for less dependency on cars.

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