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The department is headed by ACT leader David Seymour.
photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
The latest data shows that the new regulatory department will pay employees an average salary of more than $150,000 and will eventually employ more than 90 people.
This is despite the coalition promising deep cuts to back-office spending in the public sector and blaming the previous government for building up a sprawling bureaucracy.
The anti-bureaucracy unit is overseen by ACT leader David Seymour, who brokered its creation during coalition talks last year.
Data obtained by the Green Party and first reported by The Washington Post shows that the average salary at the agency is $154,500. Much higher than the average public service salary of $84,800.
The average salary in the public service sector is $152,034, while the average salary for the entire public service sector is $97,200.
Other documents outline the proposed structure of the ministry, including three deputy chief executives, each with salaries of up to $350,000.
Green Party MP Francisco Hernandez said the hypocrisy of the ruling coalition was outrageous given the deep cuts also suffered in other parts of the public sector.
“The government has a double standard: one for its pet ministries and pet ministers, and another for the wider public service that is actually doing genuinely useful things.”
Mr Hernandez said the “ideologically driven agency” was just duplicating work and should be defunded so money could be spent on real frontline services like Oranga Tamariki or health services.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Radio New Zealand the latest figures were “absolutely ridiculous” given the government’s so-called targets.
“It shows the hypocrisy of David Seymour that so many people are being paid over $150,000 a year while other public servants are being fired.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance also issued a statement on the news, condemning it as “bureaucratic red tape” and saying it was a test of Seymour’s credibility.
“This emerging sector seems to be going in completely the wrong direction,” said Executive Director Jordan Williams.
“Seymour needs to lead by example and now he has set himself a tough task to prove his new gilded department is worth the money.”
Speaking to RNZ in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, Seymour dismissed the “sensational” reports and denied there was any double standard, noting more than 6000 people in the public service were paid $150,000 or more.
Seymour said more than 200 of them are in “secondary positions” with salaries between $250,000 and $350,000, while his department has only three.
Seymour also said it was “not surprising” that policy-focused departments had above-average salaries.
“Let’s talk about that perspective. People are really excited about 91.”
He said the team would shoulder $5 billion in unnecessary red tape costs for the country, and as a 2015 report stressed: “It’s good value for money.”
Seymour said he expects average salaries to fall as the sector becomes more mature and temporary positions are replaced with permanent ones.
He had previously said the department would be much smaller, but he said the scale of the problem has since grown.
“We were looking at 10 people from Treasury and 20 from the Productivity Commission and we underestimated how much we could contribute.”
When asked by ABC New Zealand whether such a salary was appropriate, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis declined to comment, saying only that she would measure agencies’ performance each year based on their performance.
“It is important that David Seymour and the department demonstrate that their initiatives provide value for money.”
Before the election, the ACT Party proposed abolishing the Productivity Commission and its 20-odd staff and setting up a regulatory department.
Mr Seymour said the new department would be tasked with assessing red tape in every area and “clearing out laws that are crippling New Zealanders’ creativity”.
Since assuming office, the government has directed ministries, agencies and departments to economize on spending.
RNZ’s net loss was More than 6,500 characters to date.
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