The HUGELY problematic size of Government in NZ.

Until a Government has the courage/determination to shrink the size of ITSELF – New Zealand has NO CHANCE of sustained economic growth – or excellence in any sector.

The size of the NZ Public Service workforce, as at December 31 2025, has just been released.

As opposed to the coalition saying they are frugal the lowlights are:

– Total Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) is now at 63,657. The Public Service workforce grew by 1.6% over the previous 12 months.

– The Ministry of Social Development grew by 2.6% to 9094 FTEs.

– Oranga Tamariki grew by 2.8% to 4713 FTEs.

– MBIE grew by 1.5% to 5892 FTEs.

– The Ministry of Education grew by 3.7% to 3976 FTEs – a very long way from the 2700 promised by National and ACT.

It would be very difficult to argue that any of those Ministries are high-performing. In fact – it is very eazyto find data that proves the opposite.

For the 2024/24 financial year core government expenditure was 32.5% of GDP. A weighted consensus is that below 25% is healthy.

The percentage of GDP in New Zealand dependent on government spending is approximately 43%. The low for that statistic is Switzerland at approx. 13%.

New Zealand’s tax/GDP ratio, at 34%, is above the OECD average. It is also well above countries we can look at with envy … Australia 29.4, Korea 28.9, Switzerland 27.1, USA 25.2, Ireland 21.9, Singapore 13.7, Hong Kong 13.1.

As of December 2025, approximately 13.2% of New Zealand’s working-age population (around 427,236 people) was receiving a main benefit, marking a 12-year high. This means there is roughly one main beneficiary for every 6.5 people in the working-age population. Jobseeker Support accounts for about 6.9% of this population.

New Zealand’s recent productivity growth is dropping and per-hour output falling over 20% below the OECD average, ranking it 38th in GDP per capita.

The, also just released, GDP growth for the December 2025 quarter was 0.2%. It is very hard to get any genuine economic growth when the HUGE reliance on government spending crowds out the private sector.

It is an election year. Who will, with credibility, propose to shrink the size of government in NZ to a level that allows genuine comparison with the best of the OECD?

alwyn.poole@gmail.com

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