A consultation document leaked to New Zealand news website, Stuff proposes significant cuts at Stats NZ with around 60 staff facing “substantive changes”. For the majority this is likely to mean dismissal.
A source within the Agency said staff felt the layoffs before Christmas were being done to appease the incoming conservative Government, still in coalition talks more than a month after the General Election.
Chief Executive of Stats NZ, Mark Sowden said the Agency had “started a journey to reimagine the way we collect and produce data”.
He pointed to the fact that work on the 2023 Census was winding down, while the 2028 Census would be more “integrated”.
“We have started a journey to reimagine the way we collect and produce data and statistics for generations to come, fully honouring our role and responsibilities as data stewards for Aotearoa New Zealand,” Mr Sowden (pictured) said.
Former State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie said there would likely be some forms of redundancy across the public sector over the next 12-to-18 months but that it might be fewer than people expect.
“Ministries tend to work really hard to avoid making people redundant unless that's absolutely necessary,” Mr Rennie said.
“They use things like cancelling vacancies, using turnover, maybe voluntary redundancy opportunities, but I think it's likely there will be some forms of redundancy, we just don't know where, how much or over what period of time.”
In an attempt to make savings, Stats NZ has already frozen recruitment, reduced the travel budget by half, leased parts of its offices, extended the Christmas close down period to get staff leave down and cut funding for Christmas functions.
The cuts come in the wake of a report from the Agency that New Zealand’s annual net migration hit a record 118,800 in the year to September, driven by the arrival of more than 163,000 non-citizens.
However, New Zealanders were also leaving the country in droves, provisional data for the period shows.
There was a record net migration loss of 44,700 citizens, made up of 26,400 migrant arrivals and 71,200 migrant departures.
Population Indications Manager, Tehseen Islam said migrant departures of New Zealand citizens were just under record levels, and just over half of those leaving went to Australia.
Wellington, 15 November 2023
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UK Ministers ‘should have right to sack officers’
A newly-released report on United Kingdom Civil Service governance has recommended that Ministers should play a greater role in appointing and dismissing senior Civil Servants, with the Prime Minister given the final say on appointments of Directors General.
The long-awaited review from former Cabinet Minister, Baron Maude of Horsham, calls the current governance and accountability arrangements in the Civil Service “unclear, opaque and incomplete”.
It suggests Ministers should be able to sack senior officials if they consider it to be critical to the delivery of a policy priority.
The review, which was ordered by former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson in July 2022, also includes calls to split the jobs of Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service and to reorganise Government Departments.
London, 15 November 2023
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Call for more Japanese dads to take leave
Japan’s Ministry of Health has launched a new campaign to encourage more fathers to take paternity leave.
The campaign, devised by a panel of Ministry experts, involves an increase in child care leave allowances to covers 100 per cent of income — up from 80 per cent — if both parents each take 14 days of leave or more.
The 100 per cent allowance, however, would only be offered for up to 28 days, with the amount for any further leave being around 80 per cent of income.
The Ministry said it wanted to see 50 per cent of new fathers take child care leave by 2025 and 85 per cent by 2030. Currently that figure stand at 17.13 per cent.
Tokyo, 14 November 2023
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Vietnamese reluctant to recycle
A report by Vietnam’s Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment says a long-running waste-sorting plan for the nation’s largest city has failed because it is largely ignored by residents, Local Authorities and trash collectors.
The Ministry said the plan to classify garbage in Ho Chi Minh City was initially drafted in 1999, but it was not until 2015 that the city began efforts to impose garbage classification regulations in six districts.
“However, the plan soon fell into oblivion as authorities failed to convince citizens or trash collectors to separate waste into different categories,” the report said.
In 2018, another attempt was made, with Local Authorities planning to have all families separating waste efficiently by 2020, with fines imposed on those who failed to do so. However, no progress has been made until now.
Ho Ch Minh City, 14 November, 2023
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NZ inches closer to gender equality
The New Zealand Public Service gender pay gap has fallen to 7.1 per cent, the lowest on record, according to the Public Service Commission.
The figure, published as part of the Government’s latest workforce data, represents a 0.6 percentage point decline in the last year and a 5.1 point decline since the Public Service launched its gender pay gap action plan in 2018.
The country’s national gender pay gap is 8.6 per cent, dropping by one percentage point over the same period.
National Secretary for the Public Service Association trade union, Duane Leo said the latest figure “shows how the Public Service can lead by example in closing pay gaps and promoting diversity”.
Wellington, 18 November 2023
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