Fleur Fitzsimons: PSA Acting National Secretary agrees with Minister Collins' call for public service leaders to be more genuine

There's some agreement with a plea from the Public Service Minister for sector bosses to be more genuine - but questions have also been raised. 

Judith Collins has advised public service leaders to show respect for taxpayers in their communications - and to treat the money as their own.   

She asks them to be sure they're not speaking 'gobbledygook', or sounding superior. 

PSA Acting National Secretary, Fleur Fitzsimons, says she shares some opinions with Collins.

"She talked about using plain English, the importance of free and frank advice and the value of public servants. It's a bit rich to hear some of that from a Government, though, that has cut so many jobs." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Andrew Dickens.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The new Public Services Minister, Judith Collins, has told public
sector bosses to stop wasting money and leave their acronyms
at the door. She made a speech to all the
public service leaders yesterday. She said, I want you to
cut down on the gob of degook. I want you
to treat taxpayers money like your own. I want you

(00:23):
to embrace the Prime Minister's culture of Yes. So flur
fit Zimon's as Public Service Association Act National Try that again.
It's a run up because it's a long title. Flur
Public Services Association Acting National Secretary and joins me, Now,
so did you get a telling off?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
No? I don't think so. I think the Minister was
had elements of kind of performative nature to what she
was saying. There's a lot to agree with in her
speech though she talked about using plain English. She talked
about the importance of free and frank advice and the
value of public service. It's a bit rich to hear
some of that from a government though that has cut

(01:04):
so many jobs, and we know that New Zealander is
already feeling the impacts of that.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
They've cut jobs because they believe that government spending is high.
They believe government spending is high because they believe government
money is being wasted, and they believe the people dolling
out the government money in many cases are in fact
public servants.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, that's right, and we fundamentally disagree with that. And actually,
what we need to see is more investment in our
public service. We're dealing with complicated, difficult issues like climate change,
and we're a coastal nation. We are going to need
the best and brightest working on these difficult issues to
make sure that New Zealand can protect itself and deliver

(01:43):
its emission reduction targets. And it's just one example. There
are many such complicated issues that we need public servants
working on every day and we need to keep the
best and brightest here in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yes, but the Minister also says that New Zealand did
not have the economic growth to support the thing twenty
four percent increase in the size of the public service
that happened between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty three, And
you do have to be proportionate, don't you.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, we don't really agree with her figures there. Actually,
if you look at the size of New Zealand's public
service compared with Australia or the United Kingdom is a
proportion of the population, it's broadly similar. But also it's
worth remembering that during that period we did have an
increased number of public servants working on COVID, and nobody
would disagree that the important work they did to save

(02:31):
lives shouldn't be invested in. So look, there has been
some very damaging cuts, and the cuts have been damaging
for those individuals and their families, but also for the
capacity of our public service to deliver the policy needs
and policy implementation for the government of the day.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Do you feel like the previous government has been carrying
the can for all of this because perhaps they weren't
well served by the public service.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
I think we've got a very professional public service. In fact,
New Zealand's public service is known as one of the
least corrupt all over the world. We don't have a
problem with corruption, we have good transparency. We have strong
public servants giving free and frank advice to governments of
the day in a politically neutral way, no matter who's
in government.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, very good, I thank you for your time today, flirforit.
Simons who is the Public Service Association Acting National Secretary.
I thank you for your time.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
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