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Speaker 1: I can tell you this for nothing. It's with real enthusiasm.

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Speaker 1: I see that the Public Service Commissioner Brown wrote potentially

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Speaker 1: doing what the main government should have done two years ago.

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Speaker 1: What the government did two years ago was say they

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Speaker 1: were going to rectify the absurd size of the public service.

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Speaker 1: Remember that it had blown out to gargantuine proportions under

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Speaker 1: the labor government, who knew no bounds in terms of

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Speaker 1: fiscal largest based on debt. What sadly actually the new

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Speaker 1: government did with the public service was tinker. It peaked

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Speaker 1: at a bit over sixty five thousand, It now sits

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Speaker 1: this morning at a bit over sixty three thousand, and

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Speaker 1: has in fact, in the ensuing period gone up again.

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Speaker 1: So rough math, they will tell you they got rid

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Speaker 1: of about two thousand people. Now, as a raw number,

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Speaker 1: that's a lot of jobs. As a percentage though it's tiny,

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Speaker 1: and as an effective exercise and efficiency and savings, it's

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Speaker 1: a joke. The shame of it was the new government

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Speaker 1: of the day had license. Of course, Yes it was controversial,

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Speaker 1: Yes the union's bleated and moaned, and yes the media

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Speaker 1: went to town on a Tory slash and boone exercise.

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Speaker 1: All that predictable nonsense. But the trick was always simple.

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Speaker 1: If you're going to dish out the bad news, oh hard,

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Speaker 1: doze it, blow it up, do it once, do it properly. Now,

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Speaker 1: the fallout, the headlines, the anger will be exactly the

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Speaker 1: same whether you're trim a couple of thousand for no

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Speaker 1: effect or six and a half thousand, say and make

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Speaker 1: a difference. So they blew it. They took the heat

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Speaker 1: but got few of any results. In an odd way,

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Speaker 1: if you think about it, it's symbolic of the weaker

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Speaker 1: parts of this government at the moment. Lots of ideas,

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Speaker 1: lots of rhetoric and execution they never quite aligne. But

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Speaker 1: now the Commissioner Brian Roach looks to be having another

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Speaker 1: crack by merging departments. Ministries of Women, Pacific, People's Disabled,

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Speaker 1: People's married Development could all be in for an up ending.

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Speaker 1: I'd go further personally, the never ending series of commissioners

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Speaker 1: and their officers that have got no actual power and

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Speaker 1: really only right reports. They'd not be missed. But the ministries,

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Speaker 1: for ministry's sake, is what holds this country back. They

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Speaker 1: will all fill a space to meet their budget. Of course,

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Speaker 1: they will so called mandate. If this is on, and

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Speaker 1: I pray it is, wait for the bleating. Every one

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Speaker 1: of them will tell you the critical nature of their existence,

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Speaker 1: but I defy any one of you to list me

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Speaker 1: the profound and productive change that they have made to

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Speaker 1: any one of our lives. And given you count, then

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Speaker 1: they fall into the category of largess, waste and tokenism.

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Speaker 1: Do it once, do it right. That's how change should happen.

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Speaker 1: For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.