New Zealand should follow the example of Australia, where reforms in 1987 reduced 28 portfolios to 16 and created durable “consolidated ministries,” a think tank says.
With a population of 5.4 million, New Zealand has 81 ministerial portfolios, 28 ministers and 43 government departments—about three times as many portfolios and nearly twice as many departments as comparable countries.
The New Zealand Initiative on Sept. 2 launched its Unscrambling Government report.
It points to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which reports to 20 different ministers, as an example of the complex and inefficient structure that makes accountability unclear, drives up costs, and slows down, or stops, the implementation of effective solutions….
New Zealand Should Copy Australia and Take an Axe to Government Agency Numbers, Think Tank Says
