OPINION

Stuff‘s reporting on public service cuts is almost like watching a game or sports contest, where they are keeping a running total and breathlessly reporting on the cuts like they are a bad thing.

Why?

It’s as if they are gamifying and reporting on job losses like keeping score.

The axe is falling on the public service, with major job cuts looming in the weeks and months ahead.

As of May 6, Stuff had confirmed that 3925 roles* have been – or are proposed to be – disestablished, as part of the cost savings drive.

This week, Stuff has updates on cuts at MBIE.

The latest proposal comes from the Ministry of Education, where a further 190 roles are likely to be disestablished. In total, 755 roles are set to be disestablished at that ministry.

Stuff

See what I mean; the rest of the article is a rolling score of the cuts in various departments. They have never done this for the private sector, so why the sudden interest in breathlessly reporting public service job cuts?

Is it because they believe that we care about the job losses?

Hard to know, but sure as hell I don’t. In fact, I believe they can cut harder and deeper. I’m astonished that so far they’ve only axed 4000 jobs.

I also believe that most taxpayers will be supportive of the government axing public service jobs held by privileged fat cats who have been taking the piss at the expense of the taxpayer for far too long.

Ronald Reagan once said in 1986, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'”

And that’s the rub. Most people’s interactions with government departments and their staff are largely negative. Ask any parent who has had Oranga Tamariki become interested in their family. Ask anyone who is a tenant of Kainga Ora and being terrorised by other KO tenants. And ask anyone in the freedom community or the firearms community about what they think of the Police.

Yes, we think these cuts are brilliant, don’t go far enough, and media outlets like Stuff don’t reflect how we think on almost any issue.

Which is why we also cheer and celebrate anytime these legacy media outlets falter and stumble towards bankruptcy.

Help Keep The BFD Alive

Expenses are growing, ad revenue is shrinking. Things have to change otherwise we will need to cut services. We don’t want to have to do that. It’s really up to you.

Your Donation
Donation Period *
Details
Payment
Like What You’ve Read?
Become a Member and Directly Support this Author

Please share this article so others can discover The BFD.

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...