Yet again, New Zealand’s public service is rated at the least corrupt in the world by Transparency International.  It seems the reputation and value of our public service is well-recognised abroad but the absence of any acknowledgement of this by the government, including the Minister of State Services, is noticeable.

By a curious coincidence, this announcement was made on the same day as the Treasury came out with its well-worn advice to the government to cut public spending drastically.  Perhaps it’s time they got some new thinking at Treasury as no-one in this (or the previous) government seems to think their advice is credible.

John Key doubted their analysis, Bill English commented that they have been saying the same thing for the past 20-30 years and he did not plan to follow their advice.  He does, however, plan to cut planned public spending at the next Budget.  We know that departments have been directed yet again to prune their budgets and that another round of cost-cutting by the razor gang is planned for next March.

Next year’s Budget will be a tough one for the public service, which is already under pressure from the 2000 job reduction imposed on it this year.  And wage pressures will need to be dealt with in the Budget.  The government’s intended wage freeze is simply not working, as can be seen by the industrial action being taken by Ministry of Justice and Parliamentary Services PSA members at the moment.

Transparency International gives us one reason why we should value our public servants.  We’d like to see this government value their own public service too.