Twenty months on the job, the president of Argentina singlehandedly eliminated fiscal deficit. It is now zero percent
of GDP. He cut the number of government
ministries from 18 to 8. Call him funny, nutcase, or whatever you like. He has
been called many names. Here in New Zealand, we have a new ministry of regulation.
It is supposed to eliminate waste. I wonder if anyone knows how must waste it
managed to cut. It seems that the Argentine PM did not need any new bureaucracy
to eliminate waste.
Based on available budget data
and estimates from the 2024/25 fiscal year, a ballpark figure for the total
annual spending of New Zealand’s 30–40 government commissions would likely fall
between NZD 500 million and NZD 1 billion.
Here are some questions. Do
these 30 – 40 commissions provide good value for money services to New Zealanders?
Are they productive? Measuring the productivity of the government is impossible
because output is not clearly quantifiable. I am sure the government has not done
any cost-benefit analysis commission by commission. I have not seen one and I have not heard
about one.
Major commissions with
standalone budgets:
- Office of the Auditor-General: ~$162.8
million
- Office of the Ombudsman: ~$56.4 million
- Serious Fraud Office: ~$17.1 million
- Parliamentary Commissioner for the
Environment: ~$4.4 million
Commissions funded under broader
votes (e.g. Justice, Health, Treasury):
- Human Rights Commission, Electoral
Commission, Law Commission, Privacy Commissioner, Climate Change
Commission, etc.
- These typically receive between NZD 5–30
million each, depending on scope and staffing.
Smaller or specialized
commissions:
- Broadcasting Standards Authority,
Children’s Commissioner, Māori Language Commission, etc.
- Often funded in the NZD 2–10 million
range.
Because many commissions are
embedded within larger departmental votes, their exact allocations aren’t
always published as separate line items. But aggregating known figures and
reasonable estimates across 30–40 commissions indicate that NZD 500M–1B range.