Friday, July 25, 2025

The Size of the New Zealand Government

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.