By 3 News Online staff
The Government is expected to announce new measures later this week aimed at making further cuts to the public sector.
An announcement is due on Thursday, but 3 News has revealed part of the plan may include a "super merger" of several Government departments into one and as many as 2500 job cuts.
“I don’t think you should speculate on those numbers because firstly I’m not sure they would be accurate and secondly it’s important to understand how that takes place,” Prime Minister John Key told Firstline this morning.
He says most job cuts are simply made through attrition as people leave their jobs.
The Prime Minister is denying claims any potential cut-backs in the public sector are over-zealous.
“What the Government has said is that it wants to save $1b over three years out of the core state sector… we’ve also said we’re not going to merge, just for the sake of merging,” he says.
“I think it’s important to understand what’s going on here, which is the Government is having to live within its means, it’s not unusual that New Zealand is doing that if you look around the world,” he says.
Mr Key says changes the Government is making to the public sector are extreme but necessary.
3 News
source: newshub archive
