{"id":444919,"date":"2026-05-25T21:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/444919\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:31:09","slug":"public-sector-cuts-potential-savings-to-be-made-with-hr-payroll-technology-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/444919\/","title":{"rendered":"Public sector cuts: Potential savings to be made with HR, payroll, technology shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has previously<\/a> pointed to HR departments as a potential area to cut spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as possible, I\u2019d like one centralised system that everyone\u2019s working from instead of duplicating and reinventing the wheel across multiple departments,\u201d Willis told Newstalk ZB earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The Government is aiming to reduce the number of departments, increase AI use, and impose a headcount target on the public sector as part of an overall drive for $2.4 billion of savings over the next five years.<\/p>\n

Technology appears to be a significant focus going forward. In the briefing, officials stated government-agency digital \u201cclusters\u201d are set to be established to share information and technology platforms.<\/p>\n

The briefing said it would take shape in the form of \u201clogical groupings of agencies\u201d sharing different categories of ICT systems and digital services, rather than having their own.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith was told the private sector would play a \u201ckey role\u201d in delivering a new digital direction, including plans to further use artificial intelligence, and plans to roll out \u201cdigital public infrastructure\u201d like a government app.<\/p>\n

A target has been imposed to have 10 digital agency clusters underway by June 2028, as well as issuing four million digital identity credentials, and having two million downloads of the government app.<\/p>\n

\u201cDigital can enable government to operate more efficiently as a system and to deliver joined-up, world-class digital government services,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n

Technological changes, including through \u201cmore efficiently structuring government\u201d are tipped to deliver significant cost savings.<\/p>\n

The briefing stated multi-agency technology solutions may cost more or take longer in the short term, but \u201cwill deliver clear benefits and savings for government as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n

By mid-2028, the Government forecasts potential savings between $200m and $330m as a result of the technology services shake-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of year seven, these forecast cumulative savings rise to between $2.3 and $3.7b, rising to between $3.7 and $5.9b by the end of year 10,\u201d the briefing stated.<\/p>\n

Public Service Commission officials also discussed potential work on the \u201crevolving door\u201d between certain sectors and the government \u2013 in what it called an \u201cethical transitions\u201d discussion document.<\/p>\n

The Commission has committed, with the Ministry of Justice, to producing a document exploring the \u201cmovement of individuals (elected and non-elected) between government and private sector roles (often known as the \u201crevolving door\u201d phenomenon) and identify potential options to support individuals to make this transition.”<\/p>\n

The PSC said it would provide more advice on the maa<\/p>\n

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Nicola Willis has previously pointed to HR departments as a potential area to cut spending. \u201cAs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5195,138,227033,10666,227034,219,266,12279,16420,6712,1362,111,139,69,37066,6046,3109,4887,8279,4578,12975,27950,1321,662,5257,17178,145,210,61,102],"class_list":["post-444919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-be","tag-business","tag-costsavings","tag-cuts","tag-duplication","tag-economy","tag-government","tag-hr","tag-human","tag-legal","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-payroll","tag-potential","tag-public","tag-reduce","tag-resources","tag-savings","tag-sector","tag-seeks","tag-services","tag-shakeup","tag-significant","tag-systems","tag-technology","tag-through","tag-to","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}