Public sector cuts: Where does the front-line end?

Labour is criticising the government for not specifically ruling out cuts to roles it says are front line services - such as border security or teams dealing with child exploitation - as part of its plans to shrink the public service.

Labour's public services spokesperson Camilla Belich says these are people that manage "real and prevalent risks" to the country, and New Zealanders would be concerned to see those jobs diminished or gone.

But the public services minister says Labour is just "looking for stories".

The government plans to slash public service jobs by about 14 percent over the next three years in a shake-up it says will deliver $2.4 billion worth of savings.

The changes - announced last month - would result in about 8700 job losses by mid-2029.

During a scrutiny hearing last week, Public Services Minister Paul Goldsmith was asked which front-line roles would be safe, but he would not specify because the process was underway.

He said every government department had a mix of front-line services and back office. He added that he would not "have an endless argument about this person here and that person there, and who's going to happen there".

The government has confirmed roles such as police, teachers and nurses would be exempt.

Asked to explain what it considered "front-line", Labour told RNZ it would be roles that involved direct, real-world delivery of services to people or critical situations.

A number of Written Parliamentary Questions from Labour to various ministers asked whether specific teams or programmes were exempt from the public service job cuts, including:

MPI's Biosecurity New Zealand business unit and animal welfare inspectorate

MSD's Office for Seniors

DoC's Aoraki/Mt Cook Alpine Rescue Team and the Kākāpō Recovery Programme

DIA's Child Exploitation Team and the gambling harm minimisation function as well as the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering

Financing of Terrorism supervision function.

ACC's Sensitive Claims Service

Oranga Tamariki's National Contact Centre

MOJ's Te Puna Aonui's 'addressing family violence and sexual violence' work programme

Department of Corrections's Specialist Treatment Units

None of the responses ruled out the cuts, and most repeatedly stated the process was still underway.

Belich told RNZ it showed how little thought the government had put into its proposal to axe thousands of jobs.

"We're talking about people who work at our borders, we're talking about people who work online to tackle child exploitation, we're talking about biosecurity."

She said the government had the opportunity to rule out cuts to these particular roles, "and they haven't".

In other instances, Belich said ministers had been clear certain functions were exempt.

Veterans' Affairs New Zealand's case management service was exempt from the job cuts, along with New Zealand Police's district Child Protection Teams and Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand team.

Belich was also told the Cancer Control Agency's cancer control leadership function would remain, and the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai's drinking water regulation function was also not included.

Asked whether New Zealand Customs Service's Border Operations group and Child Exploitation Operations Team were exempt from the job cuts, Customs Minister Casey Costello said the government announced measures to transform the public service, and she was advised Customs was "considering the implications of the transformation programme".

"Customs has not disestablished any roles as a consequence of the savings announced in Budget 2026."

Separately, crown entities such as FENZ and its Urban Search and Rescue team and Maritime New Zealand's Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand were exempt from the job cuts, but would be subject to the baseline budget savings of 2 percent this year, and 5 percent the next.

Belich said it was concerning that Labour's had to ask line by line questions to "even know who's in scope, who's out of scope of these cuts".

"Losing resources in those areas will mean that we're putting less emphasis on it, and it does mean that there's a likelihood that those jobs won't be done as well as they are now."

Goldsmith said "particular little units" can be looked at throughout, but that was the process department heads will go through.

"We've seen our clear expectation that we're not focusing on front-line activities.

"People like police and doctors and nurses are not part of this process, but within each department, there'll be particular lines that they'll need to draw."

He said the government had "lots of detail" as part of its proposal.

"But we're going through a process relying on our chief executives to work through that carefully."