Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Max Salmon: NZ Initiative Researcher on the study comparing the size of New Zealand's government to similar countries

Max Salmon: NZ Initiative Researcher on the study comparing the size of New Zealand's government to similar countries

Published: March 26, 2024, 8:21 p.m.

The New Zealand Government seems to be a bit bloated.\xa0

A study from New Zealand Initiative shows New Zealand has 44% more ministers, and one and a half times as many departments as similar sized Parliaments.\xa0

Researcher Max Salmon told Mike Hosking that it\u2019s all politics, as having extra portfolios can be useful for coalition negotiations and securing allies.\xa0

He suspects that the number of departments and ministers is contributing to the productivity issues this country faces.\xa0

While Salmon doesn\u2019t know if there\u2019s a magic number of ministers, similar countries only have about 20 cabinet ministers total.\xa0

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