Ministry of the Environment first to feel cuts

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The first major public service job losses under the new Government loom as the Ministry for the Environment cuts some of its programmes.

Up to 86 ministry jobs could go, which National is blaming on underfunding by the Labour-led government and programmes that were announced but not properly costed by Labour.

Programmes facing the axe include Labour's flagship carbon-neutrality scheme, which would have required all government departments to cut their carbon emissions.

A public recycling scheme, the Bioethics Council and $6 million funding set aside to promote public awareness of sustainable energy use have also been chopped.

The decisions were approved by the Cabinet on Monday but not announced by the Government.

News of the cuts came after Environment Ministry chief executive Paul Reynolds called a meeting of all 300 staff in Wellington yesterday and flew six Christchurch and eight Auckland staff to the meeting.

Labour last night accused the Government of breaking an election promise to cap, but not cut, the public service.

National was cutting important services, Labour state services spokesman Grant Robertson said.

"New Zealanders should be deeply concerned at what is becoming an ongoing jobs cuts programme in the public sector by this Government," he said.

Reynolds said he had outlined a restructuring plan to all staff that would include some positions being "disestablished".

The number of jobs to be cut would be "relatively small".

He said the restructuring was partly to streamline the ministry and make it more effective but also to deal with a 30 per cent cut to baseline funding that the previous government had made.

The cuts to the programmes announced yesterday were all Cabinet decisions, he said, and reflected National's different approach to the environment, which concentrated more on mitigating climate change and improving water quality.

Reynolds said the funding cuts were "problematic" but should not affect the ministry's ability to maintain its core function of protecting and preserving the environment.

News of the cuts comes as other government departments have been told to question expensive programmes.

Two understood to be under scrutiny are the off-peak free travel scheme for superannuitants the Super Gold Card and money provided to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority for home-heating grants.

Prime Minister John Key said the Government had its own programme for home insulation and heating that would replace the one being cut.

"Essentially, the Government has been looking through all of the unfunded liabilities," he said.

"The bulk of the programmes being cut fall into the category of programmes that haven't yet started, are unfunded or don't fall into this Government's priorities."

Key said there were likely to be some job losses at the Environment Ministry, "but not large in number".

Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott said staff had been told 86 positions would be disestablished.

The ministry had been told to save $1.8 million, she said.

Ministry staff workloads were increasing because of changes to the Resource Management Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. It was disappointing the Government was scaling back important work, she said.

Pilott said it was ironic that the Bioethics Council was being axed on the day United States President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research in the US.

The Bioethics Council was set up by Labour in 2002 to guide public decision-making on genetic engineering and biotechnology.

- © Fairfax NZ News