Core public service agencies spend $420m on consultants, contractors in 9 months to March
Photo:
Unsplash
New figures show core public service agencies spent $420 million on consultants and contractors in a nine-month period to March.
The spend has fallen to just 4.5 percent of the total wage bill of 38 core agencies.
The [https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/research-and-data/workforce-data-public-sector-composition/workforce-data-workforce-size
Public Service Commission] says this is the lowest since measurement began seven years ago.
The Education Ministry was far and away the biggest spender for the nine months, shelling out $146m.
The spending by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment has plummeted from high levels several years ago, to just $24m; the Ministry of Social Development has dropped a lot, too, to $31m, though these two major ministries were still among the biggest spenders in the period to March 2025.
Only the core agencies are counted for this, leaving out the likes of big spenders such as Defence and Police.
Once those two, and all Crown entities and non-core departments are counted in, the total spend for the nine months was $1.22 billion, split half and half between capital and operating spending.
Often, capital spending on contractors is tied up with IT upgrades, while operating spending is on recruitment firms to hire temp workers to plug holes.
National pledged in the election to cut $400m a year in operational - not capital - spending on contractors by the end of the 2024-25 financial year - end of June - compared to 2022-23.
Halfway there, at the end of 2023-24, it had dropped $274m.
In the year to June 2024, the total spend was almost $1b and two years ago it was $1.2b.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
The Politics Panel for 23 Jully 2025
Wallace Chapman and the Politics Panel discuss and analyse the main political stories of the day. He is joined this week by RNZ's Corin Dann, the NZ Herald's Fran O'Sullivan and former government minister Phil Goff. On the slate today: Nicola Willis says Kiwis are not getting a raw deal from high butter prices (after meeting the CEO of Fonterra); Defence Minister Judith Collins told a crowd of graduating Army recruits last week that they should prepare for "combat"; just 38 percent of respondents to a Talbot Mills poll say the government deserved a second term; is the government using locla councils as a whipping boy and National seems to have found a bright spot in one area of it's party policy: Education. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.

1News
10 hours ago
- 1News
Trump announces trade deal with Japan, lowers threatened tariff to 15%
President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan on Tuesday, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from that nation. 'This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it,' Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that the United States "will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan". The president said Japan would invest "at my direction" US$550 billion (NZ$914 billion) into the US and would "open" its economy to American autos and rice. The 15% tax on imported Japanese goods is a meaningful drop from the 25% rate that Trump, in a recent letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said would be levied starting August 1. Early Wednesday, Ishiba acknowledged the new trade agreement, saying it would benefit both sides and help them work together. With the announcement, Trump is seeking to tout his ability as a dealmaker — even as his tariffs, when initially announced in early April, led to a market panic and fears of slower growth that for the moment appear to have subsided. Key details remained unclear from his post, such as whether Japanese-built autos would face a higher 25% tariff that Trump imposed on the sector. ADVERTISEMENT But the framework fits a growing pattern for Trump, who is eager to portray the tariffs as win for the US. His administration says the revenues will help reduce the budget deficit and more factories will relocate to America to avoid the import taxes and cause trade imbalances to disappear. The wave of tariffs continues to be a source of uncertainty about whether it could lead to higher prices for consumers and businesses if companies simply pass along the costs. The problem was seen sharply Wednesday after General Motors reported a 35% drop in its net income during the second quarter as it warned that tariffs would hit its business in the months ahead, causing its stock to tumble. A staff member distributes an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting that President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan (Source: Associated Press) As the August 1 deadline for the tariff rates in his letters to world leaders is approaching, Trump also announced a trade framework with the Philippines that would impose a tariff of 19% on its goods, while American-made products would face no import taxes. The president also reaffirmed his 19% tariffs on Indonesia. The US ran a US$69.4 billion (NZ$115 billion) trade imbalance on goods with Japan last year, according to the Census Bureau. America had a trade imbalance of US$17.9 billion (NZ$29 billion) with Indonesia and an imbalance of US$4.9 billion (NZ$8.1 billion) with the Philippines. Both nations are less affluent than the US and an imbalance means America imports more from those countries than it exports to them. The president is set to impose the broad tariffs listed in his recent letters to other world leaders on August 1, raising questions of whether there will be any breakthrough in talks with the European Union. At a Wednesday dinner, Trump said the EU would be in Washington on Thursday for trade talks. ADVERTISEMENT "We have Europe coming in tomorrow, the next day," Trump told guests. The President, earlier this month, sent a letter threatening the 27 member states in the EU with 30% taxes on their goods to be imposed starting on August 1. The Trump administration has a separate negotiating period with China that is currently set to run through August 12 as goods from that nation are taxed at an additional 30% baseline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would be in the Swedish capital of Stockholm next Monday and Tuesday to meet with his Chinese counterparts. Bessent said his goal is to shift the American economy away from consumption and to enable more consumer spending in the manufacturing-heavy Chinese economy. "President Trump is remaking the US into a manufacturing economy," Bessent said on the Fox Business Network show Mornings with Maria. "If we could do that together, we do more manufacturing, they do more consumption. That would be a home run for the global economy."

RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
The Panel with Jo McCarroll and Mark Knoff-Thomas Part 1
Tonight on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Jo McCarroll and Mark Knoff-Thomas. First they discuss the RNZ story by Guyon Espiner about NZ First's relationship to the nicotine industry. They then examine proposed changes to allow more housing on food productive land, and, finally, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says New Zealanders are not getting a raw deal on butter: discuss! To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.