Two fewer Ministers, same no of staff
I’ve been monitoring ministerial staff numbers since 2008 as it useful to track if Ministers are loading their offices up with communications and political staff, at taxpayer expense.
In 2008 under Clark there were 286 staff. In 2017 under English there were 275. In 2018 Ardern had bloated it to 312 staff.
A count up of staff according to their January 2019 listing shows also 312 staff. But of interest is there are now two fewer Ministers. The average Minister employs 10 staff so you’d expect up to 20 fewer staff, but the level has remained the same.
The breakdown of staff is:
- Managers 33
- Communications 41
- Political 37
- Portfolio 146
- Admin 45