Nicola Willis tasks foxes to guard the hen house for Budget 2026

Responding to the Newsroom piece published today revealing that Nicola Willis has, again, requested public service bosses to examine their spending to see where savings can be made, the Taxpayers' Union says Ministers need to do their job and 'take back control' for the sake of taxpayers.

"Asking bureaucrats to cut their own spending is asking turkeys to vote for an early Christmas. Savings offered up will be minuscule, or deliberately designed to be politically painful. Despite what some believe, public sector bosses aren't idiots: they will resist reducing the size of their own fiefdoms."

"This is déjà vu. The Minister of Finance tried the same strategy for Budget 2024 and Budget 2025. Both actually increased Grant Robertson's so-called 'addiction to spending' which Willis had promised to tackle. Why will the results be any different this time around?"

"Spending prioritisation should sit with Ministers, not shuffled on down to CEOs. With Treasury sounding the fiscal klaxons, now is the time for Ministerial razor gangs, not fiscal pillow fights."

"But most concerningly, even when savings are sent to Willis's office, they appear to be ignored. Last week Stuff reported that Associate Minister of Finance, David Seymour, identified more than $3 billion in the lead up to Budget 2025, but Willis rejected all but four percent of the proposed savings."

"The Government's total failure to follow through on its promise to reduce the size of government has seen per‑person GDP lower now than when it was elected into office, with Government spending even higher as a proportion of the economy and continuing to fuel the cost of living crisis."

"Who is actually controlling public finances in New Zealand – the elected Ministers or the unelected bureaucrats? Willis makes it hard to tell, and the electorate is sensing that."