Employees of the new ministry are reportedly paid more than $150,000
ACT leader David Seymour has defended the new Ministry of Regulation after it garnered criticism for paying staff an average salary of more than $150,000, according to reports.
The new ministry, which is overseen by Seymour, is tasked with assessing red tape across sectors and improve regulatory quality across New Zealand.
It will employ more than 90 people and will have a median salary of $154,500, according to data first reported by The Post. This wage is much higher than the public service median of $84,800.
But various groups have criticised the figures reported which came as the government is cutting costs across the public sector.
"David Seymour's new gold-plated regulation bureaucracy shows his hypocrisy," said Labour leader Chris Hipkins on X. "His new regulation ministry will have more than 90 staff earning on average over $150,000 a year. I guess it's just everyone else who needs to tighten their belts eh David…"
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union also said the new ministry is Seymour's "credibility test."
"Taking on the bureaucratic blob was always going to be an uphill battle, but this upstart Ministry seems to be running in completely the wrong direction," said Jordan Williams, the union's executive director, in a statement.
"Seymour needs to lead by example, and has now set himself a tough task to demonstrate value for money from his new gold-plated department."
Seymour defended the new ministry in an interview with Radio New Zealand: "That's good value for money."
According to Seymour, the ministry would be taking on the "needless red tape" across sectors that is costing the country $5 billion.
The ACT leader added that it was "not surprising" that the ministry would have higher-than-average salaries, noting that they are expecting it to drop once temporary roles are replaced with permanent ones, RNZ reported.
On the number of employees, Seymour said that the idea of lifting 10 people from Treasury and 20 people from the Productivity Commission is an "underestimate of how much good we can do."
