Ryan Bridge: A clean up of Cabinet is overdue

In February last year I wrote a piece for the Herald about government department and ministerial overload. 

It was partly informed by observation and partly by New Zealand Initiative paper on the subject.

Luxon's Government has 81 portfolios, significantly more than similar-sized countries and far more than most larger ones.

Ireland, Norway, Singapore, and Finland all have fewer than 20. The UK, Canada, United States, and Korea have fewer than 30. 

Australia’s population is five times larger than ours, but even they have almost half the number of portfolios.

The number has shot up under MMP.

Winston Peters got the reincarnated rail portfolio. Michael Wood got Auckland. James Meager got the South Island. Judith Collins got space. 

This has all got a bit out of hand. I argued then, as I argue now, there are too many reporting lines and departments designed to report into them. 

We have a plethora of related portfolios that get chopped up and spread out for no good reason; think universities, vocational education, and education.

We have three portfolios for young people; children, child poverty reduction, and youth.

Imagine if we had 15 Ministers with 15 portfolios. If you're health, you're health. If you're transport, you're transport - yes, that would include infrastructure. 

Nicola Willis last week hinted that change was coming; "Wait 'till you see the budget, I think you'll like what's in there". 

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