Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is consulting its staff on another round of job cuts, with a proposal on the table to remove 84 jobs, primarily affecting women.
It comes on top of two earlier proposals to meet the government's demand for a 6.5 percent reduction in spending - one was announced earlier this month, which would see 68 roles disestablished, but replaced with new roles, meaning nobody would be put out of work.
Another, announced in April last year, would see a loss of 130 roles.
Now, Mike Tully, deputy director-general for organisation support, said the agency was consulting staff on a proposal for support functions - "seeing if we can take advantage of new technology and simpler systems to reduce the admin load on our people".
A total of 168 roles would be impacted: 149 roles across DOC's support functions were proposed for disestablishment, 18 of which were currently vacant, and 19 proposed to have changes in their reporting lines. However, 65 new roles would be created, meaning a net loss of 84 roles overall.
"DOC is always looking at how we can be more agile, working better to make the biggest difference for conservation we can, while finding efficiencies within the context of fiscal and environmental challenges," he said.
"Health and safety will always be a top priority for DOC. We are working with our people and the PSA every step of the way, and we ask that potentially affected people's privacy be respected during this process."
He acknowledged the cuts disproportionally affected women, but "this has played no role in our decision making".
"For context, 52.7 percent of DOC staff are women, and women hold 44 percent of our senior leadership positions," he said.
He said DOC was committed to maintaining a diverse workforce, reflecting the communities it serve, and ensuring everyone had the opportunity to thrive in an inclusive and welcoming culture.
But the PSA said more than 90 percent of those set to lose their livelihoods were women, and it had come two weeks after their pay equity claim was cancelled.
The jobs were set to be axed by July 2026.
National secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said it was a graphic example of how the burden of the government's squeeze on public service funding was falling disproportionally on women.
It was set to affect staff at 38 locations from Invercargill to the far North.
"The current support staff have sizeable health and safety responsibilities, such as monitoring staff radio systems and helping to manage emergencies like fires," she said. "The loss of these team members will mean that these important duties will fall on others - and pose a significant health and safety risk."
The proposal would also see many of the affected workers, who are on DOC's lowest pay bands, competing with their colleagues for part-time roles, she said.
The continued squeeze on DOC funding ultimately put its projects - and New Zealand's natural environment - at risk, Fitzsimons said.
When the coalition government came to power in 2023, it set out to slash public spending, pledging to "move resources out of bureaucracy and into the front line".
As a result, jobs across the public sector were on the chopping block.
It followed a 34 percent growth in the public service between 2017 and 2024, much of which was under the Labour government.
The coalition's cuts were slammed by the opposition and unions, but Finance Minister and then Public Service Minister Nicola Willis said the public had not got bang for buck under the former government.
