The Public Service Association is labelling the finance minister’s plan to cut more roles as “an act of wilful destruction” with thousands of public sector jobs on the line.

In a pre-Budget speech at midday today, Nicola Willis is expected to announce a plan to cut thousands of public service roles in a bid to reform the sector before the 2026 Budget.

The Herald understands the speech will detail a three-legged plan of public sector reform, which will include continued gradual reduction in public sector headcount.

The move has been met with dismay by the Public Service Association (PSA), which claims it will “further damage the services New Zealanders rely on”.

National secretary Duane Leo said the Government needs to tell Kiwis which services will be lost in the “reckless plan”.

“This is an act of wilful destruction. It will devastate the services New Zealanders rely on every single day. This is irresponsible and reckless and, make no mistake, the price will be high.

“Vague talk of mergers and headcount targets is not good enough.

“Will there be fewer biosecurity officers keeping pests and diseases out of the country? Fewer social workers protecting vulnerable children? Fewer people stopping online harm, child exploitation and scams? Which conservation projects will stop? Which communities will lose access to the services they depend on?”

Willis’ speech will include a push for the public service to join what she called “the AI revolution”, which Leo claimed would turn technology into a “threat rather than a tool”.

“Willis talks about using digitisation and AI as a justification for sacking thousands of workers.

“The PSA has called for an approach to AI that maximises the benefits and prevents negative impacts for workers and the public. Linking AI to an arbitrary headcount target does exactly the opposite - it turns technology into a threat rather than a tool.”

Leo described department mergers as a “recipe for chaos”.

Willis said the public service comprised about 1% of the total population – at about 48,000 – when the last Labour Government took office in 2017, in coalition with NZ First for the first of its two terms.

In December last year, the workforce comprised 63,600, just shy of 1.2% of the population. Increasing public sector headcount by a third in six years had allowed the sector’s headcount to “get out of whack”, Willis said.

Willis would not give a figure for how many public servants she wanted to cut, but said the workforce needed to drop below 60,000.

She told Newstalk ZB she would set a 2029 workforce reduction target.