Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on the public service reform, experimenting with AI to streamline tasks

Another swathe of Government agency job cuts and public sector reform.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis says they want to return the public servant headcount to 1% of the population by mid-2029, culling about 8,700 jobs.  Government agency operating budgets will again be reduced – 2% now, increasing over following years.  Willis says they will also thin out the ministries, pointing to savings it'll bring.  She says they expect to hire more nurses, Police officers, and others in critical frontline roles.  Willis says AI is “incredible” at slashing the amount of time needed for mundane tasks, revealing her staff used it to write a report on public service reform.  She told Mike Hosking the Government was streamlining agencies and embedding AI and digitisation, and asking the public service to "get out of the 80s".  She was experimenting with AI in her own office.  “Instead of one of my analysts spending half a day coming up with a document, they said to AI, ‘Have a look at public service reform around the world, tell us who's done what, what seems to have worked well, what hasn't’.  “And 10 minutes later, you've got a beautiful document with some guidance and some advice.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.