The government's Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) has proposed to cut 400 roles, with 365 of those being currently vacant.
MCERT was established on July 1, 2026, bringing together the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and the local government function of the Department of Internal Affairs.
Today it announced a proposal to "make the Ministry smaller and more focused" by bringing the work of the four foundation agencies together into one integrated Ministry.
The proposal would reduce the number of roles at the Ministry by 400, from 1675 to 1275 by April 2027.
"Most of that reduction is in 365 roles that are currently vacant. Vacancies have been deliberately managed through MCERT’s establishment to reduce the impact on staff," said chief executive Jeremy Lightfoot.
These five smaller groups would be System Performance, Policy, Planning System, Delivery and Enabling Services. Related work and shared services would come together, with people working across teams where needed.
Lightfoot acknowledged that the proposal brought "real uncertainty for the staff".
"I'm proud of how our people have kept delivering important work for New Zealand while the Ministry formed around them. The leadership team and I have tried to give them as much certainty as we can, as early as we can," he said.
"Like every government agency, we need to live within our budget. For MCERT, that means delivering $50 million in annual savings by 2028/29 while managing the reductions in funding we inherited from our foundation agencies."
Lightfoot said "nothing is final until our people have had their say", and said the organisation would "listen closely".
The consultation process would begin today, and run until November 3 with decisions expected in early December.
Union slams 'reckless' proposal
Duane Leo, from the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi said "ripping apart a ministry in the middle of an election campaign is reckless".
"This is the ministry meant to lead New Zealand's response to climate change, fix our housing shortage, and plan the roads, rail and infrastructure the country badly needs. The Climate Change Commission already says the 2026-2030 emissions budget is at increasing risk, and the Government wants to take a quarter of the people out of the main agency charged with fixing it."
Leo added: "The Ministry's proposal says, 'a smaller organisation cannot simply undertake the same volume of work in the same way'. That's a department telling New Zealanders in black and white that work will stop."
"This proposal will bake in the severe understaffing that MCERT has already been experiencing with 365 already vacant positions and will go even further with a total permanent reduction of 400 roles. When the dust settles, the new organisation will have reduced its total roles by a quarter," he said.
Leo described it as "the hollowing out of the public service in real time" and said it was full of "uncertain outcomes".
"Staff will go into Christmas not knowing until February whether they still have a job. That's a cruel way to treat people who have given so much to this country."
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