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New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says the Department of Conservation's spin that job cuts will improve efficiency doesn't wash.
Some iwi have expressed alarm at the news that the department is cutting 140 staff, with concerns many of those are likely to be people who iwi have developed relationships with.
Mr Peters says if chief executive Al Morrison can suddenly find that many staff surplus to requirements, it indicates he wasn't doing his job earlier.
“Everyone who lives out in the countryside and half of New Zealand knows that DOC is severely understaffed for the role that they’ve got. So out there in the countryside, alot of people are doing the job for themselves. I think that this cut is purely and savagely designed to try and get the books balanced no matter what and as a consequence our environmental standards, which is not as good as it should be will drop,” says Winston Peters.
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