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Labour’s Māori and regional development spokesperson says it’s not just the Māori bureaucracy that needs to look at moving out of Wellington.
Shane Jones has upset some of the paper shufflers by suggesting agencies like the Māori broadcast funding agency and the Māori language commission could save money and be effective by moving closer to their stakeholders.
He says while there have been howls from public servants who don’t want to relocate out of Wellington, there is also concern at the National Government’s centralisation of state activity, with the planned closure of the AgResearch centre in Dunedin the latest example.
"If we do have more of the bureaucracy located in our regions, it’s good for the regions. It increases the diversity of jobs, it increases the opportunity for people in the regions to offer their premises for rent, the families will have an opportunity to get those kinds of jobs, I think it’s a really good idea and I think it’s something a host of my colleagues are really keen on and we’re doing quite a bit of work on it behind the scenes," Mr Jones says.
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