David Seymour has revealed his hit list, and it says everything about New Zealand's identity crisis. The ACT Party leader wants to axe the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Ministry of Māori Development, and four other agencies - consolidating them all into the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage.
Mate, you can't claim to be a Pacific nation while treating Pacific Peoples as a cultural curiosity to be filed away under "Heritage."
The proposed cuts, announced this week, target the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Ministry of Māori Development, Ministry of Women, Ministry of Ethnic Communities, Ministry of Youth, and Ministry of Seniors. Seymour's pitch is efficiency: too many small agencies "spending time and money justifying their existence instead of one ministry focused on delivering essential services."
He's got a point about bureaucratic bloat. New Zealand has 41 government departments, and many do duplicate work. Each ministry maintains separate executive leadership, communications teams, policy divisions, and admin functions. That's expensive.
But here's the thing: these aren't just efficiency questions. They're statements about national priorities. The Ministry of Pacific Peoples isn't an administrative nicety - it's recognition that New Zealand sits in the Pacific, has the world's largest Pacific Islander population outside the islands themselves, and needs institutional capacity to engage with the region.
At a time when China and the United States are competing fiercely across the Pacific - signing security pacts, offering infrastructure deals, building influence - Wellington is considering whether Pacific engagement even deserves dedicated ministerial attention. That's a hell of a signal to send to Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and the rest.
The Ministry of Māori Development raises even sharper questions about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Crown's obligations to tangata whenua. Folding it into "Arts, Culture and Heritage" suggests Māori interests are historical artifacts rather than living Treaty partnerships. That won't fly, and Seymour knows it.
The broader reform package is characteristically ambitious for ACT: reduce departments to a maximum of 30, limit ministerial positions to 20 (all in Cabinet), and eliminate most associate portfolios except finance and immigration. Seymour frames this as cutting waste and improving accountability.
Notably, none of the targeted ministries are currently led by ACT ministers. They're all headed by National ministers except Seniors, which is run by NZ First's Casey Costello. When pressed about applying the same logic to his own Regulation Ministry, Seymour acknowledged it could theoretically merge elsewhere - but defended its value based on demonstrated savings.
Translation: efficiency is for other people's portfolios.
The political reality is that Seymour is operating from a position of unusual influence. ACT won 8.6% in the last election - its best result ever - and is the junior partner in a coalition with National and NZ First. Christopher Luxon's government needs ACT's support, which gives Seymour leverage to push his small-government agenda.
But proposing to eliminate the Pacific Peoples and Māori Development ministries isn't just fiscal conservatism. It's a fundamental reassessment of what New Zealand is and where it belongs. At a moment when regional engagement matters more than ever, Seymour wants to signal that Pacific and Māori affairs are second-tier concerns - worthy of a sub-department, maybe, but not dedicated institutional weight.
That's a choice, and it has consequences. Australia is investing heavily in Pacific diplomacy, infrastructure, and security partnerships. China is doing the same. If New Zealand decides Pacific engagement doesn't warrant a dedicated ministry, don't be surprised when Wellington's influence in the region shrinks accordingly.
Efficiency matters. But so does showing up. And you can't show up if you've decided the Pacific isn't worth a seat at the table.
