Date:  23 May 2024

Attributed to Penny Nelson, DOC Director-General 

Like all government agencies, DOC has been directed to find 6.5% savings from its budget to meet the Government’s savings target. On top of this, we also need to fund cost pressures of approximately $7m for the next financial year (2024/25).

Over the past few months, we have identified areas where we could make savings, which included looking at the number of positions we have, our operating expenditure and programmes where the funding is ring fenced and funding is yet to be drawn down yet.  We have tried to minimise the impact on DOC staff and on the conservation outcomes we are seeking.

We have consulted with our staff on the people change proposals and received 632 responses from within the organisation, as well as a submission from the Public Service Association. DOC’s Senior Leadership Team carefully considered this feedback when making final decisions.

Today we announced that following this consultation, DOC will have 124 fewer positions overall. We will disestablish 257 permanent positions and create 133. 114 of the disestablished positions are currently vacant. We are working to transfer as many of our current staff as possible to these new roles through a management of change process to implement the changes by 1 July 2024.

These changes mean DOC will need to prioritise our work carefully, so we are focusing our effort on the work that makes the biggest difference for nature. We also need to adapt to future cost pressures, so are also changing how we organise and do our work in some areas.

The decisions about programmes and operating expenditure will be communicated as part of Budget 2024.

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