QLDC staff outnumber TVNZ - so why no council cuts?

Analysis.

We’ve been comparing the business response of TVNZ to the current tough economic conditions with the strategy of the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

In short TVNZ has trimmed staff on a number of occasions in the past 18 months in order to save a necessary $30 million.

The NZ Herald's Media Insider column Shayne Currie noted the following.

“Only two years ago, TVNZ had about 730 staff. Its latest annual report shows 600 staff – but that number is now believed to be about 550 as a result of recent job losses, including those in the newsroom.”

TVNZ has been cutting $30 million in costs and from what we can see from their annual reports, the national broadcaster does not carry any debt or significant bank overdrafts.

Interestingly the QLDC and TVNZ have roughly equal revenue numbers with TVNZ’s revenue being slightly higher than QLDC.

But of course the QLDC has a captive and non-competitive/monopoly market (ratepayers and property developers) and over $600 million of debt.

So why is QLDC not cutting staff? Many other councils across NZ are making cuts and even complete re-organisation moves to improve efficiency.

Kim Bowden asked exactly this question back in 2022 and she discovered that the QLDC actually employs twice as many staff as our neighbouring councils - per head of population.

QLDC staff at a team building event in 2022 - at that stage there were 579 of them, with 52 unfilled vacancies.

Kim figured that QLDC employed 101 staff on a more than $100,000 salary and one QLDC staff member for every 89 ratepayers.

Next door, at the Central Otago District Council, the ratio was one to 140, in Dunedin, one to 154, and in Invercargill, one to 173.

Here’s the figures supplied to Crux by respective council spokespeople for Kim Bowden’s article, with population data sourced from the 2018 Census night count-up.

• The Central Otago District Council has 230 employees, who together make up the equivalent of 154 full-timers. The official population count is 21,558.

• The Invercargill City Council has 432 employees, who together make up the equivalent of 312 full-timers. The official population count is 54,204.

• The Dunedin City Council has 1,095 employee, who together make up the equivalent of 818 full-timers. The official population count is 126,255.

The QLDC declined to comment on comparisons between its employee numbers and those of neighbouring councils.

It appears that the TVNZ approach of no debt and robust cost cutting is the exact opposite of the Queenstown Lakes District Council where debt per household is expected to hit one billion dollars, or $50,000 per household, in just five years time.

In the meantime it looks as though CEO Mike Theelen has some time on his hands. How wrote to Crux on Monday last week saying that we’ve been upsetting his comms and PR staff with our questions about debt and sewage etc.

Mr Theelen then goes on to make this dark threat:

“The media form a vital part in the democratic process and in supporting transparent and accountable decision making. If there are new and valid lines of enquiry that respect the common principles of responsible journalism, we will continue to respond accordingly.

“If you continue to show scant regard for the truth in your reporting, or common civility in your treatment of Council and its staff, the Council, at its discretion, will decide to cease engagement with you.”

“I trust that your organisation will respond positively to this, and I hope for a professional and productive engagement moving forward.”

Crux has no plans to change our questioning of the QLDC and you could say that Mr Theelen’s recent 15.5% pay increase is another example of the difference of approach between TVNZ and the QLDC to tough economic times.

We also wish his QLDC comms people would tell us the truth about procurement, sewage failures, Lakeview etc - there would be a lot less work for them if they just would do that one simple thing. Tell us the truth.

If they did that then maybe we’d need to employ less of them?