When the government proposed sacking 25% of MFAT and halve the pay of its overseas staff, critics pointed out that this could seriously undermine the entire department, and its foreign service in particular. And indeed it has, with a survey from the Foreign Service Association - the organisation representing NZ diplomats overseas - showing that they are unwilling to work under these conditions:
In a survey of members, 73% of respondents working abroad for New Zealand said they were either considering returning to New Zealand before the scheduled end of their posting or resigning as a consequence of the proposed changes.And they're right. Who wants to go through the hassle of uprooting your life and relocating to a foreign country for a short-term contract? You need serious money for that. If MFAT won't offer that money, then people won't go. It's that simple.Of those in Wellington who would replace them, 66% of respondents said they would be less likely to consider a posting abroad as a consequence of the changes, and a further 25% said they are considering resignation.
But apart from effectively destroying our foreign service. National's cuts also create another danger: leaks and espionage. The classic formula for why leakers and spies betray their confidences is MICE: money, ideology, compromise, or ego. MFAT has just given its overseas staff two of those: a need for money, and a grudge. That's a bad idea when people are handling sensitive or classified information. But as with National's other cuts, the costs will show up on someone else's watch, so they just don't care.
