DOC wants to shake up its communications team. The union says that means cutting 28 jobs.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) has put a proposal to its communications team that the Public Service Association (PSA) says would scrap the department's entire media unit and shrink the team from 83 roles to 55.
DOC director of strategic communications and engagement Fiona Weightman confirmed that proposed changes had been put to staff on Thursday 20 August 2026. She said no decisions had been made (RNZ).
The PSA laid out the detail. According to the union, 33 positions would be cut and 37 new positions created, while 25 fixed-term roles would end naturally and three new fixed-term roles would be established. The net reduction, as the union frames it, is 28 roles (RNZ).
DOC did not confirm the union's figures.
The communications restructure is not the full picture. The PSA also says DOC is proposing another round of job cuts adding up to the loss of 84 support roles across the department. According to the union, the broader proposal would disestablish 149 roles in total and create 65 new ones (PSA).
The PSA says the cuts are a result of the Government tightening funding for conservation. That framing places DOC within a wider pattern across the public service, where government agencies have been cutting roles after the Treasury and Cabinet told them to reduce spending.
Several things make cutting DOC's communications team more complicated right now. H5N1 bird flu has been detected in New Zealand, and DOC has been asking the public to report wildlife events, including vehicle damage at Klondyke Corner Campsite in Arthur's Pass National Park (DOC). The department's media and communications team is the main way DOC issues public advisories, asks people to report sightings, and coordinates biosecurity responses. Cutting that capacity while a serious bird disease is present in the country raises a straightforward question for ministers and DOC leadership: can a smaller team still get public information out as quickly and as often?
The broader context here is that DOC is also announcing new conservation funding. Conservation Minister Tama Potaka recently announced $9.2 million in DOC Community Fund grants to 20 community groups, $1.7 million for two projects on Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Islands, and $521,733 to Te Taumutu Rūnanga for wetland restoration at Muriwai o Whata (Coopers Lagoon) (DOC). Expanding community conservation programmes while proposing to cut the in-house communications team is something opposition MPs and the PSA are likely to raise in Parliament and at select committee hearings, where MPs scrutinise DOC's budget.
For the staff directly affected, the proposal is now in consultation. Weightman's statement that no decisions have been made is standard for agencies during a change process. It means the figures the PSA has published are proposals, not final decisions. The gap between the union's detailed numbers and DOC's refusal to confirm them is also typical: departments usually decline to discuss specific role counts while consultation is under way, citing the confidentiality of the process.
What stands out is the scale of change within the communications team. A team of 83 losing 33 positions and gaining 37 new ones is not a trim. It is a rebuild. The PSA's claim that the entire media and communications unit would be disestablished, if accurate, suggests DOC is proposing to take apart its existing communications set-up rather than simply reduce it. Whether the 37 new positions would carry out the same functions or represent a different way of working is a question DOC has not yet answered publicly.
The PSA will be looking at whether the new roles pay the same, whether affected staff have a clear path into them, and whether the proposed structure keeps the specialist media advisory capacity DOC relies on during biosecurity events, search and rescue operations, and conservation law enforcement. The union's decision to lead with the disestablishment of the entire media and communications unit signals where it thinks the proposal is weakest.
DOC's communications team has long been the channel for a steady stream of public messaging: species recovery updates, pest control operations, marine mammal strandings, rāhui notices from iwi, and safety advisories. The department's own website carries recent examples, from H5N1 detection through to vehicle damage at Arthur's Pass. Each of those messages requires someone to write, approve, and send out. The question the restructure poses is whether 55 roles can do what 83 currently do, and whether the new structure keeps the same functions or just the headcount label.
