DOC proposes major restructure of its communications team, union says 28 roles would go

The Department of Conservation (DOC) has put a restructure proposal to its strategic communications team that the Public Service Association (PSA) says would disestablish the department's entire media and communications unit and reduce the team from 83 roles to 55.

DOC director of strategic communications and engagement Fiona Weightman confirmed that proposed changes to how the communications team is organised had been put to staff on Thursday 20 August 2026. She said no decisions had been made (RNZ).

The PSA outlined the detail of the proposal. According to the union, 33 positions within the communications team would be disestablished and 37 new positions created, while 25 fixed-term roles would naturally come to an end 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 does not capture the full scope of changes the PSA says DOC is proposing. In a separate article, the union reported that DOC is proposing another round of job cuts amounting to the loss of 84 support roles across the department. According to the PSA, the broader proposal would disestablish 149 roles in total and create 65 new ones (PSA).

The PSA characterises the cuts as a consequence of the Government funding squeeze on conservation. The union's framing places DOC within a wider public service pattern: agencies across the state sector have been shedding roles in response to baseline funding cuts and Treasury and Cabinet directives to reprioritise spending.

Several factors sharpen the stakes of cutting DOC's communications capacity at this particular moment. H5N1 bird flu has been detected in New Zealand, and DOC has been calling for public information and reporting on wildlife events, including vehicle damage at Klondyke Corner Campsite in Arthur's Pass National Park (DOC). The department's media and communications functions are the primary channel through which it issues public advisories, appeals for sightings, and coordinates biosecurity responses. Reducing that capacity while a notifiable avian disease is present in the country raises a straightforward operational question for ministers and DOC leadership: whether the proposed structure can sustain the same volume and speed of public-facing communications.

The broader context here is a department simultaneously announcing significant 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). The juxtaposition of expanding community-facing conservation programmes while proposing to dismantle the department's in-house communications unit is one that opposition MPs and the PSA are likely to press in the House and at select committee scrutiny of DOC's Vote Conservation estimates.

For the staff directly affected, the proposal is now in consultation. Weightman's statement that no decisions have been made is the standard formulation agencies use during a change process, and it means the figures the PSA has published remain proposals, not final determinations. The gap between the union's detailed numbers and DOC's refusal to confirm them is consistent with how these processes typically play out: departments routinely decline to discuss specific role counts while consultation is under way, citing the confidentiality of the change process.

What is notable is the scale of the proposed churn within the communications function. 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 dismantle its existing communications architecture rather than pare it back. Whether the 37 new positions represent a restructured team with the same functions or a fundamentally different operating model is a question DOC has not yet answered publicly.

The PSA will be looking for whether the new roles carry the same remuneration, whether affected staff have a clear pathway into them, and whether the proposed structure retains the specialist media advisory capacity that DOC relies on during biosecurity events, search and rescue operations, and conservation law enforcement appeals. The union's decision to lead with the disestablishment of the entire media and communications unit signals where it sees the proposal's vulnerability.

DOC's communications team has historically been the conduit for a steady stream of operational 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 requires someone to draft, clear, and distribute. The question the restructure poses is whether 55 roles can do what 83 currently do, and whether the new structure preserves the functions or merely the headcount label.