@cbuddenhagen I guess the bigger question here is how big the NZ government should be relative to our population and the size of our economy. How good do we want our public services to be and how well to we want our environment and economy managed? The World Population Review has a table and map of all the world’s governments relative to their country’s GDP in 2024. NZ was 32nd on the list, a little behind the UK and Iceland and a little ahead of Norway and Canada. It’s seems pretty normal, and average for a developed country. 19 European countries are ahead of us. The US is 49th.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/government-size-by-country