(file image) Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
The New Zealand Transport Agency is getting rid of its dedicated road safety policy team, replacing it with a safety director but no specialised staff.
In a statement, NZTA Waka Kotahi said 84 positions would be disestablished in its system leadership group as part of the government's cost-cutting drive.
Twenty of those roles, six of which were vacancies, were in the dedicated road safety policy team.
Total job losses from the agency's cost-cutting drive tally 183.
The new structure will see the position of a safety director established.
In a statement, NZTA said it was confident it would have enough road safety knowledge under the new structure.
"While the team will no longer be organised around the individual outcome area of road safety, new positions in the confirmed structure require a mix of subject matter and generalist expertise, meaning an appropriate level of road safety knowledge will be retained to support NZTA and road safety outcomes."
The new structure would also replace the solely focused environment team, shifting to work that achieved "multiple outcomes", the agency said.
It could not confirm how many people from the original road safety policy team would remain.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the structure of NZTA was ultimately a matter for the board, but he was confident that road safety expertise would remain.
"They've still got a number of people working in road safety, it's one of the four key priorities within the government policy statement on transport," he said.
