These are my evolving thoughts, rhetorical positions and creative provocations. They are not settled conclusions. Content should not be taken as professional advice, official statements or final positions. I reserve the right to learn, unlearn, rethink and grow. If you’re here to sort me neatly into left vs right, keep moving. I’m not the partisan...
The Visitation and the Ghost This is the sixteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional and institutional arrangements. Over the previous four months, I have slowly worked through two bodies of literature: the public administration scholarship that describes the institutional machinery within which advice operates, and the...
Public Comment: Hāpai Public Has Been Supporting the public sector for 90 years
24/03/2026
To mark Hāpai Public’s 90th anniversary, I spoke with Kathy Young, editor of the Public Sector Journal, about the importance of Hāpai Public and some of its most significant contributions.
The Free and Frank Series: The Relational Substrate
21/02/2026
This is the fifteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Over the past three posts, I have tested the advisory relationship against three traditions of political theory: consent, public reasoning, and non-domination. Each illuminated a different dimension of the space within which free and frank advice...
The Free and Frank Series: A Non-Domination Guardrail?
07/02/2026
This is the fourteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s institutional arrangements. Having tested the advisory relationship against consent theory and rationalism and found both insufficient, I turn this week to a third tradition: civic republicanism and Philip Pettit (1997)’s (1997) concept of freedom as non-domination. By the...
The Free and Frank Series: The Expert’s Dilemma and When Knowing Better Isn’t Enough
17/01/2026
This is the thirteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Last time, I showed that consent theory cannot resolve the tension at the heart of the advisory relationship. This week, I turn to a second tradition: rationalism, which locates legitimate authority not in democratic consent but...
The Free and Frank Series: The Officials Nobody Elected
27/12/2025
This is the twelfth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Having assembled the conceptual toolkit, I now turn to a question the toolkit alone cannot answer: on what basis do unelected officials claim the authority to advise elected ministers? This week, I examine what the consent...
This is the eleventh instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s institutional arrangements. Having assembled the conceptual toolkit from the public administration literature, I now turn to a question the toolkit alone cannot answer: on what basis do unelected officials claim the authority to advise elected ministers? This week,...
The Free and Frank Series: The Public Administration Toolkit Assembled So Far
20/12/2025
This is the eleventh instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Over the previous nine posts, I have assembled a conceptual toolkit: the public service bargain, the purple zone, the authorising environment, and the political economy that underlies them all. This week, I pause to gather these...
Disclaimer
01/01/2024
These are my evolving thoughts, rhetorical positions and creative provocations. They are not settled conclusions. Content should not be taken as professional advice, official statements or final positions. I reserve the right to learn, unlearn, rethink and grow. If you’re here to sort me neatly into left vs right, keep moving. I’m not the partisan...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: Where We Have Been
18/04/2026
The Visitation and the Ghost This is the sixteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional and institutional arrangements. Over the previous four months, I have slowly worked through two bodies of literature: the public administration scholarship that describes the institutional machinery within which advice operates, and the...
View articlePublic Comment: Hāpai Public Has Been Supporting the public sector for 90 years
24/03/2026
To mark Hāpai Public’s 90th anniversary, I spoke with Kathy Young, editor of the Public Sector Journal, about the importance of Hāpai Public and some of its most significant contributions.
DownloadThe Free and Frank Series: The Relational Substrate
21/02/2026
This is the fifteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Over the past three posts, I have tested the advisory relationship against three traditions of political theory: consent, public reasoning, and non-domination. Each illuminated a different dimension of the space within which free and frank advice...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: A Non-Domination Guardrail?
07/02/2026
This is the fourteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s institutional arrangements. Having tested the advisory relationship against consent theory and rationalism and found both insufficient, I turn this week to a third tradition: civic republicanism and Philip Pettit (1997)’s (1997) concept of freedom as non-domination. By the...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: The Expert’s Dilemma and When Knowing Better Isn’t Enough
17/01/2026
This is the thirteenth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Last time, I showed that consent theory cannot resolve the tension at the heart of the advisory relationship. This week, I turn to a second tradition: rationalism, which locates legitimate authority not in democratic consent but...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: The Officials Nobody Elected
27/12/2025
This is the twelfth instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Having assembled the conceptual toolkit, I now turn to a question the toolkit alone cannot answer: on what basis do unelected officials claim the authority to advise elected ministers? This week, I examine what the consent...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: Consent Theory
21/12/2025
This is the eleventh instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s institutional arrangements. Having assembled the conceptual toolkit from the public administration literature, I now turn to a question the toolkit alone cannot answer: on what basis do unelected officials claim the authority to advise elected ministers? This week,...
View articleThe Free and Frank Series: The Public Administration Toolkit Assembled So Far
20/12/2025
This is the eleventh instalment in a series exploring what free and frank advice means in Aotearoa’s constitutional arrangements. Over the previous nine posts, I have assembled a conceptual toolkit: the public service bargain, the purple zone, the authorising environment, and the political economy that underlies them all. This week, I pause to gather these...
View article