Māku te ra e tō ana; kei a koe te urunga ake o te rā

18/9/2023

This election, I’m looking for a politician who understands that the sun is setting on New Zealand and the dawn of the new day that is Aotearoa.

That is not as radical as it sounds. It is simply a maturing and growing up of our nation.

But we need a politician or group of politicians that can lead us through that change with empathy, with honesty and with courage.

Since the mid-1990s, governments across the world have been experimenting with different kinds of deliberative governance. While this has been, in part, a response to declining trust in government and the need to demonstrate greater transparency and accountability, there have also been other significant drivers.

One of those drivers has been the impact of post-modernity on public institutions. It is an uneasy time for elected and senior officials: on the one hand, they are expected to deal with increasing complexity, inexplicability and intractability while at the same time, they are expected to be integrating and building on the strengths of plurality, constantly shifting alliances, and demands for greater participation and deliberation.

A second driver has been the demand for responsive public services, particularly a preference for more affordable, communicative, reintegrative, and procedurally fair public services, as well as regulatory systems that shape compliance rather than just correcting noncompliance.

The main driver here in Aotearoa has been the rise of deliberative governance in the context of both Te Tiriti as well as the role of local government in response to emergencies and crisis events: for example, the Iwi/Māori response to COVID and the local authority responses to the Canterbury sequences of earthquakes, the 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

The solutions are found locally, often in the sub-nation state institutions. Whether they are local authorities, iwi and hapū institutions, school and kura communities or catchment areas, suffice it to say we need elected representatives who get this and can govern nationally while delivering value locally.

Disclaimer

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 you’re looking for. These in...

Ahakoa he iti kete, he iti nā te a …

Kia ora, and welcome I’m starting a blog. I’m as surprised as you are. This is a place to jot down my evolving thoughts about public administration, policy, and delivery in Aotearoa: beneath the surface and between the relays of elected and unelected officials. It will be about the undercurrents. Not the tired critiques or the glossy promises, but the patterns, tensions, compromises,...

The First Four

Before I begin, I want to mihi to Hon Shane Jones. In the House yesterday, he reminded us of the first four rangatira who first stepped into Parliament on behalf of Māori. He did more than recite names: he called us to remember them properly, to see them as political actors who helped shape the country. In 1868, four Māori leaders: Frederick Nene Russell, Wiremu Katene, John Patterson, an...

Getting Regulation Right: Being Res …

Regulation often gets a mixed reputation. Some see it as unnecessary red tape, slowing things down and making life harder for businesses and communities. Others worry that it's too weak and fails to properly protect people and the environment. What both views have in common is frustration with regulation that seems disconnected from the real world. But good regulation doesn't have...

Was I Too Quick to Judge the Nine Q …

I was pretty critical of the last government for refusing to name outcome areas or set any shared targets for the public management system. They didn’t want to be pinned down. They said it was about flexibility and complexity, but in practice, it made it hard to know what mattered, who was responsible, or what success even looked like. And most importantly, in today’s always-on political e...