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…

Ahakoa haere tatou ki hea. Ka haere tahi tatou katoa. Recently, I received messages from friends, family, and clients responding to an article I wrote for e-Tangata. The messages came from a diverse range of people: those on the hauora and regulatory frontlines, current and former public servants, my Australian and Pacific clients, representatives from…

Several readers have asked me to expand on agonism, a concept central to my doctoral work and my understanding of politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. Let me break this down in a way that shows why it matters for our public institutions and policy making. Agonism sits at the heart of how I understand the…

I have ditched Twitter for good (again). The left criticises me for not having blind allegiance or for not engaging in their performative activism, and well, the right demands free peach while resorting to cyberbullying, misogyny, pushing racism, and running weak ideological arguments from the 80s that most of the literature has disproven. Both sides…

For the past six years, I’ve received some pretty nasty emails telling me I’m politically compromised. Usually, they come from the extremes: both left and right. Though for balance: the left challenges my ideas. The right threatens my personal safety. These are not the same emails or the same messages. But, they do raise a…

Somewhere along the way, the public policy advisory system got lazy. It blurred the line between equality and equity, treated them like interchangeable buzzwords, and stopped thinking clearly. The talk is access and outcomes in the Poneketanga, but they design services for sameness. And while they argue over language, the system keeps failing the same…

Okay, as 2017 ends, I am finally able to my doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington to the University of Canterbury. One advisor said to me, “the only PhD is a completed one”. I will blog another time about what it was like studying at Victoria University of Wellington. In the meantime, this post summarises…

I am interested in the persistent tension between professional judgement and managerial practice: a tension that matters greatly for public policy. Managerialism places significant weight on evidential approaches to policymaking. Yet, I have four concerns about how these approaches are often applied. First, I am concerned about the confidence officials place in their information systems….

Last week, a graduate analyst I mentor asked why I’m so against evidence-based policy. I was a little surprised. I’m not against evidence. What I try to do, consistently, is make sure my advice doesn’t naively wish away the emotion, uncertainty, complexity, contest, power imbalances, and plurality that shape public policy. For me, evidence-informed policy…

People often ask why I study public administration and public policy. More often than not, it’s Pākehā officials who struggle to see public administration as anything other than fair and neutral and their ability to secure a job as nothing but a scientific and correct version of merit. When it is not them it is…

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…