‘Polyanna policy’: Is the framework for AI use in government overly optimistic? (2026) In this 2026 piece for The Conversation, Barbara Allen and I ask whether the governance frameworks Aotearoa is building to manage artificial intelligence can be trusted to work, at a time when public service agencies are being encouraged to adopt it. We…

The role of the central agencies: Collaboration or control? (2025) In this 2025 article for Hāpai Public, Derek Gill and I ask whether the central agencies are rebuilding integrated coordination of the Public Service, or whether the talk of collaboration is a cover for centralisation. In a series of Hāpai Public webinars, the five central…

More heat than light: IPANZ contributions to the free and frank advice discussion (2024) In this 2024 analysis for Public Sector, I trace the contribution the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand has made over a decade to the discussion of free and frank advice, a subject that attracts considerable commentary but little empirical work…

Drawing on pre- and post-election briefings I prepared for a small number of clients, this E-Tangata piece sets out my view of the 2023 coalition agreements and the implementation risks the government would need to manage actively. I argue that the electorate voted for minor change, not reform, and certainly not a culture war. I…

The future of Māori health is here: The 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand health reforms (2022) In this 2022 comment for The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, Sarah Lovell, Lindsey Te Ata o Tū MacDonald, Kaaren Mathias and I consider the launch of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, on 1…

Raising waka, and not just yachts (2020) In this 2020 chapter for the Public Service Association’s Progressive Thinking series, Amohia Boulton and I argue that COVID-19 exposed how underprepared Aotearoa, and the world, was to detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases. At the same time, it revealed how well placed and effective institutions in…

Public Service Act 2020 and our post-colonial future (2020) In this 2020 commentary for Public Sector, written at IPANZ’s invitation while the Public Service Legislation Bill was before Parliament, I ask whether the new legislation will allow Māori to exercise rangatiratanga, and my answer is probably not. The Bill recognises that the public service has…

Provoking debate and learning lessons: What the Performance Improvement Framework challenged us to think about (2012) In this 2012 article, Kevin Guerin and I ask what the first 21 Performance Improvement Framework reviews, published in the framework’s first three years, suggest about public management in Aotearoa when they are read together as a single data…