He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 3 April 2025. In this final column I respond to the Government’s announcement that it will amend the Public Service Act 2020. I agree that the public service needs a reset: numbers have grown significantly since 2017 without a clear improvement in services, and where results have improved…

He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 10 February 2025. In this column I respond to the Public Service Commissioner’s letter to chief executives asking public servants to hold better meetings. I argue that the number of meetings matters less than the quality of the decisions that come out of them, and that the real…

He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 13 January 2025. In this column I argue that central government tends to work best when communities get a real say in the decisions that affect them. Read the column: https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/opinion/let-the-people-hold-the-paintbrush ReferenceTe Kawa, D. (2025, January 13). Let the people hold the paintbrush. BusinessDesk. https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/opinion/let-the-people-hold-the-paintbrush Previous: Red tape?…

He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 13 December 2024. In this column I turn to the mounting cost of regulatory compliance, which has become a pressing issue for businesses in Aotearoa. Good regulation keeps the economy healthy, but I argue that the weight of compliance should not fall so heavily on the businesses trying…

He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 25 October 2024. In this first He Pōneketanga column, I introduce a monthly view of the daily and sometimes banal practice between elected and non-elected officials, written from inside the head of a street-level bureaucrat and drawing on current public administration research. I look at the policy settings…