The literature on systems change and implementation is vast, contradictory, and: if you are currently leading a transformation programme, which by the look of it, seems almost everyone in Wellington, almost certainly you are wondering what you need to know. This post offers a way through: a curated guide to the research and practitioner frameworks…

Derek Gill, Adjunct Research Fellow, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, and I ask in an article for Public Sector Journal whether the central agencies are rebuilding integrated coordination of the Public Service or if the talk of collaboration is just a cover for centralisation.

A plea from Ōtautahi. Can we stop using the phrase “bad apples” when discussing institutional problems? It is a tired cliché that has outlived whatever usefulness it might have once had. The idiom “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel” initially warned about how quickly rot spreads. Yet in contemporary discussions about institutional accountability, we’ve…

Ngā Pūkenga o te Pokapū | Voices from the Centre is a series where I share reflections on Hāpai Public’s conversations with senior public servants, listening less for soundbites and more for the signals underneath: how the centre sees the system, where it’s heading, and what risks it is naming out loud. This week, Ben…

Child poverty was meant to be the Sixth Labour Government’s defining social outcome. All the machinery of state was re-tooled around it, with one target carrying the weight of political ambition. But as the Auditor-General’s latest report shows, ambition without governance and delivery doesn’t close the gap. The plan was clear in intent, yet undercooked…

I came across this report while reviewing public sector reform literature:Final Report: More Effective Social Services – The Treasury (2015) It’s not new, but it’s worth revisiting. Nearly a decade on, many of the issues it identified are still with us. The report is a sobering reminder of how hard it is to shift the…

In 1995, a Department of Conservation viewing platform at Cave Creek collapsed, killing 14 people. It wasn’t just a failure of timber and nails, it was a failure of public management. After years of cuts and restructures, the Department of Conservation had been stripped of expertise, overloaded with risk, and left without the capacity to…

The 2023 election delivered a message, but not the one some in Wellington appear to be hearing. Voters were not asking for austerity; they were asking for a course correction. It was, in my humble opinion, a vote to hold the previous government accountable, particularly for its handling of the pandemic and the years that…

Running a country is hard. Governments need to make sure they spend money wisely to improve people’s lives. In a recent article, Robert P. Shepherd and Evert A. Lindquist talked about something that could help: regular strategic spending reviews. These reviews would not just check if money is being spent, but also if it’s being…

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…

I came across this report while reviewing public sector reform literature:Final Report: More Effective Social Services – The Treasury (2015) It’s not new, but it’s worth revisiting. Nearly a decade on, many of the issues it identified are still with us. The report is a sobering reminder of how hard it is to shift the…

Let’s talk about the latest concern over Aotearoa New Zealand’s ministerial portfolios. Some commentators suggest we should reduce them because “other countries have fewer.” This is a bit like suggesting we reorganise our national parks based on how Denmark manages its forests. Now, don’t get me wrong, the critics are onto something real. They’ve noticed…

Representative bureaucracy is not a fashionable add-on to modern administration. It is a core democratic principle. First articulated by J. Donald Kingsley in 1944 and later developed by scholars such as Mosher, Selden, Meier, and O’Toole, the theory argues that public institutions work better and hold greater legitimacy when they reflect the diversity of the…

If you’ve ever worked in or around government, you’ve probably heard the debate: what really makes agencies perform well? Is it strong leadership? A solid strategy? More funding? Or something else entirely? A year ago I decided to dig into the data to find out. Using Spearman’s correlation (S test) and partial correlation (R test),…

Australia’s Robodebt scandal has become something of a cautionary tale: and for good reason. I’ve just finished reading the commission of inquiry. It wasn’t just a case of a system gone wrong. It was a full-blown failure of politics, public service ethics and culture and basic decency. And for those of us in Aotearoa New…

In the ever-evolving landscape of public governance, a new approach is catching attention across the seas in the United Kingdom. Called mission-led governance, it promises a fresh perspective on how institutions and organizations might better serve society. The core idea is compelling: what if our public institutions could genuinely prioritize social and environmental purposes alongside—or…

One key finding from our recent study highlights the strong link between increased funding from the Māori Community Capacity Fund (MCCF) and improved vaccination rates. Areas with higher MCCF funding showed more significant improvements in vaccination rates, demonstrating that financial support plays a vital role in achieving public health goals. The Role of Funding in…

When it comes to improving vaccination rates, it stands to reason that areas with lower starting rates will have more room for improvement. This evaluation of the Māori Community COVID-19 Fund (MCCF) confirms that logic, showing that areas with lower initial vaccination rates saw the most significant increases. The hypothesis was straightforward: areas starting with…

This is an apolitical post. It is about the effectiveness of machinery of government changes. As far as I know, the disestablishment of the Te Kōmihana Whai Hua O Aotearoa | Productivity Commission and Te Aka Whai Ora | Māori Health Authority are respectively the 501 and 502 machinery of government changes in Aotearoa-New Zealand…

One of the key questions when allocating funding for public health initiatives is: how do you ensure that resources are directed where they are most needed? This evaluation of the Māori Community COVID-19 Fund (MCCF) examined whether the funding was distributed in a way that addressed areas with the greatest need, especially those with the…

The relationship between the initial and final vaccination rates is one of the key indicators of the success of any intervention programme. In this evaluation of the Māori Community COVID-19 Fund (MCCF), the hypothesis was clear: while final rates would correlate with initial rates, the strength of that correlation would be weaker than perfect, demonstrating…

Grounded. That is how I see the combining of public services and finance outcomes alongside the social investment outcome into one portfolio. It puts the four most powerful functions together (Budget, Performance, People and Integrity) and links them to social investment. I like it for a range of reasons: First and foremost, it’s a direct…

Speaking as a public policy expert, here’s my analysis of the current political landscape. I have offered this advice to several clients. They are happy for me to offer it here – to you. The recent political rhetoric around cutting public services deserves careful examination. Not because of the predictable election-time theatrics but because it…

Apropos of nothing – let me unpack this critical issue of ministerial-executive relationships and institutional performance through a public policy lens. The gap in our system isn’t just about policy or delivery – it’s about the fundamental preparation of ministers for what is essentially a governance role over complex public institutions. We’ve created sophisticated frameworks…

As the whakataukī suggests, not much is achieved without a plan and people to do the mahi. I’d add that not much is achieved without good governance. Here are some thoughts on public sector governance. I am not arguing for the models because they are not yet adapted in a Te Tiriti-led way. However, I…

In 1994, ten years after we enthusiastically and somewhat naively implemented the 80s reforms, Professor Allen Schick came to town to check in on what we had done. In his evaluation, he made a couple of critical comments. Firstly, there should be no going back to the not-so-good old days of managerial addiction to inputs,…

As we enter the heart of election year, I have been thinking about this whakatauki. The literal translation is that while the mokoroa is small, it is strong enough to eat through and fell the kahikatea tree. It’s a reminder that small things can have a significant impact, and it also encourages us to think…

Two years on from the Public Service Act 2020, I’m still asking: where is the change? We were told the Act would modernise the public service. It would be more connected, more accountable, and more aligned with the public good. It promised a shift away from the old siloed, transactional state of the 1980s, toward…

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…