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…

Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi: Public Service Association asked me to write a pre-election article for their online journal. The link to the article is here: https://www.psa.org.nz/our-voice/one-of-our-greatest-assets/ Please consider joining the union that represents and protects the rights of over 80,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups. They…

I chaired a webinar for members of Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi: Public Service Association so they could hear directly from politicians about their policies for the public service. We covered back office cuts, importance of ministers working positively with the service and the role of government. Check it out.

Let’s discuss ACT’s proposal to set KPIs for public service chief executives. As someone who’s spent years studying public sector governance, I can see both merit and significant risks in this approach. First, let’s acknowledge the timing. Yes, it’s appropriate for a new government to reset its relationship with the administrative executive. As the whakataukī…

Stuff asked me about a research project that revealed inconsistent, slow and problematic responses to information requests. I made the point that we need to urgently fix the OIA.