Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the regulatory standards bill.  As someone involved in regulatory systems and policy, I want to talk about their design and likely impact. Let me be direct: these proposals lack any supporting evidence that they would improve our regulatory environment. Instead, they demonstrate a troubling pattern of overreach….

Let me analyse the crucial issues of public service leadership appointments, merit, and constitutional governance. The metaphor at the heart of the whakataukī above, of needing to manage “between heaven and earth” perfectly captures the unique complexity of public service chief executive roles. These aren’t simply senior management positions – they don’t just exist in…

The Royal Commission’s Report on Abuse in Care has landed on my desk, and its findings are devastating. As someone who has spent decades studying public policy and governance, I can tell you this: what we’re looking at isn’t just a collection of unfortunate incidents – it’s administrative evil in its purest form. Let me…

I’m not posting much. I am writing. But the graphic below has my attention. Let me share some thoughts I’ve been developing, building on Heather Came’s recent work (2024) above. I’m mainly focused on how this applies to public management education and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Three critical issues keep surfacing in my analysis….

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…

Here’s my analysis of regulatory reform and administrative burden, speaking from my public policy expertise: The conversation about cutting “red tape” often misses the crucial distinction between necessary oversight and genuine administrative burden. Let’s look at what meaningful regulatory reform looks like, using the COVID-19 vaccination rollout as a telling case study. The Te Puni…

As a political scientist and policy consultant observing Aotearoa New Zealand’s evolving landscape, I want to expand on this crucial concept of the interregnum we are in. Gramsci’s observation about the space between what’s dying and what’s struggling to be born perfectly captures our current national moment. This isn’t just about political transition but fundamentally…

The Ombudsmen asked us to assist him with his systemic investigation into Ara Poutama Aotearoa | Department of Corrections. He found four key issues affecting Ara Poutama’s ability to make the changes that oversight agencies have been calling for: the way the institution managed reports and recommendations from oversight agencies; insufficient attention to obligations under…

I love this whakataukī. It reminds me that understanding comes from knowing and welcoming the difference between similar things and people. I have heard a lot of korero this week about our golden age of public management. Many commentators assumed the 1980s public management reforms are our high point. Sadly, those people are wrong. Let…

Business Desk asked me to comment about trust in the public service.

I wrote in support of the conversion practices prohibition legislation.

Mātai Tōrangapū, Hononga Tāwāhi | School of Political Science and International Relations at Canterbury University asked me to speak about the importance of the new Public Service Act 2022. The lecture is attached.

I wrote in support of the Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies Bill.

Last week, the Public Services Association published a paper by me and my friend Dr Amohia Boulton. We were part of the PSA’s 2020 Progressive Thinking Seminars. In our paper, Amohia and I talk about how COVID-19 has reminded us of how underprepared the world is to detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases while…

Amohia Boulton and I wrote about how COVID-19 exposed how underprepared Aotearoa – and the world – was in detecting and responding to emerging infectious diseases while simultaneously revealing how well-placed and effective institutions in Te Ao Māori are in being able to react decisively and positively on behalf of Iwi, Hapū, Whānau and Māori.

This leads me to describe the fifth quirk in our system. I am still exploring this quirk using a combination of political theory and research on institutions. So far, it seems that either Ministers are incredibly powerful in the current system (possibly too powerful), or the chief executive’s fixed-term contracts have weakened senior officials’ place…

The fourth quirk speaks to the critical importance of good leadership by public servants and how it lifts capability (which itself enables outcomes).  While this is impressionistic, the agencies that rate highly on this dimension value authentic leadership and have senior leadership teams and boards who create an organisational spirit that encourages staff to be…

The third quirk speaks directly to what lifts the capability of the public service. In short, coherency in strategy and clarity about the agency’s role in the broader system appears to be positively correlated with capability (see diagram below). The strategy and role dimension involve ensuring each agency can clearly articulate its future direction to…

According to all PIF reviews, the second quirk in the public management system is that stronger ratings in results are positively associated with stronger ratings in capability. Interestingly, there is some variability amongst agencies, with some agencies more strongly rated on results than their capability rating would imply and others not producing the results for…

This post is a slight diversion. The legitimacy of the public management system rests on its ability to demonstrate high levels of integrity and performance. The public and their political representatives have a right to be confident that public ownership, funding, provision, and regulation do the most good while curtailing cost. Analysis I have completed…

As is the way in te ao Māori, this paper begins with the place from which the author speaks (Pihama, 2012 and Smith, 2013 ). Ko Pohautea te māunga Ko Waiapu te awa Ko Ngāti Porou tōku iwi Te Whānau a Hineauta and Te Whānau a Pokai nga hapu Ko Pokai tōku marae Nō Rangiora…

I have several reasons for wanting to be transparent about the epistemology, ontology, theoretical basis and methodology of the Performance Improvement Framework (PIF). My reasons are three-fold. First, to communicate the philosophy of the PIF to interested academics to ensure criticism and analysis is well-informed. As signalled previously, the PIF was designed to push against…

In 2013, New Zealand’s Parliament, with rare support from all political parties, amended its 1988 State Sector Act, which had created one of the world’s most devolved public administration systems. After 25 years of increasing frustration among citizens and officials about insufficiently joined up the public sector, a conservative political executive elected in 2008, amidst…

As some of you know, I moved my doctoral study away from Victoria University of Wellington. In doing so, I put aside a review of the system findings of the Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) and what they tell us about the performance of the New Zealand public management system. This shift does not mean I…

These are difficult days in corporate and public sector governance. Difficulties play out daily and impact anyone who works in or around the governance and management divide – very few organisations are unaffected. The once smooth relationship between governors and senior executives is strained by unprecedented change. This change plays out in ways that feel…

In reviewing all the Performance Improvement Review reports, my overwhelming conclusion is this – while many of our public institutions are adept at managing urgent and short-term issues and the daily priorities of Ministers, they are less successful at building strong and enduring public institutions whosepurpose and roles are clear and whose core business is…

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…

After twenty years as a public servant, I now have the luxury of working for myself with some great clients, trying to finish a PhD on free and frank advice and observing the beltway from Rangiora. So here’s my take on what the new Government means for the public sector. The headline is this –…