The Māori–Crown relationship: The why, the who, and the howPublic Sector, Spring 2026 I joined Helmut Modlik, Chief Executive of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, and Steven Sutton on a panel at the Hāpai Public Aspiring Senior Leaders Masterclass, a workshop for tier three and four managers on the relationship between Māori and the Crown….

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…

Decolonisation and public management in Aotearoa In this Monash University webinar on decolonising pedagogy, I responded to Michael Mintrom and Deirdre O’Neill’s paper on policy education in Australia and Aotearoa. I offered a working definition of decolonisation as a process: in public management terms, a process of ensuring institutions are of the place they seek…

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…