New Cabinet policy directives will ensure public agencies prioritise public services on the basis of need and award Government contracts on the basis of public value, Minister for the Public Service Nicola Willis says.
“Cabinet Office has today issued a circular to central government organisations setting out the Government’s expectations for needs-based service provision. The circular makes clear that the targeting, commissioning, and design of public services should be based on the needs of all New Zealanders.
“This circular gives effect to commitments in the coalition agreements between the National Party and the ACT Party, and between the National Party and the New Zealand First Party,” Nicola Willis says.
“The Government has been concerned that in the absence of this circular, agencies may use ethnic identity or other forms of personal identity as a proxy for need, and therefore a justification in itself for targeted services.
“The circular makes clear that when considering proposals for services targeted to specific population groups, agencies must provide a strong analytical case for any targeting, recognising that many variables can be used to identify and assess need, and that all variables should be considered before ethnic identity is automatically used to determine need.
Using ethnicity as an overriding criteria put people with lower needs before those with higher needs.
People who could afford to help themselves haven’t had to and people who can’t afford to help themselves have missed out on help they needed.
“The Government also wants to ensure that Government contracts are awarded within a robust and merit-based framework that focuses on delivering public value.
“As such Cabinet has removed the previous Government’s target for 8% of government agencies’ annual contracts to be awarded to Māori businesses.
“This target risked a perception of discrimination and gave the impression of an uneven playing field for suppliers.
“We continue to encourage and expect Māori businesses to bid for and win Government contracts.
“The Government believes more can be done to ensure a wider range of small and medium sized Kiwi businesses have the opportunity to win Government contracts that generate value for our communities. The Ministers for Māori Development, Economic Development and Regional Development will report back to Cabinet next year on potential next steps in support of this goal.”
It wasn’t just Māori businesses that were prioritised under the previous government, not for profit organisations were too.
A friend was on the board of a charity that provided services to families with high needs.
Taxpayer funding for that stopped when Labour’s policy for more contracts to be awarded to Māori providers was introduced.
When funding to the charity stopped so did the services they’d been providing and the irony of that was that most of the families the charity had been helping were Māori or Pasifika who were then left without the help they needed.
Value for scarce public funds must always be prioritised and when it comes to providing services, those scarce funds must be used for those most in need.
The usual suspects are upset by this and saying Māori will miss out, but only those who will miss out are those with lesser needs.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
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