Ryan Bridge: The public service cuts didn't come out of nowhere

We got the inevitable Grinch headlines from the media yesterday, powered by union panic.

The public service knew this was coming. Or should have. Judith Collins, Nicola Willis and Sir Brian Roche have been talking about this since they all got into office.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Is the Public Service Really Fine?

It is hard to convince anyone they need to change when they think nothing is broken. The story of the emperor’s new clothes captures it. The whole court agreed the emperor was splendidly dressed. A child had to say he was naked.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Who runs the country? Restoring democratic control of New Zealand's public service

New Zealand’s ministers answer to Parliament for departments they cannot control. They cannot choose, direct or remove the chief executives who run those departments. The Public Service Commissioner makes those appointments.

The New Zealand Initiative argues this arrangement is broken. It recommends that New Zealand adopt a version of Germany’s model, where ministers appoint their top officials while a protected career service operates below.

David Farrar: Public service numbers still falling

The latest FTE public service numbers shows a decline in the quarter of 583. This comes after two quarters of small growth, so it is pleasing to see the reduction was not a one off, but is ongoing.

Richard Shaw, Chris Eichbaum: Who wrote the cabinet paper recommending NZ not recognise a Palestinian state?

In the controversy and debate following Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ announcement at the United Nations last week that New Zealand would not yet recognise Palestine as a state, it was easy to overlook a small but telling detail.

The relevant cabinet paper containing the policy background and options, and recommending no change in the country’s current position, was “drafted by the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs”.

Roger Partridge: The death of public sector expertise...........

The death of public sector expertise - How the rise of the generic official hollowed out the state

Something has gone badly wrong in the public service. From energy policy to financial regulation to education, ministers are too often advised by officials lacking the deep technical background their roles demand.

This chronic loss of subject-matter expertise repeatedly surfaced in consultations for The New Zealand Initiative’s forthcoming report on unscrambling the machinery of government. The consequences are predictable: flawed advice, avoidable errors, and expensive U-turns.

Tui Vaeau: Fluency for the Few, Cost for the Many

Why You’re Paying for a Language Almost No One Uses - or Understands

“We’re all forced to echo small words that make big noise and mean nothing to most of us.”

Indeed. Small words, big noise. That, in essence, is what te reo Māori has become in modern New Zealand: a disproportionately celebrated state hobby enforced by bureaucrats, virtue-signallers, and treaty-industrialists under the pretext of national identity. Te reo is not our national language. It is not widely spoken, understood, or requested. It is being rammed down our collective throat by Wellington’s bureaucratic caste and the Māori elite, a partnership more obsessed with symbolism than with service.

JD: It Is a Public Service Defence Strategy

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Back in the day I ran one of the larger sales forces in Australasia in one of the most competitive of industries: Office Equipment. And if you think loan sharks, used-car salesmen and the parliamentary wing of Te Pāti Māori are the best exemplars of fanatical, self-interested aggression, you’ve never seen a pack of OE salespeople chasing down a photocopier order. But I digress.

Mike's Minute: Is the public service sabotaging the govt?

My long-held suspicion, oft produced for the Prime Minister on Tuesdays, that the public service might well be working against the Government seems to have been laid bare in the Deloitte report into the failed health system.

As you will be aware, we are going back to a board from a commissioner.

David Lillis: Further Concerns about the Public Service

Misuse of Census Information?

In the light of recent allegations of wrongdoing at the Manurewa Marae (retention and photocopying of Census forms from the 2023 Census, and possible misuse of confidential information), surely we must refrain from judgement until a thorough investigation determines whether or not the photocopied Census information was in fact misused. Until then, apart from a recent admission that Census forms were indeed photocopied and not otherwise afforded the necessary protections, misuse of Census information is hearsay as far as the general public is concerned.

Mike's Minute: The public service - A gargantuan ship of hopelessness

You have to read it to believe it and even in reading it, it might well be you still can't believe it.

A report, one of a number of investigations now underway, has reported back on whether personal Census and Covid intel collected at Manurewa Marae was misused for electoral purposes.

Ele Ludemann: Roche diagnoses public service problems

Sir Brian Roche has diagnosed the problems with the public service:

There are too many meetings in the public service, too many layers of management, too much duplication, not enough clarity about its role and not enough focus on outcomes, new Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche told chief executives in a letter ahead of their first meeting.

He said improvements in efficiency, decision-making, and responsiveness were needed. . .

David Farrar: Huge savings on consultants

Nicola Willis announced:

The Government set the public service a target of eliminating $400 million in operating expenditure on contractors and consultants by 2024/25.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 24/9/24

Shooting at targets – and firing rockets into space – have the govt’s blessing but Putin is being further punished with sanctions

It depends on what you do with your armaments that determines the Government’s attitude.

Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine a year or so ago and shows no signs of withdrawing his troops or putting his missiles back in their holsters.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/8/24

Govt paves the way for public service curbs on wages while facilitating the flow of funds for council water systems

Two of the latest ministerial press statements reflect an admirable governmental concern to ensure our taxes are spent efficiently. Here’s hoping they achieve what the ministers intend.

Public Service Minister Nicola Willis is the big hitter. She says the Government has issued a new Workforce Policy Statement outlining expectations and priorities for employment relations across the Public Sector, with a strong emphasis on fiscal sustainability and performance.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 28/5/24

Nicola Willis brings us up to date with state service job cuts – while Tamatha Paul (is this overkill?) rails against a blood bath

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has estimated the loss of around 2500 jobs from the public sector during the cost-saving since the general election last October.

Another 1150 vacancies in Government departments have been removed from the books and 500 are expected to go, she said during the post-Cabinet press conference yesterday (the last Cabinet meeting before the release of the Budget on Thursday).

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 1/3/24

Govt is gunning for gangs – but McKee reckons some Firearms Prohibition Orders could be lifted much earlier than 10 years

Having sorted out the war criminals and terrorists with a series of foreign affairs announcements yesterday, the government today confirmed its plans to allow police to search gang members, their vehicles and homes at any time using court-authorised firearms prohibition orders (FPOs).

Point of Order: Have the new leaders forgotten the parlous state of the country’s finances?

While National, ACT and NZ First are scrambling over the formation of a new government, their leaders appear to have forgotten the parlous state of the country’s finances and the urgent need to get them back into shape.

Oliver Hartwich: Public service reboot needed

The sacking of Rob Campbell from his role as chair of Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and the Environmental Protection Authority highlights an urgent need to reform New Zealand’s public service.

Campbell’s partisan comments on his LinkedIn profile were inexcusable for someone in his position. But they were also symptomatic of a wider problem, which is the politicisation of the public service.

This politicisation is not necessarily party-political in nature. Rather, it is that the public service has developed its own idiosyncratic mindset.

Mike Hosking: We need to think about the public service differently

Part of the answer to the Rob Campbell scrap is to employ people in the public service differently.

David Seymour says those in the public service are sympathetic to the Government, Ashley Bloomfield says they aren't.

Rob Campbell wants to say whatever he likes as a private person, but still allegedly be neutral when he's a public person.

Maybe part of the problem with the public service is you have to be some sort of robot to simply carry out instruction.