New Zealand

The New Zealand government will create a hub to support and collaborate with public servants from the Pacific region. The Pacific Public Service Fale will strengthen public services and stability across the region, according to NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters. “Pacific countries want strong public sectors to deliver the services that are critical to […]

Expert, trusted and independent advice will be essential to ensuring New Zealand plays its part in solving the challenge of climate change. This week, the NZ Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw, announced the team of experts who now have the important task of providing governments with that advice.

The New Zealand government has chosen senior public servant Mark Sowden to take over the post of Government Statistician from Liz MacPherson, who announced she would resign earlier this year in the wake of a highly critical report on the conduct of the 2018 Census.

The tragic events of White Island reiterate that we must be vigilant, and have excellent risk management strategies in place. Perhaps it is time for the tourism industry, government and volcanic experts to review current rules. We can minimise the risk, but we can never totally rule it out.

Almost half of the New Zealand Public Service has signed up to a flexible work program designed to reduce the gender pay gap, while flexible work is on the rise in the Australian Public Service. The pilot scheme was announced by Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter in December, and is currently being trialled by […]

Treating the public service like a business has become the norm, with the structures, language, practices and incentives inherited from private sector managerialism. We know that citizens don’t expect public sectors to act the same way — which is evident in the feedback, discussions, user research and myriad public engagements — yet when we adopt the mindset of a business we create pressure to act more like a business in everything we do.

It’s not surprising we see higher rates of mental illness among veterans compared to the overall Australian population. We should be targeting veterans with a high level of care that better reflects their unique set of needs.

The New Zealand public service will soon be equipped to better address the biggest challenges facing governments and the people it serves, according to State Services Minister Chris Hipkins. The outdated State Sector Act 1988 will be scrapped and replaced with a new Public Service Act, which will signal the “most significant change in the public service in 30 years”, Hipkins said, after a bill was brought to NZ Parliament on Monday.

Commonwealth government agencies will soon be expected to pay e-Invoices to suppliers within five days, or else pay interest on late payments. Starting from January 1, the new payment policy will apply to agencies that deliver and receive invoices electronically with suppliers, for contracts worth up to $1 million.

Pia Andrews looks at some of the systemic challenges that come with working in public sectors, including intrinsic ones — like capability issues, and directive leadership styles — rather than extrinsic — like changing pressures from social, technological, and global economic change.