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However, it is not to be forwarded to any other outside individual, business or entity. Coded Document - 7TH EDITION - 7th Annual Analysis Of The Inner Workings Of The NZ Bureaucracy A Trans Tasman Briefing Review New Zealand Government Departments - People And Policy - An Analysis Of The Inner Workings Of The NZ Bureaucracy 2016 Edition Published by Trans Tasman Media Limited PO Box 2197, Christchurch New Zealand Ph: 64 3 365 3891 Fax: 64 3 365 3894 Website: www.transtasman.co.nz Email: [email protected] ISSN 2253-4970 (Print) ISSN 2253-4989 (Online) Researched and Written by The Trans Tasman Editors and Senior Writers ISBN 978-0-9864617-3-6 Copyright 2016 Trans Tasman Media Ltd Released June 2016. COPYRIGHT ©Trans Tasman Media Ltd: Photocopying or distributing this Report electronically is prohibited by international copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000 PER COPY distributed. 1 Table Of Contents Introduction - Everything Hinges On The New SSC Boss 4 Letter From The Editor 8 Independent Board Of Advisers 2016 9 The Questionnaire 10 The Rankings 18 Top 10s 20 Board Of Adviser’s General Comments 22 How Good Is The Minister? 23 The Board Of Independent Adviser’s Comments 24 CEO Of The Year - Peter Hughes [Ministry of Education] 28 Department Of The Year - Accident Compensation Corporation 29 Government Departments - Explanatory Notes 30 Accident Compensation Corporation 31 Crown Law Office 34 Department Of Conservation 36 Department Of Corrections 39 Department Of Internal Affairs 42 Department Of The Prime Minister And Cabinet 45 Earthquake Commission 49 Education Review Office 52 Government Communications Security Bureau & SIS 55 Inland Revenue Department 59 Land Information New Zealand 63 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) 66 Housing New Zealand Corporation 70 Ministry For Culture And Heritage 73 Ministry of Defence and NZ Defence Force 76 Ministry Of Education 80 Ministry For The Environment 84 Environmental Protection Authority 88 2 ©Trans Tasman Media Ltd: Photocopying or distributing this Report electronically is prohibited by international copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000 PER COPY distributed. Ministry Of Foreign Affairs And Trade 90 Ministry Of Health 94 Ministry Of Justice 98 Ministry Of Maori Development/Te Puni Kokiri 100 Ministry Of Pacific Peoples 102 Ministry for Primary Industries 104 Ministry Of Social Development 108 Ministry Of Transport 111 Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand 115 Maritime New Zealand 116 Transport Accident Investigation Commission 117 Airways Corporation 118 Ministry Of Women’s Affairs 120 New Zealand Customs Service 123 New Zealand Trade And Enterprise 126 New Zealand Transport Agency 129 New Zealand Police 132 Offices Of Parliament 136 Reserve Bank Of New Zealand 147 Serious Fraud Office 150 State Services Commission 153 Statistics New Zealand 157 Tertiary Education Commission 160 The Treasury 163 WorkSafe New Zealand 167 Rising Stars: Some Officials To Keep An Eye On 170 CEO Salaries 171 Budget - Total Appropriations for Each Vote* 173 Staff - (FTEs) 175 3 ©Trans Tasman Media Ltd: Photocopying or distributing this Report electronically is prohibited by international copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000 PER COPY distributed. Introduction - Everything Hinges On The New SSC Boss How much rests on the broad shoulders of Peter Hughes, State Services Commissioner-designate, taking up his role on July 4. It’s Independence Day in the United States but it’s also a metaphor for how much the public service – and the Government – is looking for a new way forward. It would be fair to say parts of the public service have been in something of a hiatus in recent years with neither Ministers nor CEOs expressing unalloyed joy with the outgoing Commissioner Iain Rennie. Is this unfair? Possibly, but it is one of the consequences of having someone in a CEO slot for eight years. Given the political cycle and churn, it must be difficult to innovate after such time. Forward or back, you’re damned. However, there is a developing sense around Wellington and among some Ministers even Hughes confronts a nuclear option: either he lifts the performance of the State Services Commission - or it will be folded into the ever-expanding Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. One of the problems for Rennie is his position has been the focal point for Ministers frustrated by slow progress and departments pushing back at the change he tried to oversee. The Commissioner’s job can be likened to the chief herder of cats – very clever and stubborn cats. Continuity is one thing but unless carefully managed and nuanced, it can be limiting. If there is a single element emerging from our survey of the public sector, it is the need for fresh enthusiasm from the top. “Let’s engage with new thinking and see how it can mesh with the Government’s intention” is a common theme. To be sure there is frustration in some parts with the Government’s Better Public Services initiatives - but there is also a willingness among the sharper CEOs to get on with the work which underpins the Government’s objectives. There is also recognition with Finance Minister Bill English and now Associate Paula Bennett, there are two individuals who are determined to energise, refresh, innovate and make the differences which matter. It helps English has an intimate comprehension of the how the machinery of Government should work. Not change, in the sense of lumping together departments as in the brutal construct of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise, or even the Ministry of Primary Production, now the driver from Ministers is co-operation and sharing. Law changes to allow greater cross departmental work and organisation have had little impact so far. However the tools are there to be used. Progress has been made in cross-agency work in a number of sectors, but many still find it difficult. An energetic private-enterpriser might make a fortune in demolishing silos. Crucially English and Bennett are also willing to allow the public sector to take risks and even fail in trying to tackle NZ’s most difficult problems, especially when past way of doing things have had little impact. This is probably one of the biggest mind shifts needed in a sector which is risk averse and where change risks failure. The caution is understandable, no one likes bad headlines and there is a lot at stake financially. Government remains big business, accounting for 25% of GDP. At current count there are 28 departments, 22 Crown agencies, 20 district health boards, 16 autonomous Crown entities, 17 independent Crown entities, 11 Crown entities and 7 Crown research institutes, 150 Crown entity subsidiaries, 2416 school boards of trustees, eight universities, 18 polytechnics and institutes of technology, three wananga, the Reserve Bank, the Offices of Parliament, 14 State owned enterprises and three mixed ownership model companies in the energy sector. 4 ©Trans Tasman Media Ltd: Photocopying or distributing this Report electronically is prohibited by international copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000 PER COPY distributed. The most recent employment statistics (June 2015 year) indicate there are 45,438 full time equivalent people in the public sector. FTEs rose slightly by 0.1%. Over the same period, the size of the State sector increased by 0.6%, health sector by 2.4%, education sector by 3.0%, total public sector by 0.8% and the private sector by 3.4%. There was little change in the regional distribution of Public Service employees in 2015. Wellington region remains the largest share with 41.1% down slightly from 41.4% in 2014 followed by Auckland at 20.2%, Canterbury at 9.7% and Waikato with 8.4%. If there is one portfolio which will mark the present Government, it is Social Welfare under Minister Anne Tolley. The Dame Paula Rebstock report on the future of child welfare is one of those which appears only once in decades. It’s most recent equivalent would be the late Justice Sir Owen Woodhouse’s monumental Royal Commission 1967 inquiry into accident compensation. Rebstock proposes a new way forward: follow the child. Minister Tolley has appointed four new independents to the Vulnerable Children’s Board to help support the overhaul of the care and protection system. They are Dame Paula, who will chair the reconfigured Board, Peter Douglas, Dame Diane Robertson and Geoff Dangerfield. They join the current members, who are the chief executives of MSD, Health, Education, Police, Corrections, TPK and Justice. As Finance Minister Bill English put it recently, the emphasis is on the Government’s programme of Social Investment, where the goal is to make sure the baseline spend addresses the drivers of social dysfunction, rather than simply servicing misery.