D Dawson

Who actually runs the place?

Democratic control of New Zealand’s public service needs to be restored.

A report released this month by Dr Oliver Hartwich from The New Zealand Initiative think tank highlights whether the unelected bureaucrats with their own incentives, agendas and policy preferences are running roughshod over the democratically elected will of the people.

Dr Hartwich’s paper, Who Runs the Country, argues that New Zealand’s ministers answer to Parliament for departments they cannot control because ministers cannot choose, direct or remove the chief executives who run those departments.

He says, “It’s a fascinating and alarming look at how decisions really get made in Wellington but is consistent with the frustrations we regularly hear from MPs and former ministers from both sides of the political divide.”

He says, “It argues that the arrangement is broken and recommends that New Zealand adopt a version of Germany’s model, where ministers appoint their top officials while protected career service operates below.”

Virtually every other developed democracy gives its elected ministers some say over who runs their departments. France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom all do. New Zealand does not. Could this be why so many policies get watered down, delayed or quietly changed along the way?

This is unbridled power in a system that is fundamentally broken and which was put in place by the Labour government.