Listener 10 October, 1998.

Keywords: Governance;

The new Minister of Local Government, Tony Ryall, began his first address with “Local Government is an important part of our economy. It’s 3.5 percent of our country’s GDP. Local government can either help the country or it can hinder. With the problems of Asia bearing down on us, every part of the economy has a role to paly in helping our nation weather the storm. Local Government must contribute to the international competitiveness of New Zealand exporters through good infrastructure, efficient regulation, and control over costs.”

Listener 20 June 1998.

Keywords: Governance;

Given East Asian financial corruption, we may ponder on the probity of New Zealand. It is often argued that government interventions generate manipulation and corruption. Compared to other rich OECD nations, New Zealand’s market interventions before 1984 were high (although by Eastern European and developing world standards they were not). But even by OECD standards, New Zealand’s level of corruption seems to have been low. Of course there was some, not all of it was exposed. Even so a myriad of opportunities were not seized upon.

Listener 23 May, 1988.

Keywords: Governance;

As Lady Bracknell could have said “to lose one could be regarded as a tragedy, to lose two looks like carelessness.” She may well have been speechless learning that Auckland has had three major outages this decade with perhaps two more to come. The recent loss of power to Auckland’s CBD follows a national power shortage of 1992, and a Auckland-wide water shortage. Experts tell me that the Auckland sewerage system is close to capacity, non-experts draw the same conclusion about the Auckland roading. Just how many cases of infrastructural overload does there have to be before a pattern is acknowledged?

Listener: 31 May, 1997.

Keywords: Governance;

The view which blames all our current political and government difficulties on MMP cannot be correct. MMP is a method for electing members of parliament. How they behave is a result of the arrangements within Parliament House, not who gets elected. We may not even be able to blame MMP for coalition government. National won only 30 of the 65 electorate seats. Even increasing that by 2 to allow for the Wellington seats from which it tactically retreated, National would still have won less that half the electorate seats. So probably under a FPP election National would still have formed a coalition government with New Zealand First which won 6 electorate seats.

Listener May 3, 1997.

Keywords: Governance

In 1978 the then Auditor General, Fred Shailes, publicly complained about the antiquated state of the nation’s public sector accounting. A younger man in the Audit Office, Jeff Chapman, seized the initiative by persuading the Society of Accountants to establish a committee to develop new standards for accounting in central and local government. …

A World-leading Academic Found Not All is Well in the Public Sector
Listener: 1 February, 1997.

Keywords: Governance;

The last minute decision to make Jenny Shipley Minister of State Services may reflect looming problems in the state sector. The underlying issues are set out in a recently published report, The Spirit of Reform.

Christchurch’s Economic Success is Associated with A Tradition of Civic Community. Wellington, Take Note.
Listener: 7 September, 1996.

Keywords: Governance;

The church hall was packed, and the audience angry. In a few days the Wellington city Council was going to decide what to do with its majority share in Capital Power, its local electricity supply authority (ESA). Everyone expected them to divest their control, despite the populace supporting the maintenance of the asset in public hands. A citizens’ jury had favoured public ownership, an opinion poll had supported them, everybody seemed against the divestment of control. Yet the decision seemed destined to go against the majority wishes. Just as a few years earlier the Council had agreed to sell a minority share to a private investor.

Listener: 24 August, 1996. (Published as Editorial)

Keywords: Governance;

The New Zealand public has just lost $328.4 million because of bad Treasury advice on the 1987 sale of New Zealand Steel to Equiticorp. The public lost that money because, during the sale process, the deal between the Crown and Equiticorp broke company law – section 62 of the Companies Act makes it illegal for a company to buy its own shares.

The Government’s Plans for Our Future Are Well-meant, But Contain Some Glaring Omissions.
Listener: 1 June 1996.

Keywords: Governance;

At the foot of this column are the government’s “Strategic Result Areas”. They may not seem important to the public, but they are certainly prominent in the mind of the government advisers, who are likely to pop the acronym SRA into their conversations. SRAs aim to “bring a more coherent strategic approach to managing government”, and “build an understanding of what the Government intends to accomplish, and how it plans to go about using its agencies.” They set out “the contribution that the public sector will make to achieving the Government’s strategic vision for New Zealand.” Practically a public servant concerned with a policy development checks to see whether a proposal is within the SRAs. If not, the government is likely to look unfavourably on the policy. No wonder officials anxiously discuss SRAs.

Listener 23 December, 1995.

Keywords: Governance;

“Standing back and viewing the evidence objectively, that I am left with the overwhelming impression that the many people affected were all let down by faults in the process of government departmental reforms. Society always likes to feel it is progressing, but there are lessons for society in all of this. No government organisation can do its job without adequate resourcing. In my opinion, it is up to governments to ensure that departments charged with carrying out statutory functions for the benefit of the community are provided with sufficient resources to enable them to do so.” Judge George Noble, Committee of Inquiry into the Cave Creek Tragedy.

Listener: 30 September, 1995.

Keywords: Governance;

The prime minister must have groaned when controversy erupted over the reforming of the National Archives, which holds most of the nation’s important records. It is the sort of row which his government does not need. The antagonized includes archivists, genealogists, historians, constitutional lawyers, Maori with land claims, and retired soldiers. The proposals have alienated them, yet the gains, if any, from the reforms will be small.