Public sector needs fresh ideas.
13/05/22
Here are four ideas.
The column is here.
- Divide public sector policy advice more clearly from implementation. People who do stuff should not be the same people who tell us how it is going.
- Power up select committees with their own permanent, substantial, policy and research capability carved out of existing ministries. MPs would decide whether to make their careers as legislators who write laws as select committee chairs, or executives who run ministries.
- Power up, don’t power down, the advocacy ministries. The ambition for those ministries is research, policy voice and scrutiny on behalf of diverse parts of our community. Make them more independent, like the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment or the Commerce Commission – heavyweight agencies whose analysis and advice is not dependent on ministerial approval. They could think the unthinkable and be free to persuade.
- Run it all with a much smaller Cabinet: five or six individuals who focus on strategy, more like a board of directors. Most MPs would never be in Cabinet, so there would be real competition, and fewer anonymous seat-fillers.
The column is here.
