IPANZ E-Update - December 2019
Kia ora koutou
This is our last e-update before Christmas. So it comes with my very best wishes for your Christmas break. Another very busy year for you all.
You will have got my note about the State Sector legislation – we would be pleased to hear any views that you would like us to consider putting into our submission. The timeframe is extremely short for the 31st January submission deadline. But please do contact us if you can.
I am especially pleased to introduce our three new Board members.
Kind regards
Shenagh Gleisner
Meet our new Board Members
We are delighted to welcome our three new co-opted Board members. You will see what an impressive trio they are, and you can imagine the strength they will bring to IPANZ. Please click here to read more fully about them.
You will also discern the very strong commitment of IPANZ to extend the diversity of our Board in many ways.
Jess Birdsall-Day - is currently a senior analyst in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, working on child poverty reduction policy. She has previously practised as a commercial lawyer. She is of Samoan and Scottish heritage, and is (any day now) about to embark on parenthood.
Deborah James - is currently Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Auckland Council. She has had senior policy and operational roles in central and local government and the community sector and brings a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Her ancestors are from Scotland, Wales and England.
Deb Te Kawa - is currently a governance and policy consultant based in Rangiora, North Canterbury. She has worked in many state sector roles, including with TPK, MWA, SSC, NZTA and in Ministers' offices. Her family calls to Pohautea and draws from te whānau a Hineauta and te whānau a Pokai nga hapu.
Good reads in the Public Sector Journal
The latest issue of the Public Sector Journal is out and it’s a good one! It’s brimming with interesting and relevant content, so we’ve put together bite-sized summaries of some of the best articles to help you decide where to start. You can read any of these articles (and more excellent articles that we don’t have the room to mention) here
Wellbeing – Adding the Local Dimension
Mike Reid argues that it is at the local level that wellbeing is experienced by citizens. It is also at the local level that the wellbeing policies will have an impact. What this means is national policy and central government players have to interact very effectively with local players, and that includes local government and iwi, hapu, non-governmental organisations and communities themselves. This is quite a radical shift with potentially a stronger role for local councils in the design and commissioning of centrally held public services.
Protecting Privacy in an Un-Private World
The Privacy Commissioner gives a first look at changes to the privacy legislation due in 2020. It is worth all public sector professionals reading about these changes to ensure they are preventing, mitigating and reporting data breaches in an ever-changing world.
Lifting the Lid on Inequalities
David Lovatt of Deloitte draws out the deep challenge of inequities. He accentuates the warning that historical resource allocations and existing policies and rules may be infused with unconscious bias and the politics of disadvantage. He emphasises the importance of ensuring wellbeing is redistributed.
Reputation Reality in the Public Sector
Jane Ratcliffe makes a point highly relevant to the unified public service envisaged in the State Sector Legislation. The reputation of one agency can impact the reputation of the whole sector. She emphasises three big drivers of reputation, affirming purpose, assessing culture and aligning with customers.
Transparency International and the Whistleblower
You may well have read our piece written by the Ombudsman’s office on whistle blowing some weeks ago. We need to do better here in New Zealand, he says. Here is a view from Ireland, which will reinforce the work here. Have a look at the six overall recommendations to employers to ensure staff can raise ethical concerns and ideas on ways of supporting whistleblowers.
The 15 March Attacks - Agility and Collaboration in the Policy Response
Many of us wondered at the speed at which the Government was able to respond so quickly to the change in the gun laws. Of course the spirit of service in the public sector was behind it. The story of how they were able to work so quickly is most interesting.
Leadership Inspiration
We had a wonderful presentation recently from Dame Diana Crossan, sharing leadership lessons for public sector professionals at any stage of their career.
Dame Diana talked candidly of some of the highlights, lowlights, and lessons from her career, weaving in some brilliant advice, including:
- When one door closes, climb through the window.
- If your boat comes in make sure you’re not at the airport!
- And, when you get to the top, make sure you send the lift back down for others.
We’ve shared some additional wisdom from Dame Diana on our YouTube page, where she answers the questions:
Community Engagement and Empowerment
Our Auckland members had the opportunity recently to hear from the Tamaki Regeneration Company, about their process to design and establish intensive support services for whanau living in crisis.
Excellent speakers talked about the importance of community engagement and empowerment, some of the challenges of co-design, and emphasised the difference between having a great idea on paper, and putting it into practice!
For more information about this work visit the Tamaki Regeneration Company website
UPCOMING EVENTS
There are still limited spaces available for the following events -
New Professionals - Courageous Conversations
WELLINGTON, Wednesday 4 December, 5.30-7.00pm
The IPANZ New Professionals will be hosting this conversation about Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. This event is designed to help us to start talking about what we can do, how to support ourselves and how to support others in a safe and positive space.
There are no restrictions to who can attend — everyone has something to contribute and a part to play in reducing workplace sexual harassment and its effects. Find out more and register here
Westpac Presents - A Word with Sir John Kirwan
WELLINGTON, Thursday 5 December, 3.00-4.30pm
While working in the public sector can be very rewarding, it can also be stressful, as we deal with an increasingly complex world, demanding deadlines and challenging situations that have real impacts on the lives of our fellow New Zealanders. Westpac Ambassador Sir John Kirwan will share his story and discuss how you, and the teams you lead, can think about mental wellbeing in the context of your work.
Seats are limited. Find out more and register here
New Zealand Police – Technology for Transformation
PORIRUA, Friday 6 December, 9.00am-1.00pm
New Zealand Police are hosting Technology for Transformation (T4T), a showcase of current capability and emerging technology. This event is an opportunity to connect with other public sector employees to learn about technology creating new ways of working and can enable greater collaboration across the sector.
T4T is being held at the Royal New Zealand Police College and is open to all government employees.
For more information click here
What I'm Reading - from Shenagh Gleisner
I have recently had the privilege of reading a paper written in 2012 by John Martin, where he was asked by IPANZ to write about the public service between 1920 and the State Sector Act of 1988.
It was entitled “The Old Public Service”, and written for the MCH/IPANZ series,16 October 2012.
John Martin is one of the great thinkers in public administration and indeed taught me during my Masters of Public Policy. There are a few gems in this article:
- The Ombudsman Act 1962 and the Official Information Act (OIA 1982) had a significant impact on the public sector. For example the OIA “turned on its head the presumption that official information should be confidential and to some extent removed the cloak of anonymity from the public service”.
- In the 1920s there were just under 8,500 public servants including 1500 temporaries. By 1929 this had grown to 9700 with 1,800 temporaries.
- It was a male public service. The women appointed as temporaries during the war did not remain after the war. In March 1918, 4,155 women were employed in permanent and temporary positions: by March 1919 there were 748 female temporary staff.
- And two quotes to finish –
- The McCarthy report published in June 1962. “the country has been so well served for so long by loyal, incorruptible and politically neutral State Servants, that it may be inclined to assume that this is part of the natural order of things” and he goes on to add, “New Zealanders would do well to reflect on their good fortune”
- The State Services Act 1962 governed public administration in New Zealand until 1988. The State Services Commission was set up and “top of the agenda for the new commission were the achievement of two goals: the occupational classification of the public service and the establishment of machinery and procedures for pay research as the basis of state-services-wide pay fixing”
It is so valuable for public sector professionals to read about the history of the sector, especially as we move towards the next state sector legislation.
Please stay in touch with us
IPANZ is upping our presence on social media to give you more ways to find out about our events and receive helpful information from us. If you’re not already connected with us, please follow our new page on LinkedIn
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