It is disappointing to see that John Key has taken the politically easy approach to the future of the public service in his speech to the Press Club.  Disappointing because it continues National’s legacy of de-humanising hard working public servants as useless bureaucrats, and offering solutions such as Tony Ryall’s ‘bureaucratic bonfire’.  Public servants in New Zealand are generally hard working people, with families to support, and who serve the government of the day whoever it is. They deserve better from Mr Key.

It is also disappointing because it is a visionless approach, based on urban myths, carefully chosen statistics and vague politically motivated proposals. What is needed in terms of the future of the public service are some positive, creative steps that ensures all New Zealanders have public services that are relevant and enabling partners in their lives,

Labour inherited a demoralised public service undermined by budget cuts, contracting out and armies of consultants. It has worked hard in government to rebuild a positive culture in the public service. It has increased nurses, teachers, social workers, prison officers at never seen before rates.  It also has employed more people to support these services, in part because the government is doing more. If you provide tax credits to three-quarters of New Zealand families, make student loans interest free, put half a million people into a superannuation scheme, it takes a bit of managing,

So what is the next step for public services in New Zealand?  It is a good time to take stock of the changes made in the last eight years. I am not one who believes that everything is perfect in the public service, but the answer is not a randomly chosen cut in funding.

What we need is to work with the public service to create a culture where services are clearly aimed at finding solutions for communities and individuals to support them in their daily lives. This will mean bringing services closer to people and enabling communities to drive the programmes that support them. Average citizens have the right to be involved in decision making about the services that effect them.

It will also involve acknowledging that most problems the public service addresses are messy. A family in crisis will rarely have their problems solved by one intervention. It might require support for housing, health issues, parenting, finding work and many other areas. Government agencies are not always good at dealing with these complex problems. Ministries and departments still all too often exist in silos.

We need to re-look at the legislation that controls and directs the public service (such as the Public Finance Act and the State Sector Act) to see how it can be changed to break down the silos, get officials to work together better and focus on the needs of the public. This will involve using new technology and adopting flexible work practices.  

It is easy to say that they should just be able to get on and do this. But observers only need to think about their own workplace be it a newspaper, a bank or a bar and think about how hard it is to get people from different sections to change the way they work or think about each other’s roles. For our public services, multiply that difficulty many times over. But it can be done. We need to give public servants the mandate to think creatively, support them to take some risks and trust them to implement programmes.

If you are looking for a future vision you could do much worse than some of the proposals put forward by DEMOS, the UK think-tank contracted by the PSA in 2006 to look at where public services might go.  They talk about future public service that is based on community development, meeting the publics need and innovation. That seems to be a far better base to move forward from than populist attacks on public servants,

John Key may still think of the public service as Jim and Beryl from Gliding On,  Life has moved on, public servants are hard working and focused.  The chance is now there to take the next steps to innovative, flexible, community services that play a positive and practical part in our daily lives.