Government departments and agencies and entities themselves have no idea who they are and what they do. Or at least if they have such an idea they are not telling us.
If you look up one of the major ministries to find out what they are about you will find on the home page "Enabling New Zealanders to flourish".
Calling it Te Manatū Waka is not the problem. And calling it the Ministry of Transport will not make the problem go away.
The strategic framework says "As the government’s lead on transport ... we aim to be bold, invested and collaborative ... "
Who knew? More importantly who is any the wiser now? And where does NZTA fit in?
Try looking on the website of NZTA and the major flagged message is "Renew your registration anytime. It’s quick, easy and safe to do".
Little wonder if the new Minister for Transport wants to know like the rest of us what these departments and agencies think they are there for.
In Otago, a major transport issue currently interesting us is whether Christchurch City Council (through its airport interests) should build another airport in Central Otago, or whether between Queenstown, Momona and Invercargill we can manage.
This would seem like a transport issue, but apparently it is in the basket of the Tourism Minister. So is cycling transport but not a plane?
The Ministry of Health is just as obscure. Its headline is "Pae ora, healthy futures for all".
Apparently Manatū Haora is the chief steward of the health system. They do this by achieving equality, combating racism in the health system and through vote health.
Te Whatu Ora, the public health agency, is tasked with "Building the future of health".
The first message on their website is about unauthorised data breaches.
The second says "... We’re here to help health and care professionals get the support they need to do their mahi".
We are told that Whatu Ora means "the weaving of wellness". The headline of healthy futures for all suggests getting in behind assisted dying would be a failure. That would clearly not be the case.
But we have no idea what to expect from these organisations.
Neither can we tell which entities are actually responsible for the taxes being spent.
A clue for those in the know is that Crown agencies in general are tasked with carrying out stuff. In theory the public pontifications and policies have come directly from the ministries.
Confusingly, however, we now appear to have policies coming from the Crown agencies and no clear idea of who is doing the heavy lifting of delivery of services.
It is tempting to blame the 50% increase in communication staff for the waffle on the website issues.
But these staff members will have started by asking what the information is they are required to communicate. It appears that no-one knows what to tell us about what they are there for.
With the Ministry of Transport, and its functional arm, NZTA, we used to have a reasonable idea of what it did. We thought it did roading, including calculations of the most dangerous areas to upgrade most urgently.
Maybe we would have thought about subsidising buses, since transport would include buses.
Now it spends money on cycleways and has an interest in environmental issues. Recently it committed to spending money on shifting a bus stop in Hamilton since it was sited next to an adult supplies shop.
With the description "enabling New Zealanders to flourish" it is hard to imagine what skills someone applying for a job there would need. It is little wonder that there have been arguments about whether government workers should be paid for being fluent in Māori. That may be a core requirement for these jobs if we knew what the jobs are.
If we no longer have any idea what government departments do, it is hard to know whether there are the right number of staff. If we wanted to spend more money for better outcomes we would have no idea where to start.
If the government wants to reduce cost, it can’t tell which staff are doing something which we can do without. We don’t know how to appreciate the skills and contributions staff have on offer.
We all deserve to know what the government is saying it will do, and how it will do it.
The ministers could start by looking up Wikipedia to find out what these ministries and Crown agencies etc are there for. They could then go on to list priorities for the next five years.
A focus could then be on how to achieve these priorities, and how they can be funded. Those who work for government departments deserve to know what they are there for and what success looks like.
Those in charge need to also know the expectations and be able to have adult conversations about what is possible with the money available.
- Hilary Calvert is a former Otago regional councillor, MP and Dunedin City councillor.
