State Sector Act Reform panel discussion
The Minister of State Services, Hon Chris Hipkins, has signalled that he is looking to reform the State Sector Act 1988.
IPANZ presented a panel of: Peter Hughes, State Services Commissioner, Jonathan Boston, Professor of Policy Studies at Victoria University, and Erin Polaczuk, National Secretary Public Service Association, to discuss directions and options for the reform of the Act and the opportunities and challenges they could create.
The discussion, with questions from the audience via a phone app, was moderated by Jo Cribb, IPANZ President.
Dr Cribb said, “With about 100 people attending, there’s a demonstrated interest in these proposals. The audience posed questions about values and behaviours for the public sector, whether the Act would go far enough to recognise Maori partnership and values, and how objective the ‘appointment on merit’ principle could be.”
Jonathan Boston and Erin Polaczuk have provided their notes (see attached). SSC has provided some answers to technical questions asked by the audience during the discussion (see attached).