Fact Sheet 18 : Public Provision of Quality Services

This Fact Sheet was prepared for the July 2002 General Election campaign.

Progress made under the current Government

The state sector plays a critical role in the lives of New Zealanders. It employs about 250,000 people and accounts for over a third of GDP. The public provision of high quality health, education, housing and other services has a strong influence on people's living standards and sense of wellbeing. Those services, underpinned by a social security system, are often referred to as the 'social wage' and are essential to ensure that working people are able to participate in their communities.

The Labour / Alliance Government's record in this area and the threats to the social wage posed by a National / Act Government are discussed more deeply in a separate election fact sheet on Social Development.

The Labour / Alliance Government has focused on workforce development issues across the broad state sector. For example, this has been signaled as important work in the Tertiary Education Strategy and through the establishment of the Health Workforce Advisory Committee.

The Government has developed a number of tripartite initiatives which bring together unions, employers and Government in the state sector. They have had a dual focus on improving both the quality of service to the New Zealand public, and on the specific issues for state sector workers. In 2000 the Government established a State Sector Standards Board to give advice about core values and principles for government agencies and those who work in them.

The Review of the Centre undertaken in 2001 was set up to recommend how to strengthen the management and improve the coordination of the public sector - so that government agencies know what each other are doing and work more closely together. This is often called a 'whole of government' approach. They have concentrated on changes needed in the management of public services to rebuild a coherent, co-ordinated and valued public service.

Tripartite forums recognise the role of unions as social partners and have looked at issues such as employer contributions to superannuation in the state sector. The Government has a specific 'Partnership for Quality' agreement with the Public Service Association (PSA) focused on achieving high quality public services.

The e-government strategy has grown out of a desire to increase public access to and participation in government. New technology should make it easier for the public to get quality information and services from government departments. Its aim is to support the work of frontline staff, not to replace them.

What else needs to be done

Workforce planning and development must be linked to funding mechanisms that can actually address current and anticipated workforce shortages, including retention and recruitment problems. Such strategies will need to address unacceptable workloads, introduce safe staffing standards, improve pay and working conditions and build the capacity of the Maori and Pacific workforces. Ongoing access to training and career development is important, and is impeded by issues of student debt.

State sector workers are in the unique position that the Government is both the purchaser and supplier of services, and thus in a position to set prices including labour costs. For this reason it is important that funding mechanisms receive a broad level of acceptance. Possible measures to achieve this include international benchmarking of funding, wages and conditions; effective EEO provisions and longer term financial certainty.

Greater investment in public provision of services may increase pressure for additional tax revenue, perhaps through specific dedicated taxes. Existing Government funding could also be refocused on public provision through limits on leakages of public money into for-profit providers.

The State Services Commission's Career Progression and Development Survey highlighted longstanding EEO issues including access to training, the impact of bullying and harassment, and the effects of long work hours on attempts to balance work and other commitments. These issues need to be addressed in order to make the public sector a positive and valued career choice.

With the imminent appointment of an EEO Commissioner within the Human Rights Commission, it is timely to restate government and crown agencies' roles in monitoring and addressing EEO progress. This is particularly important given that the state is a major employer of Maori, Pacific peoples, women and people with disabilities. Government also has a potentially significant role to play, as both policy maker and employer, in implementing pay equity provisions to help close the gender pay.

What could be lost under a National/Act Government?

National's planned changes to the Employment Relations Act would restrict unions access to workplaces and breach international law by prohibiting multi-employer strikes. This narrow view of the role of unions does not acknowledge our role as social partners and undermines the basis for tripartite initiatives. The Act party wants to go further and abolish all employment law.

Both parties propose cuts to taxes and thus envisage a smaller role for Government in the provision of social services and the maintenance of an decent social wage. Act explicitly stating that there will be reduced public provision of health and education services, with funding mechanisms designed to help increase competition from the private sector. Act also plans to sell off state housing.

National remains opposed to all but a voluntarist approach to either EEO or pay equity.