School of Government · Te Kura Kāwanatanga: Institute for Governance and Policy Studies: Working and Policy Papers

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The Institute for Governance and Policy Studies (IPS) fosters discussion, research and publication of current issues of domestic and foreign policy. We particularly link academic research and public policy by providing opportunities for independent and detached study, and for neutral and informed discussion of important and relevant issues. Our goal is to engage the broadest possible range of informed opinion, particularly in drawing people together from the universities, the public service, the business community and the wider public community. Our three catchwords might be summed up as study, engage, inform.

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Open Access
Assessing ‘Good Governance’ and Corruption in New Zealand: ‘Scientific’ Measurement, Political Discourse, and Historical Narrative
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2013) Gregory, Robert
New Zealand is ranked highly on the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), which assess performance on six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. In addition, New Zealand has long been rated by Transparency International‘s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) as having the very lowest rates of corruption. It was rated as first, or first equal (that is, perceived as the least corrupt or equally least corrupt country in the world), in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and sat alone atop the rankings in 2009 and 2011. In 2012 it was ranked first equal again. This paper gives some attention to methodological and related arguments about the general validity of both the WGI and the CPI, and is based on the premise that these international rankings are not only widely accepted as valid statements of relative fact, but also can divert attention away from pertinent issues of good government within particular countries. It may be claimed on the basis of these indicators that relative to the performance of most other countries New Zealanders have little to be worried about regarding the quality of their governing institutions and processes. Yet ‗good governance‘, including low levels of corruption, needs to be assessed against the country‘s own standards over time, and informed by historical understanding. International league tables, using precise indexes and indicators have their uses. However, they should not be reified or allowed to dominate or supplant valid social criticism in the form of political discourse and historical narrative, which are essential in assessing any country‘s quality of governance.
Open Access
Authorising Environment: Mapping Role Designation and Practice in the New Zealand Model- A review of the New Zealand literature
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Eppel, Elizabeth
The starting proposition for the Authorising Environment strand is that reform of public management system to date has been a one way street. By and large reform has focused on how public organisations set, manage and report their performance, paying insufficient attention to the role of the authorising environment, such as ministers, parliament and the media. Recent international analyses of public management reform identify authorising agents as the ‘missing piece’ in system design and performance, emphasising, for example, the formal role of politicians and legislators in setting performance criteria and their absence of understanding and inconsistent levels of utilisation. It is taken for granted that public sector reform revolves around both normative and descriptive suppositions that the signals sent by authorising agents matter within the design and operation of public management systems, and yet we know precious little about how this part of the system actually works. The authorising environment is an ongoing project, which explores the missing link in systemic public management reform: the role expectations for ministers and the question of what should (or can) be done to modify the way ministers and legislators engage with the public management systems that they have installed. This is about both better alignment (by clarifying the expectations of authorising agents and the fit with what public organisations do) and stronger engagement (by examining what can be done to increase conformance by authorising agents with the systemic expectations that they themselves have set). This paper is part of the initial phase of the project: a literature review on what is already known about the role expectations of the key authorising agents – ministers – in the New Zealand public management system. The focus has been on the ‘performance’ framework governing minister-chief executive relations, and has confirmed that this area is under-researched. In the second stage of the project this New Zealand research literature will be placed in the context of the international literature on ministerial role expectations and public management design, as a first step in scoping a research question for empirical study.
Open Access
Bridges Both Ways. Transforming the Openness of New Zealand Government.
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2017) Rashbrooke, Max
One of New Zealand’s great strengths is its easy-going, ‘she’ll be right’ attitude; but every strength can become a weakness. That is increasingly the case with the country’s record on public transparency, political participation, and anti-corruption policies. A long-standing record of scoring well on international rankings for integrity and openness has lulled New Zealand into a complacent attitude. While there is much to be proud of, there are also serious problems, as repeatedly highlighted by international surveys. Political donations are badly regulated, official information laws are being circumvented, and opportunities for deep citizen engagement with politics are limited. New Zealand is also passing up the chance to get on board the latest global push for greater openness, which is being impelled both by advances in technology and citizens’ growing expectations of greater transparency in many parts of their lives. New Zealand therefore faces an opportunity – to regain its leadership on openness, and to address some of the weaker parts of its record. With the 2017 general election just months away, now is the perfect time for a discussion on what kind of government New Zealanders want. This report therefore surveys a wide range of pro-openness policies as an aid, and stimulus, to that debate.
Open Access
Can We Keep Flying? Decarbonising New Zealand’s Domestic and International Aviation
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2019) Rae, Wallace; Callister, Paul
There is a recognition in New Zealand of an urgent need to decarbonise our economy. Two of our largest export industries are dairying and tourism. Together they earn valuable income that supports New Zealand’s relatively high standard of living. But both are significant contributors to greenhouse emissions. Dairy is already receiving significant regulatory attention on this front. What about tourism? If we decarbonise our aviation industry, will we still have one, and can tourism survive without it?
Open Access
The Case for New Climate Change Adaption. Funding Instruments.
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2017) Boston, Jonathan; Lawrence, Judy
Adapting to climate change during the 21st century and beyond poses unprecedented technical, administrative and political challenges that will test the ability to cope at national and local levels. The impacts of climate change will be progressive (sea level rise) and intense (rainfall), and punctuated by abrupt and extreme events (storms, droughts, floods and landslips). Such changes will be outside the variability ranges that we have responded to in the past or are responding to currently. They will be ongoing for centuries, and occur concurrently in time around New Zealand. The risks will compound within, between and across sectors and domains of interest. The foreseeable impacts will create high damage costs (Bell, Paulik and Wadwha, 2015; Insurance Council of New Zealand, 2014) and raise difficult inter-temporal and intra-generational trade-offs.2 For instance, in New Zealand insured losses due to extreme weather events were as much as $175 million in 2013 and $135 million in 2014 (Insurance Council of New Zealand, 2017). The Treasury estimates that drought cost New Zealand around $1.5 billion in 2013. Over the last ten years the annual cost of repairing land transport networks damaged by weather-related events has increased from $20 million to $90 million. Moreover, these costs can be expected to escalate significantly over coming decades as a result of climate change. Importantly, in this regard, Local Government New Zealand estimates – based on research by Deloittes Access Economics (Australia)(2013) – that $1 spent on hazard risk reduction will reduce losses and disruption from natural disasters worth between $3 and $11. Other international estimates of the likely savings are consistent with these findings (Healy and Malhotra, 2009).
Open Access
Changing Gear: Delivering the Social Dividend
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2002) Grimes, Arthur; Campbell-Hunt, Colin; Wilson, Ross; Withers, Glenn; Oram, Rod
In December 2001, the Institute of Policy Studies and Business New Zealand co-hosted a one day symposium entitled ‘Changing Gear: Delivering the Social Dividend’. It was addressed and attended by members of academia, the public sector and the business sector. This IPS Policy Paper brings together a number of the presentations to that symposium. It includes papers delivered by Arthur Grimes, Colin Campbell-Hunt and Ross Wilson, plus a summary of key points raised in the address by Glenn Withers, and some concluding remarks by Rod Oram.
Open Access
Climate Change and Food Security
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2008) Weaver, Sean
This paper explores the global trends associated with food security and climate change and the linkages between them. This comes at a time of unprecedented international concern for global food security, against a backdrop of dramatically fluctuating world food prices. Underlying the food security issue is a trend of rapidly growing populations in many developing countries, and projected changes in food production dynamics associated with a warming and drying climate for many regions during the 21st century. This paper looks into demand and supply trends associated with world food security, in an effort to inform a coordinated policy response to this emerging crisis. The final sections of the paper explore the implications for New Zealand, and then reflect on options for a broader global policy response.
Open Access
Collaborative Governance Case Studies: The Land and Water Forum
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2013) Eppel, Elizabeth
Looking at collaborative processes in retrospect is always easier than it was at the time they were first happening. They tend to look more designed, orderly, and less messy than they actually were. In Land and Water Forum case, a number of strands of activity/inactivity and actors came together to construct the beginning.
Open Access
Connectedness & Canterbury. How did government agencies connect in response to the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011?
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2014) Parish, Catrin
The Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010 and 2011 presented the Government with unprecedented challenges, not least of which was to ensure consistency and connectedness across each of its agencies who had a role in the response. This paper examines particular instances where government agencies connected in responding to the earthquake’s impact on the built environment, and identifies elements of the experience that should be incorporated in planning for future natural disasters. The key observations are: Examples of connectedness often came about due to existing relationships and networks that were not born out of disaster planning but were fortuitous in enabling aspects of the Government’s response. Individual agencies gathered large amounts of information in their response roles, but this could often only be utilised between agencies in an ad hoc way in the absence of existing frameworks for information sharing. There are opportunities for broader government policies to be implemented as part of the rebuild, but these may be overlooked or under utilised due to competing priorities or lack of advance planning and role awareness. A whole-of-government review of the experience in Canterbury is required and a strategic approach is necessary to implement change. As part of this, the importance of connectedness should be acknowledged and built into frameworks.
Open Access
Dishonest accounting: comments on the Climate Change Commission draft report, 2021
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2021) Bertram, Geoff
I have serious concerns with parts of the draft report, and welcome this opportunity to lay those out and suggest how they might be addressed in the final report. Those relate to (1) the Commission’s acceptance and use of the gross-net accounting methodology which systematically obscures the true record of New Zealand’s emissions performance and the actual lack of ambition in targets set to date; (2) the Commission’s failure to engage with the operational detail of the very dysfunctional electricity market which stands as a roadblock to climate progress whereas it ought to be a key facilitator; and (3) the Commission’s reluctance to engage with the nuts and bolts of the Emissions Trading Scheme; and its failure even to canvass alternative price-based policy frameworks such as carbon taxes.
Open Access
Does an empirical Heckman curve exist?
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2018) Rea, David; Burton, David
The Heckman Curve suggests that the rate of return to public investments in human capital declines across the life course. This paper assesses the empirical evidence for the Heckman Curve, using estimates of program benefit cost ratios from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. We find no support for the claim of an inverse relationship between rates of return and the age of the person who receives the intervention. The paper concludes by discussing the various features of human capital and interventions that might explain why the predictions of the Heckman Curve are not consistent with the empirical evidence.
Open Access
Economic policy in the public sphere: A perspective from New Zealand
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2019) Makhlouf, Gabriel; Mukherjee, Udayan
In this essay, our aim is to reflect on the uses of economics in policy in New Zealand, and offer a view on where it may need to develop in coming years. Our intention is to speak primarily to policy practitioners, by which we mean those involved in providing analysis and advice that contributes to debate about the direction of public policy. The motivation for this essay has been our passion for economics, its intellectual underpinnings and their historical development, its tools, techniques and rigour, its analytical insights and the contribution they’ve made to our understanding of the world we live in. Economics matters. It is foundational for public policy and as public policy practitioners we want to promote the discipline, support its development into new applications and strengthen its use across all public policy domains.
Open Access
Environmental Taxation in New Zealand: What Place Does it Have?
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2002) Scrimgeour, Frank; Piddington, Ken
The 2001 Tax Review (McLeod et al, 2001) includes a timely discussion about the place of environmental taxation in New Zealand. The review’s discussion paper released on 20 June 2001 and the final report in October 2001 both devote a whole chapter to environmental taxation. This is not surprising given the current influence of the Greens in Parliament, the Kyoto Protocol and the enthusiasm of some analysts for using economic instruments to achieve environmental outcomes. In reviewing the academic case for environment taxation, it is appropriate to go back to the Pigouvian tradition, and its more recent interpretation by Coase, Tietenberg and others. At its simplest, an efficient Pigouvian tax and an effect regulation achieve the same outcome. The policy analyst is indifferent. However, given the range of real world circumstances, comparisons can be made between doing nothing, imposing a regulation, imposing a tax, implementing a tradeable permits system or some other policy instrument. Analysts are left to choose between instruments by comparing each instrument against a set of criteria. The Tax Review discussion paper took a cautious approach suggesting that eco-taxes are only appropriate when “damage of each unit of emissions is the same across the geographic area to which the tax applies; the volume of emission is measurable; and the marginal net damage of emissions is measurable”. At a regional level they are more optimistic, suggesting “eco-charges may be appropriate at a local level”. The review does see a real possibility for carbon taxes and notes there is no research available about the potential impact of methane taxes. The Tax Review discussion paper conclusions are driven by some critical assumptions. The authors place a tough standard as a requirement for any environmental tax. This requirement is not always or often met with regulations and other policy instruments. The authors are also concerned about taxes attenuating property rights at all levels of production. This is certainly an impact but it is an efficient impact. The authors suggest that double dividends result from the transfer of rents to the Crown and not productive efficiency. This assumption needs to be tested theoretically and empirically. The authors assume New Zealand should be slow to implement taxes as part of its response to the Kyoto protocol. This ignores the possibility that there may be gains from early adoption. Environmental taxation will continue to be an important political issue in this part of the world as evidenced by the current fuel tax enquiry in Australia. Despite its importance, the consideration of environmental taxation by the Tax Review Committee is unsatisfactory. Further analysis is required which considers the performance of environmental taxation against other instruments used to achieve government goals. This paper provides some history of the concept of environmental taxation as a framework for further research to address the issues raised by the Taxation Review 2001. This paper should form a basis for further work in New Zealand examining specific opportunities for environmental and resource-use taxation.
Open Access
Experimentation and Learning in Policy Implementation: Implications for Public Management
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Eppel, Elizabeth; Turner, David; Wolf, Amanda
Policy objectives often can be simply stated. Yet, policy implementation frequently becomes complex, not only when the problem addressed is complex or wicked, such as family violence prevention, but also when the policy is simply stated, such as raising the GST. In complex implementation, effective organisational and individual practices facilitate learning by experimentation. Practices centre on detecting anomalies and then explicitly incorporating reflections on them in ongoing design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities. The research drew on policy and experimentation literature to propose a new framework for describing complex implementation practices, a range of cases studies, and discussions with policy managers. Findings highlight the need for a consistent strategic view of end goals, some means for testing changes, and the capacity to identify and assess results in order to redirect effort. Support for these practices involves ensuring appropriate permission to experiment, early and sustained activity conducted outside the responsible agencies, and open access to multiple sources of expertise. Implementing agencies and the policy management system need to take every opportunity to fully incorporate learning into their understanding of the agency’s role, capability requirements, and future focus.
Open Access
Families, Ageing and Migration: Indian Communities in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2010) Davey, Judith; Keeling, Sally; Zodgekar, Arvind
The migration of older people to join family members in other countries and “trans-national’ families are issues of growing significance. They have implications for policies on retirement incomes, care and support services, and cultural retention, as well as for family health and cohesion. The New Zealand Positive Ageing Strategy supports the provision of culturally appropriate services to older people and the recognition of diversity within the older population. The Indian community in New Zealand is growing fast and becoming more diverse socio-economically and culturally. It is a significant element of the population and provides example of the interaction of families, ageing and migration. On the basis of interviews with representatives of Indian community organisations and family case studies, the research examines issues arising for older Indians and their families. Many of these also apply to older people in general, such as the need for social contact and opportunities for contribution and participation. Other issues, such as balancing co-residence and aspirations for independence, are more specific to the Indian community, but may apply also to other ethnic groups.
Open Access
Financial abuse of older people in New Zealand
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Davey, Judith A; McKendry, Jayne
This working paper is linked to a workshop hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, in June 2011. Following discussion of definitional issues and exploration of what we know about FEA, we identify strategies to prevent and reduce FEA in New Zealand. Our purpose is to promote discussion and development of policies which ensure a multi-faceted response to this issue. This will help to ensure that older people are free from elder abuse in all its forms.
Open Access
Fiscal History
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2019) Rose, Dennis
This paper is based on a presentation to a Symposium, "Well-being, budget responsibility rules and the Public Finance Act", hosted on 15 April 2019 by the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, and on a follow-up presentation to the Fabian Society at Conolly Hall Wellington on April 23. It falls into two parts: an examination of trends in public revenue and spending in the post-war years and a suggested re-focusing of the Public Finance Act fiscal policy framework, that includes the possible use of fiat money creation in support of macroeconomic objectives, particularly full employment. The historic analysis updates work undertaken earlier this decade, with the primary objective of deriving annual time series data summarizing trends in public revenue and spending, suitable for use in econometric analysis.
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Flexi-Super: Not Really Such a Great Idea
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2013) Rashbrooke, Geoff
Flexi-super is a proposal to allow people to begin receiving New Zealand Superannuation (NZS) between the ages of 60 and 70, instead of at age 65 as at present. The intention is that the rate at which NZS was paid commencing at these ages would be adjusted relative to age 65 rates. A discussion document on this topic was issued by the Government late August 2013. This paper is not a direct response to that publication, having been commenced at an earlier stage in the light of some earlier canvassing of the concept. It does not therefore address all the matters raised in the discussion document, but does set out three distinct grounds for not proceeding any further.
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From Complexity to Collaboration: Creating the New Zealand we want for ourselves, and enabling future generations to do the same for themselves
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2018) Eppel, Elizabeth; Provoost, Donna; Karacaoglu, Girol
The purpose of this paper is to change how we approach public policy and implementation for complex problems such as child poverty. The ultimate objective of public policy is to improve people’s lives and wellbeing, now and into the future. Traditional environmental, social and economic policies are clearly failing to generate the changes needed to address the persistent and increasing disadvantage facing many people and the communities they live in. This is unacceptable in a country as rich in human and natural resources as Aotearoa New Zealand. We propose a principles-based policy framework for complex social problems such child poverty. This approach will do more than embellish existing policy. It will help ensure that the intent of policy is realised, through a shared and explicit understanding and a commitment to achieving significant improvements. The government needs to rethink its various roles and consider how it enables local communities to be more transformative for children, their families, whānau and communities. We arrive at this conclusion through an analysis of how complex problems and uncertainty are best managed, and through considering some promising practices which suggest some common underpinning values and practices we can follow. In essence, we propose that the design and implementation process for public policy should be reconfigured to rest on a new set of principles, built on values of trust between government and other agents of change, and of valuing distributed community knowledge, resources and local solutions. This paper derives the following set of six principles from our understanding of the complexity of issues like child poverty, and from our consideration of previous attempts to work effectively in complex policy domains. The Government’s proposed legislation to set targets for ‘significant and sustained’ child poverty reduction, and the elevated focus of government agencies on effective interventions and on learning from locally-generated change, make the time ripe for advancing our thinking on these issues.
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Funding Our Culture
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2000) James, Colin
Many successive governments have funded the arts, cultural activities and heritage. Every now and then someone asks why or says it is not governments’ business. But their voices evaporate into the ether. The questions are not whether there should be state funding but what taxpayers should fund, how much, how and on what criteria. Governments have answered the ‘what’ and the ‘how much’ with their chequebooks and have de facto answered the ‘how’. But on each count there has been much criticism. And the criteria are murky: sometimes funding is on thinly disguised pork-barrel principles. Shouldn’t it be more rigorous? The Public Finance Act is more than 10 years old. These are the days of fiscal prudence, value for money and attention to outcomes. Departments are supposed to tie their spending to a specified goal. Isn’t it time clear rules were stated by which arts, culture and heritage funding is allocated? Moreover, the range of activities to which funding is directed is very wide: national and cultural identity, heritage and preservation, access to and participation in cultural activities, community development, quality of life and artistic productions. Each is treated separately, with no discernible overall strategy. Funding often follows the ‘fly-paper’ principle: what was funded last year or 10 years ago will be funded again this year.To discuss these issues and look for ways forward, the Institute of Policy Studies convened on 24 and 31 March 2000 four half-day roundtable forums with invited specialists, The forums were sponsored principally by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and also by Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and the Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa. They were not intended to produce definitive recommendations; rather, to explore ideas. The forums adopted as a basis for their discussions a restricted definition of culture, the one used by the Ministry in its 1999 publication, The Government’s Role in the Cultural Sector: A Survey of the Issue: “celebrating, promoting or preserving our cultural heritage and the arts”. Though the forums also kept in the back of the mind the wider sense the Ministry also used of “every kind of phenomenon which gives a significance and integrity to our way of life” and occasionally referred to this wider concept of culture, the business end of the discussion was on the narrower definition. This did not, however, restrict discussion to ‘high culture’. The themes that emerged from the forums are outlined in this brief. They are a report by the programme director of wide-ranging and at times vigorous conversations, including their salient points. In this report are also recorded many expressions of opinion, some by individuals, some by several participants, often contested. No opinion or statement should be taken as a conclusion or position of the forums or any individual participant but only as ideas for debate. Nevertheless, as a background against which to set these distillations, perhaps two baselines might be suggested: • Funding policy should have the whole population in mind, not just those involved in or particularly interested in arts, culture and heritage. • Funding should be only for ‘externalities’, the benefits to society of an artistic, cultural or heritage activity These two baselines presume that governments act on behalf of all the people and that any funds directed to an individual or a sector of society must in some way benefit the whole of society. If the benefit to the whole of society is low, the funding would logically also be low, and if no benefit to the whole of society can be identified then a government logically would not fund that activity. A third, operational, guideline might be that there should be no direct funding of individuals or performing arts companies. To say that, however, is not to say much. Assessing and quantifying ‘externalities’ is a complex exercise of judgment, unavoidably highly inexact and open to challenge on economic, sociological and political grounds, all of which are constantly shifting as society changes.

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