Nicola Willis talks at the Beehive, October 2024. Photo: Craig McCulloch / RNZ
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has implored public servants to bring bold new ideas to the table, while acknowledging the government was "asking a lot" of them at an "unsettling" time.
She also used her address to the Institute of Public Administration to foreshadow a "radical" shake-up of how the government contracts social services.
Willis' speech comes as the coalition is driving a major cost-cutting exercise across the public service, axing thousands of jobs and initiatives.
Speaking at Parliament's Banquet Hallon Thursday morning, Willis began by thanking the "wise and experienced" public servants for assisting the government during tough economic circumstances, noting their "thoughtfulness, tenacity, and earnestness".
She reiterated the coalition's consistent position that the public service savings drive would continue, describing fiscal discipline as good practice.
"It is not a one-off, one-Budget affair. It is an ongoing state of mind."
Willis stressed, however, that the government's aspirations went far beyond getting the books in order: "We are intent on improving lives."
Nicola Willis talks at the Beehive, October 2024. Photo: Craig McCulloch / RNZ
She called on those attending to bring their "best and boldest ideas" for tackling the country's most entrenched challenges, saying the government was open to change.
In response to an audience question, Willis said too many public servants were cautious in their advice to the ministers, as if trying to protect the politicians from themselves.
"Push those bold ideas upstairs, and if you are a manager or leader, seek out those people in your organisation who think differently, who are imaginative, who say annoying things in meetings because they don't get how we've always done it."
A radical change to the contracting 'criss-cross'
The government also wanted to work more closely with community-based providers and improve the way it contracts social service, Willis said.
She had asked the Social Investment Agency to improve the existing "criss-crossing and overlapping" contracts used, she said, having heard the considerable feedback that the current approach was broken.
"When I talk to and visit providers, they tell me about the multiple overlapping contracts that they have with different agencies who do not seem to be talking to each other.
"And they tell me about the time they waste producing reports that don't seem to inform future conversations and contracting decisions, and the teams of people they have to employ to produce those reports that aren't read."
This was an unnecessary drain on those providers' time and resources, Willis said.
"I do not blame the public service for this. This is what successive governments have baked in as a way of doing business. What I am asking of you is to join with me in radically changing it."
She wanted the new contract system to be "outcomes-based" and provided as a blueprint for all commissioners and service providers to follow.
The government also wanted to work more closely with community-based providers and had asked the Social Investment Agency to improve the existing "criss-crossing and overlapping" contracts used, Willis said.
Willis concluded her speech with a challenge for those in attendance.
"We know change can be unsettling and we know we are asking a lot of you and your colleagues in the public service.
"At the same time that we're making savings across the public sector, we're not just asking you to deliver business as usual - we're challenging you to think and operate differently.
"For me, wrestling with that reality conjures up a phrase attributed to that great New Zealand pioneer, Ernest Rutherford: 'We haven't got the money, so we'll have to think.'
"I am confident in your ability to rise to the challenge."
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