Andrew Dickens: Our public service can do better

A mate and I have a little joke.   Whenever we screw up. Either big or small.  We’ll look at each other and say, “it only took one goat”.   It acknowledges that it takes forever to build up a good reputation and all it takes is one misstep to immediately undo all that good work.  New Zealand was recently told it had slipped a place in the world reputational survey around fraud and corruption.  We’re now 4th in the world. Which is still very good but not as good as we were before.  The news that confidential data held by a government agency was inappropriately given to a third party is a very serious one.  Maybe it wasn’t misused but it shouldn’t have been released.   And maybe this was not as dodgy as it seems but if we let standards slide then the next time could be even worse.   This is not the right time to be seen as a wink wink nudge nudge country. There’s more than enough third world metrics in play as it is.   When combined with Brian Roche’s report on the civil service that shows us to be over governed and below standard then the slow degradation of New Zealand’s reputation is underway.   We have too many Public Servants and the ones that are there make either stupid mistakes or dodgy decisions.   New Zealand can do better is the report card. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.