Captain’s call: what the new Public Service Commissioner told public service bosses

Saturday, 25 January 2025

The country’s new Public Service Commissioner introduces himself with a handshake and the greeting: “Hi I’m Brian”.

But he’s a man who needs no introduction in the Capital.

Sir Brian Roche has been the go-to Mr Fixit of successive governments.

His name was linked to the top public service role for months before the appointment was finally announced; the rumour mill suggested that he took a lot of persuading.

Now he faces one of his biggest fix-it jobs yet, steering a shell-shocked and change weary public service.

He only started in the role in November, and while the public service is known by most as a slow moving beast, steeped in bureaucracy, his touch is already being felt.

Sir Brian doesn’t waffle, his answers are sharp and he’s optimistic he can turn the ship around. He’s got two and a half years to do it, and there’s a lot of pressure weighing on that.

But he’s realistic - he knows it’s a big job.

Sir Brian needs to take the public service to a better, more streamlined and more efficient place. And he has to do it off the back of a turbulent year in which thousands of jobs were culled, while those who are left remain unsettled by the fear that an axe still hangs over them.

“What attracts me more to it is not the size [of the job], but its importance to how New Zealand functions,” he tells The Post.

“It's a service thing - to be of service to your country. It's very important to me and my family. I've got the opportunity to do it and I'll do it to the best of my ability.”

Before starting the job, Sir Brian was concerned the public service was too complex and too inward-focused.

About a month in, he wrote a letter to chief executives, cementing that concern from what he saw in the public service as commissioner.

It was extensive, listing the issues he sees holding it back - that included operating with an outdated model within an inefficient system, with too many meetings, too many layers of management, too many double ups and fragmented decision making.

The bosses were tasked with reflecting and suggesting changes, which would feed into a smaller group of public service chief executives to work on those changes. That group had its first meeting this week.

Sir Brian told The Post the reason that he sent the letter was “… people were saying, ‘what's on your mind?’ so I was just relaying back to them what I've been told and what I thought.

“And the really encouraging thing is no one has disagreed with it. So that's step one. The issue now for us is, if we accept that analysis or hypothesis, what are we going to do about it? And that work is just getting under way.

“The reason that I've got a group of chief executives is, it's not about me as the leader. I'm just the catalyst for the change. They're the ones that need to lead it and design it and then execute on it.

“It's not a crisis, but I think we need to actually take leadership and reorientate the system to a different operating environment.”

Part of that rigid structure was caused by processes and culture within the public service, he said.

“I don't think that hard architecture, the system, is fit for purpose any longer, but the people make it work and the degree of effort and professionalism they have is an asset for New Zealand.”

But the structure, filled with meetings and bureaucracy (a common gripe about the public service), isn’t just a public service problem, “per se”.

“Organisational design - we need to be more flexible. The whole operating environment, fiscal pressures, global pressures, it's a very dynamic operating environment, and we need a system that reflects that dynamic.”

He does not yet have concrete changes he wants to make.

“Before you can have change, you’ve got to own up to what the issues are. That's what the lesson was designed to do. And [the CEs] owned up and said, ‘yes, these are matters that we should actually actively consider.’

Asked if he wants the public service to act like the private sector, Roche said, “we talk about the public sector and the private sectors that are two independent satellites, they're not, the public sector is a business”.

“We don't make a profit. We're still here to serve the citizens of New Zealand, and all the money we have is taxpayer money, and we need to be mindful of that. So I don't see the distinction between the public and private sector as starkly as some.”

That view plays into his worry about the public service’s inward focus. “It worries me that we do a lot of business with ourselves. The model that we operate in, it's quite fragmented. There's a lot of moving parts.

“We need to focus on how we simplify and how we streamline and how we reorientate. We will be better off and deliver better outcomes for New Zealand.”

Roche was very much a sought-after hire for the role, on the pathway to retirement when then-Public Service Minister Nicola Willis came knocking in early July.

A former public service heavyweight, he also previously led NZ Post, was chairperson of the New Zealand Transport Agency, chair of NZ Rugby, he even led the team that gained New Zealand the 2011 Rugby World Cup hosting rights. He was the fix-it man for the Labour Government amid the Covid-19 pandemic, leading an independent advisory group into the pandemic response, an advisory panel on defence strategy, and the taskforce into the Cyclone Gabrielle response.

The search for a new commissioner began on January 31, last year, when job applications opened with a February 25 deadline, to replace outgoing commissioner Peter Hughes.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Willis announced Roche’s appointment in October. “He is authentic, he is honest, and he has a deep understanding of the public service and its functions,” Luxon said at the time.

“My message to him is that we want to see improved performance from the public service.

“The great thing is that Sir Brian has been fully endorsed by every political leader of every political party in the Parliament.”

Willis asked Roche to apply for the job. He wasn’t in the initial batch of applicants.

“We consistently said that getting the right person was more important than being in a hurry,” she said.

Roche’s first words to The Post about the public service were on the “really good quality” people who are part of it.

“There's a history of relatively cheap shots at the public service and ‘gliding on’ [a reference to a hit TV show of the 1970s]. I still think there's a bit of mythology that's not been my experience. I think really highly qualified, highly motivated people are doing their best.”

IPANZ (Institute of Public Administration New Zealand) had raised concern about ministries cutting “low hanging fruit” in its restructures - opting to cut vacant positions that it may not make strategic sense to cut.

Asked if that potential issue, coupled with his concern of too many layers of management could see a refinement of roles in the service this year, Roche said refining was inevitable.

“That's the nature of organisations… a constant desire for reorientation, for redefining in flexibility.

“The public sector is no different. It has to reflect modern business practices. It's got to reflect modern leadership practices. The chief executives are up for that, and we have the opportunity to navigate our way through that.”

Another potential headache in the public service this year is the possibility of strikes, as collective agreements come up for renegotiation.

“It could cause disruption. That's been the reality of the operating environment in the public sector for a long time, is these collectives come up for renegotiation.

“There's inevitably tension. I feel confident that we can get through that.”

Roche also wants to move the public service into the future (or at least today’s technological age), and while many ministries are likely to be operating on zero budgets, it raises the question of how they would be able to roll out technology projects and programmes for growth.

“Everything has a cost. But you have to consider that cost and the value that you can derive from that expenditure.

“Being able to invest in technology to improve the quality and timeliness of decision making, particularly and the services to citizens, is a great value in this discussion we'll be having with our ministers.”

Roche doesn’t have career goals, but he does have a vision for the public service.

“I'm completely dispensable. I'm here for a period of time. I want to act as a catalyst to actually optimise and reorientate the existing system.

“I want to actually begin to prepare us for a new world where digital and data are the new assets that the public sector owns and uses to its maximum ability. I want to actually have a system which maintains the confidence and trust of the public and the politicians.

“That means that we have to be efficient and effective, we have to be extremely ethical and maintain the integrity that's expected and required of public service on.”