We're a lively lot, Treasury boss says

Treasury Secretary John Whitehead rejects the suggestion that he employs a bunch of bookish, chin-stroking, policy eggheads who sit around dreaming up economic miseries.

"I'm sure some of you have heard that view expressed in somewhat more profane terms. But it is a view rooted in myth and not fact," he told the Rotary Club of North Wellington.

The Treasury family were a diverse and well-rounded lot. The Treasury had recently employed a former Presbyterian minister and someone who featured on television talking about a nudist camp they had set up.

"We boast several staff who are active in the arts: among them are professionally trained opera singers, actors and even a vintage Burlesque dance teacher."

Whitehead said some people believed the Treasury told the Government what to do, while others believed it had no influence at all. He said the Treasury did not tell the Government what to do. "We are the lead adviser on economic and financial issues, and I am pleased to say that most of that advice is heeded, and some is rejected."

Another myth was that Treasury was a mix of dull, grey men who don't see enough sunlight and fresh-faced pointy-headed graduates who had never set foot in the real world.

"Some would also have you believe that the only women at Treasury are there to push the tea trolleys."

These views were lamentable.

"Treasury might have been a male-dominated stronghold once, and many of them might have been greyheads, but that age has well and truly passed."

Former employees included just-resigned managing director of the World Bank Graeme Wheeler, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable Roger Kerr, investment banker Rob Cameron, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and Stephen Jennings, the founder of Renaissance Capital in Moscow.

Whitehead's speech came at a time when Labour leader Phil Goff called for a cap on salaries of public service chief executives.

Whitehead said the Treasury's role was evolving in these challenging times.

Public sector agencies needed to ask if what they were doing made a real and positive difference for New Zealanders and the outcomes the Government wanted. And they needed to ask if someone else could do it better.

The Treasury had just completed a review which had seen the disestablishment of nine positions, and the creation of eight new ones.

- NZPA