Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes has a command-and-control style of leadership. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Audrey Young looks at New Zealand’s public service leaders and which ones are shaping up as possible contenders to take over from Peter Hughes as Public Service Commissioner.
Ask those who should know and two names emerge as the best in class of New Zealand’s public service leaders.
The first is former diplomat Brook Barrington, currently on leave as the chief executive of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The other is Belfast-born Naomi Ferguson, who last year finished as head of Inland Revenue.
Both are considered the outstanding public sector leaders of their time who would be the strongest contenders to replace Peter Hughes as Public Service Commissioner next year, when his term is up.
But there is no certainty either would want it and succession is more in the thinking stage than the planning phase.
If neither was keen on the Public Service Commission (PSC) job, the field is open with some clear possibilities but no clear favourite.
There has never been a woman in the role and, all other things being equal, it may be an advantage to be a woman.
In the past, there have not been a lot of top-level chief executives from which to choose. But Hughes, with the support of previous ministers in Paula Bennett and Chris Hipkins, has made a conscious effort to increase the appointment of women to top jobs.
When Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was States Services Minister in 2018, he announced that the milestone of more than 50 per cent women chief executives had been reached.
Consequently the talent-pool is much bigger than in the past for the commissioner’s job. The emergence of the Covid-19 global pandemic in 2020 put stress on the public service but it also gave some departments the opportunity to shine.
The Public Service Commissioner is the ultimate professional leader of the 60,000 people employed in the core public service and promotes good standards, integrity and accountability.
The Public Service Commissioner is appointed by the Prime Minister and deals on a regular basis with the Minister of Public Services. The commissioner employs the chief executives and exerts influence through them. These are some of New Zealand’s best public service leaders:
Brook Barrington maintains high standards of policy advice and integrity. He was head of Foreign Affairs for four years before leading DPMC from February 2019. He has a big brain and is a deep thinker. He has excellent personal skills and has the respect of ministers and his senior colleagues in the public service. He had stints at two other ministries on the way up: as deputy secretary at the Ministry of Defence and as deputy chief executive at Justice. He has a PhD in history. He is on a leave of absence because his wife is seriously ill.
Naomi Ferguson finished a 10-year stint at IRD last year with a stellar reputation for change management including a $1.5 billion transformational programme. She managed change in both the technology and culture of the place. But she has moved from an operational role at IRD into a governance role. Health Minister Ayesha Verrall asked her to step in to chair the board of Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand, in February when Rob Campbell was sacked. It is critical time for a health system transitioning from 20 boards to a single entity and her skills in change management are highly valued there.
Christine Stevenson made her mark during Covid-19 as head of Customs. She had already done well in Corrections when she took over Customs in January 2019. And once Covid took hold, she chaired a border-focused chief executive’s group which turned out to be a crucial group. She is seen as calm and efficient. She had been deputy chief executive of Corrections between 2011 and 2017 and led the process to return Mt Eden prison from Serco to Corrections management. She has also worked in Justice and Social Development. Would be a contender if she applied.
As head of the behemoth of MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment), Tremain has a slightly different role to other ministries. She effectively heads a ministry of 5800 and leads a team of other chief executives who work with 16 ministers across a range of portfolios and votes, and oversees 32 boards and entities. She spent 13 years at Air NZ specialising in HR and organisational change, had a period at IRD in corporate services (in a team that included Naomi Ferguson), headed Customs in 2011 and MBIE from 2017. She has a collaborative style that allows others to lead and has maintained strong links to the private sector.
Debbie Power has ably run the Ministry of Social Development, one of the largest agencies with 8800 staff across the country, since February 2019. She is seen as the protégé of current Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes and the one most likely favoured by him. She was a deputy State Services Commissioner to him from 2015 and got rid of performance pay for chief executives. She was also a ministerial private secretary from 2007 to 2010, liaising between ministers and the MSD boss at the time, Hughes. She worked in Northland.
Rebecca Kitteridge, a former secretary of cabinet, finished her term as head of the Security Intelligence Service last year and was appointed to become one of two statutory Deputy Public Service Commissioners. But before she had taken up that job, she was diverted to head DPMC in Barrington’s absence. While Kitteridge has not shone in the SIS, it is difficult to imagine any spy chief shining. Unlikely to be a frontrunner, but any deputy commissioner needs to be considered a contender. The other statutory deputy Public Service Commissioner is Heather Baggott but she is not likely to be a strong contender, having never run a government agency.
Lil Anderson (Te Rarawa, Nga Puhi) has been gone but not forgotten while she has been on secondment at the university of Queensland for a year as a Leadership and Teaching fellow at the Australia New Zealand School of Government. Highly respected and destined for bigger things. She was given leave from her job as the inaugural chief executive at Te Arawhiti, an agency within the Ministry of Justice which seeks to improve the Crown’s role as a Treaty partner. She led a cross-agency of CEs group during Covid, C4C, Caring for Communities, focused on vulnerable communities. She is due back this month.
Paul James operates below the radar and most people will never have heard of him. He has had the classic career path of an ambitious professional public sector manager with a bit of variety on the way up to his job heading Internal Affairs, since October 2018. It is a complex department of 2550 and he is considered to have built a strong team there. Before that, he headed the Ministry of Culture and Heritage for three years and the Office of Treaty Settlements for five years and has also worked at Justice, Treasury, ACC and TPK. But being a man, if it’s time for a woman, he may have to be twice as good to have any show of becoming commissioner.
Iona Holsted is not exactly a star but she is considered to have done a sound job in the complex Ministry of Education for the past six years, with strong values and a gift for being direct. She came from a teaching and union background and spent five years at the PSA. She is considered particularly good in negotiations, first as a union advocate and then later on the other side of the table at State Services where she rose to a deputy commissioner. She became a deputy secretary at Social Development when it was run by Peter Hughes and followed him as Secretary of Education. While she is identified as part of his “school,” she can speak truth to his power.
Yes, the Police Commissioner is out of left field in this company and the Police are not part of the public service. But this Commissioner has plenty of room for another top job in another career after he has finished with the Police because of his age and experience. He also worked in the Ministry of Justice for two years as a deputy secretary. He is a capable leader, is interested in policy and has a law degree and experience in prosecution. He may not be a cops’ cop, but he has a strong ethos of public service that suggests there is a lot more room on the clock.
Some of the other chief executives who should get honourable mentions include the head of the Ministry of Primary Industries, Ray Smith, who worked closely with Hughes in Social Development, before heading Corrections. He is good at his job and doesn’t care if he is liked or not. Part of the ballast of the public service.
Treasury Secretary Caralee McLiesh, is painfully shy for someone leading such an important agency. She is respected and liked but is not visible enough for the senior role she holds.
Solicitor-General Una Jagose who does not present as a great courtroom performer on behalf of the Crown impressed many people during Covid-19 for her providing timely and user-friendly advice on what was being proposed and the risks involved.
Some of the most impressive public sector CEs are not designated as part of the core public sector because they are appointed to run Crown entities by boards and answer to the boards, not to the Public Service Commissioner.
A couple of notables in that category are Andrew McKenzie who has run Kainga Ora since 2016 and Peter Chrisp who has run New Zealand Trade and Enterprise since 2011.
Both are among the highest paid with McKenzie receiving $693,000 in the last year of full data and Chrisp receiving $657,000.
No one that the Herald spoke to for this assessment identified any incompetent public sector leaders. By the time they reach the top levels of the public service, that is a basic.
But there are many ways to assess a successful public sector leader, depending on where you sit.
Being calm under pressure and keeping the agency out of trouble are basic yardsticks, as is the ability to think and plan strategically for the agency.
But an over-emphasis on avoiding trouble could mean a reliance on groupthink and suppressing creative thinking.
For staff working in the agency, a great leader might be one who delegates, or inspires and motivates staff, brings out the best in people and sticks by them no matter what blunders they make.
For the Auditor-General it might be the ability to set clear and measurable objectives and to meet them.
For the news media, it might be more about clarity of purpose and timely accessibility to the chief executive and getting relevant and reliable information in good times and bad.
For some ministers, it might be the ability to implement Government policy as quickly and efficiently as possible and within budget.
For some ministers, it might the ability for agencies to produce good quality advice and workable solutions to emerging problems. Other ministers might appreciate getting creative or unorthodox advice on how to address problems with an acknowledgment of the political risks involved.
For the Public Service Commissioner, it might be all of the above, and the ability to shape an organisation and undertake a succession plan that will not leave the place in upheaval with a leadership change.
The hunt for a new Public Service Commissioner will probably not start until next year, after the election.
By then, Hughes will have been in the job for eight years. His style is seen as risk-averse and he runs a tight ship – some would say a command-and-control style, even autocratic. When mistakes are made, he expects chief executives to “own it, to fix it and learn from it.”
And he has driven through law reforms designed to promote greater cooperation among public sector agencies and a great sense of dedication to public service.
He was appointed when Paula Bennett was State Services Minister and John Key was Prime Minister and he had extensive operational experience. He had been a Secretary of Education, chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development for 10 years, former secretary of Internal Affairs and Professor of Public Management and head of the School of Government at Victoria University.
If Labour is returned to Government, it is likely to want a complete change. Peter Hughes is valued by the Government for his ability to manage a crisis - his famous for his war room in a crisis - to get things done, and keep things under control. But it is likely to want a change in climate, perhaps someone more inspirational.
If National is elected, it is likely to want someone who will keep a firm lid on growth of the public sector and who can ensure that a return to Better Public Service targets is properly implemented. And that could favour someone with managerial skills rather than an inspirational leader.
Let the succession thinking begin.
According to the most recent data on the pay of chief executives, the former head of Inland Revenue, Naomi Ferguson, was the highest-paid leader of the core public service in the year to June 2022.
She even earned more than the head of the Public Service, Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes who was third highest, below Ferguson and Solicitor-General Una Jagose, who runs the Crown Law Office.
Ferguson has since been replaced by Peter Mersi who shifted from the Ministry of Transport.
It follows concerns about use-of-force powers being given to staff.