A new essay explores the expansion of the administrative state in New Zealand as the government advances its reform agenda and National calls for more power to be placed in hands of the community, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Bulletin.

“Why does the government think it knows best?”

I spent the weekend at the Auckland Writers Festival and attended a session with former attorney general and minister for treaty negotiations, Chris Finlayson, and former kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Tā Mark Solomon. Finlayson was unapologetic in his criticism of the reliance on the state to solve all problems. It’s a position he reinforces in a piece for E-Tangata on co-governance, a position he says is fundamentally of the centre right. “Why does the government think it knows best? The government makes heaps of mistakes. I was there for years. I saw; I know,” he writes.

The rise of the professional managerial class

The size of the public sector, and the capacity of the state to solve problems, has long been an ideological argument. In an essay published on the Spinoff yesterday, Danyl Mclauchlan posits that to “question the rapid expansion of the administrative state can only be right-wing hate speech, part of a covert neoliberal plot to gut health, education, welfare.” Mclauchlan references the reform programmes the government is currently undertaking in the health system and for polytechnics, largely through centralisation, and laments the rise of the professional managerial class, of which he says he is part of, who are responsible for those programmes.

Decisions shouldn’t be made by some distant bureaucrat

As I sat in Finalyson and Solomon’s session on Saturday, I thought about the current royal commission of inquiry into abuse in state care. Public service commissioner Peter Hughes appeared at the inquiry on Friday, apologising and acknowledging the shortcomings in the public service. The inquiry is a necessary reckoning but it’s also an enormous exercise in redress, prompted by the actions of a public service that thought it knew best. In comments over the weekend about the current state of the health system, longtime public health champion, Ann Shaw, said “communities needed to be given the support and information to decide for themselves what needed to be done, not have it decided for them by some distant bureaucrat”.

Christopher Luxon calls for powering up of community organisations in dealing with youth offending

Yesterday, leader of the opposition Christopher Luxon called for greater accountability for youth offenders, saying we need more “powerful targeted intervention” and “powering up” of our community organisations. Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith agreed contact with the formal justice system should be minimised for first-time offenders but that the pendulum had swung too far. It is a call for less involvement by the state and an echo of Bill English’s social investment approach. It also still seems to contain shades of a punitive state response. In reply to Luxon’s comments, social worker Stephen Boxer cites family group conferences as an effective way of addressing youth offending. It’s a practice National has been critical of in the past, perhaps because it’s seen as soft on crime. It’s underpinned by concepts of community-led rehabilitation and not punitive measures by the state.