Inside the world of 'no surprises' and political advisers

Ministers now may be the first to tell the media about an operational matter that they clearly can't influence. (Image: Getty)

Len Cook

Wed, 06 Sep 2023

Public services commissioner Peter Hughes, in explaining the limitations of the new Long Term Insights Briefings to a select committee, suggested that the public sector was now less capable of delivering strategic policy advice because of MMP. As a former top-level public servant with experience in what happened before and after the mixed-member proportional representation electoral system was introduced, I find it hard to disagree. However, if I compare the public sector's role and capability for strategic policy advice as it n...

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