October - January 2020 - 2021
How to operate in a post-RMA environment Achieving outcomes has become the great new aspiration of public policy says Infrastructure New Zealand Policy Director Hamish Glenn
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utcomes are neither new nor different than things we’ve always wanted – higher incomes, cleaner environment, longer, healthier and more meaningful lives, to name a few. However, in recent decades we have purposefully de-emphasised outcomes in public policy, prioritising instead efficient and fair market mechanisms on the basis that these will allow individuals and groups to promote their own outcomes. But there can be no doubt that the kind of outcomes we expected have not been produced. We know our incomes are comparatively low and
productivity (the thing which ultimately delivers high incomes) has been falling relative to our peers. We know our environmental performance, as measured by reductions in biodiversity and water quality, has also been poor. Inequality has worsened, with particularly large and growing wealth disparities between generations and between Maori and Pasifika communities and other New Zealanders. So when we talk about a newfound commitment to “outcomes”, what we really mean is that the country is undergoing a change in how we value different outcomes. Smaller government and fiscal discipline are out,
big public objectives like addressing poverty, tackling climate change and growing the regions are in. How do you achieve outcomes? Achieving the new outcomes will require a different approach. Most obviously, we’re going to need to work out what we want to achieve in the first place. 1. Set the vision and identify the outcomes This process can be as hard as we want to make it. Government has a multiplicity of things it needs to promote. Individuals, organisations and various communities have more still. A vision is needed to
define the highest order priorities and guide decision making down through the system. Outcomes are what give effect to the vision. In New Zealand we identify four: economic, social, environmental and cultural. These broadly relate to the monetary value of what we do, who we are, where everything takes place and, with a slightly unique New Zealand twist, we add a fourth which recognises that the priorities of the majority may not be the priorities of the minority, most notably Māori. A fifth outcome often gets overlooked, but is implicit in the formation of every law in the country – democrainfrastructurenews.co.nz
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