Challenges

As I mentioned earlier, New Zealand has a small population base and comparatively modest economy. This coupled with the current international economic environment and, closer to home, the economic shock resulting from the Christchurch earthquakes means that all government departments are taking budget cuts and all government spending is coming under increasingly closer scrutiny.

New Zealand has always been resource constrained; however, the current economic situation has refocused attention on government spending with a commitment to return to budget surplus in 2014-15. As a result there is a concerted drive within the public sector to economise while at the same time improve performance and accountability.

‘Working smarter’ is not just a bumper sticker in the New Zealand public service; we have to do it as a matter of financial survival. Put simply, we have to find better and smarter ways of doing business, and the security sector is not immune from this reform process. The quotes below from the deputy prime minister on 31 May 2011 provide a flavour of government’s thinking:

• the government is committed to getting better value for money from public spending so that we can deliver better public services to taxpayers with little or no new money over the next few years ...
• this is about identifying the things that matter most, doing them better and doing them with less back-office bureaucracy...a clear focus on value-for-money, innovation, high-quality service provision and effective change management.

It has already been identified that New Zealand has too many government agencies for a democracy of our size and that more coordination is required across agencies to realise efficiencies to move resources from the back-office functions to frontline services. We have recently seen the Ministry of Fisheries being absorbed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and there will be further reductions in the number of government agencies as the state sector reform program progresses.

As you are probably aware the New Zealand Defence Force is leading the charge with an aggressive value-for-money reform program underway to release money from the ‘back’ of the organisation to fund future capability acquisitions. Much of this arose out of the Defence Review 2010 of which I was part of an independent three member Ministerial Panel.

Other agencies will also be embarking on internal reform programs with the aim of maintaining current outputs with reduced budgets.

In addition to the financial challenge, the wider security sector has to deal with the common perception that New Zealand is ‘safe’ from external threats and the view that public money would be better spent in other areas such as the education and health sectors.

The Rena grounding has raised public awareness of the risk of a major marine pollution event happening in our waters and the yearly deployment of the Japanese whaling fleet to the Southern Ocean focuses public opinion on the fragility of sustaining the whale population, yet there is a public ‘blindness’ to the capability and rate of effort required to protect our borders and natural resources, and maintain sovereignty over the vast expanses of ocean in New Zealand’s immediate area of interest.

So with these challenges in mind, how do New Zealand government agencies work together to meet government’s requirements in the security of our maritime interests?