Article nicely captures the frustrations of policy advice in New Zealand
Ralph Chapman, Victoria University of Wellington
9 April 2008
Wilson and Horrocks have nicely captured many frustrating features of policy advice in contentious policy areas, such as environmental health, within the New Zealand policy advisory environment. I myself worked within policy advice in the New Zealand public sector for around 20 years, and often noted the sort of behaviours that Wilson and Horrocks point to, such as industry lobbying on policy matters, poor technical advice by some senior policy advisers who should have known better, and ideological decisions by Ministers based on selective reading of the evidence. Wilson and Horrocks have done a nice job illuminating these in this case study.
Article nicely captures the frustrations of policy advice in New Zealand
9 April 2008
Wilson and Horrocks have nicely captured many frustrating features of policy advice in contentious policy areas, such as environmental health, within the New Zealand policy advisory environment. I myself worked within policy advice in the New Zealand public sector for around 20 years, and often noted the sort of behaviours that Wilson and Horrocks point to, such as industry lobbying on policy matters, poor technical advice by some senior policy advisers who should have known better, and ideological decisions by Ministers based on selective reading of the evidence. Wilson and Horrocks have done a nice job illuminating these in this case study.
Competing interests
None.