Government setting up ‘implementation unit’
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson will become the Government’s informal Minister for Delivery, thanks to a newly created ‘‘implementation unit’’ within the Government’s powerful Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, or DPMC.
The move comes after a term of government in which several bigticket plans fell apart as they were implemented – most notably KiwiBuild and light rail in Auckland – and is inspired by a unit set up by former British PM Tony Blair.
Robertson will announce the unit today in a pre-Budget speech in Wellington, but its existence was revealed in a job ad searching for someone to head up the small team within DPMC.
DPMC is the nerve centre of government; while the organisation does a number of jobs, its core function is to provide the prime minister and her Cabinet with top quality advice. It’s unusual for other ministers to get their own teams within DPMC.
The job ad says the ‘‘small team’’ will support Robertson to ‘‘ensure implementation of key Government priorities,’’ and to step in and ‘‘facilitate appropriate interventions when implementation is at risk’’.
It’s understood the prime minister asked Robertson to establish the unit soon after the election, when she appointed him deputy prime minister.
National leader Judith Collins said the need for the unit itself showed the Government was failing to deliver.
‘‘It sounds like a vote of no confidence in [Robertson’s] Cabinet colleagues’ ability to deliver, which is no surprise after four years of nondelivery,’’ Collins said.
‘‘Add it to the list of things Grant Robertson is taking control of.’’
Robertson is Ardern’s closest ally both in Government and in the wider Labour Party. She nominated him to be leader in the 2013 Labour leadership election and ran as his deputy in the 2014 race.
The unit is somewhat inspired by the ‘‘Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit’’ established in the UK by Blair in his second term of government, to monitor progress on key campaign priorities for the British Labour Party. Ardern worked in Blair’s Cabinet office herself.
DPMC consulted with the firm Delivery Associates – which was created by the chief architect of Blair’s unit, Sir Michael Barber – on the creation of the New Zealand version.
Barber’s Delivery Associates aims to export the methodology from Blair’s unit around the world.
The firm promises on its website to use ‘‘deliverology’’ to ‘‘help Government gets things done’’.
‘‘We find that governments typically spend 90 per cent of their effort on policy, and only 10 per cent on implementation. We believe we should reverse that emphasis.’’
The unit will be funded out Budget 2021.
An Official Information Act request made by Stuff to DPMC asking about official advice on implementation was rejected as the matter was under active consideration.
‘‘Add it to the list of things Grant Robertson is taking control of.’’
Judith Collins
About the deputy prime minister, pictured
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