Hon. Nicola Wills
Minister for the Public Service and Minister of Finance
Parliament Buildings
Wel ington 6160
By email: N.Wil [email address]
13 May 2024
Dear Minister,
Maximising the benefits from New Zealand’s Open Government
Partnership membership
We are writing to you about the co-creation of New Zealand’s fifth National Action
Plan (NAP5) as a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). We ask for a
meeting with you to discuss the development and funding of NAP5, which is due at
the end of this year.
Commitment to the Open Government Partnership
Ahead of last year’s general election we surveyed al the main political parties about
their support for the country’s membership of the OGP. Al parties responded
positively, including National’s coalition partners, ACT and NZ First, and we are
pleased that National provided a ‘yes’ to each of the three statements below:
1. Your party’s support for continuing New Zealand’s membership of the Open
Government Partnership
2. That your cabinet would support strong ministerial leadership during the co-
creation of Open Government Action Plan commitments
3. That your government would support the effective delivery of commitments,
ensuring that they are appropriately resourced.
The National Party’s response was accompanied by this comment:
The National Party remains committed to New Zealand's
participation in the Open Government Partnership, a membership we
proudly entered back in 2014.
Barriers to success
We are leaders of civil society organisations united by our belief that open
government is not only a cross-party issue, but also vital both to improved public
services and to the health of our democracy. Many of us have participated in the
development of the first four national action plans. However, the outcomes from
these plans over the last decade have fal en short of the statements included in the
Open Government Declaration that the John Key-led National government signed
New Zealand up to.
While there have been difficulties with officials understanding what the OGP’s co-
creation methods require of them, the main barrier to success has been a broken
funding model that undermines the efforts of both officials and civil society to
produce and deliver on ambitious national action plan commitments.
Because no government has made new money available for departments to bid for,
the commitments they have suggested have either been pre-existing programmes of
work, or commitments that are so smal and unambitious they wil not ‘move the
needle’ and so do not produce meaningful improvement. Where a commitment of
substance is made, like the current Commitment 3 in the NAP4 (Establish an
inclusive, multi-channel approach to the delivery of government information and
services), the failure to resource the work programme to give effect to it, means it is
no commitment at al . To co-design and deliver ambitious improvements, it is clear
that departments need the incentive provided by dedicated funds.
An absence of strong and joined-up ministerial leadership has meant officials have
not been empowered to tackle the problems with the funding model. We are
pleased therefore by the commitment of al three governing parties to both strong
ministerial leadership of the open government work, and to supporting appropriate
resourcing of the commitments to enable their effective delivery.
For the first time in our OGP membership, we have a responsible minister who is
also Minister of Finance. This creates a very welcome opportunity to overcome the
funding roadblock that has hampered progress and effectiveness until now.
While we are keen for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to re-engage with us in
the work to develop NAP5, and create the new multi-stakeholder forum required by
the OGP, the essential catalyst for design and delivery of an ambitious and effective
national action plan is to provide sufficient funding for new pieces of work.
Recommendation
To make progress, we recommend a new appropriation in the 2025 budget for open
government. The reason for making it a free-standing appropriation is to provide
visibility and accountability for the funding.
We recommend that the appropriation be in the format of a contestable fund that
departments can submit bids to. The appropriation and fund could be managed by
the PSC as the department responsible for leading our membership of the OGP, or it
could be jointly administered with the Treasury, given its expertise in scrutinising the
quality of proposals.
To make successful bids for the new funding, departments would have to show how
they have complied with OGP rules on co-creation of action plan commitments.
They would also have to demonstrate the quality of their proposed projects and the
alignment of the intended outcomes with the joint government and civil society
priorities for NAP5.
There have been an average of eight commitments in the last four action plans. We
therefore recommend that the contestable fund should be $10 mil ion for the two-
year work programme of delivering the commitments.
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Conclusion
The last government failed to use the extra time available to develop NAP4 in order
to resolve funding problems, in spite of our urging. Our OGP membership needs to
be meaningful, and this depends on incentivising departments to co-create and
implement ambitious commitments with civil society organisations and the public.
After 10 years, it is clear the only effective incentive is the availability of dedicated
funding.
We would like to meet with you to discuss how to translate the pre-election
commitments to leadership and resourcing made by al the coalition government’s
parties into tangible improvements in open government through our membership of
the Open Government Partnership.
Yours sincerely,
Shaun Greaves
Sacha Green
Executive Director
National Advisor
Amnesty International NZ
Citizens Advice Bureau
Cath Wal ace
Katherine Peet
Open Government Portfolio Holder
Committee Member
Environment and Conservation
Network Waitangi Ōtautahi
Organisations of NZ
Thomas Beagle
Duane Leo
Chairperson
National Secretary
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Public Service Association
Julie Haggie,
Simon Wright
Chief Executive Officer
Chair
Transparency International NZ
Trust Democracy
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Andrew Ecclestone
Deputy Chair, New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
By email, cc civil society organisation co-signatories
[email address]
Dear Mr Ecclestone,
Thank you for your letter of 13 May 2024, with suggestions for improving New Zealand’s Open
Government Partnership (OGP) in 2025.
I am aware of the pre-election survey of political parties, which asked three questions in
relation to: continuing OGP membership, stronger ministerial leadership and the resourcing of
OGP. I have noted your concern that outcomes have fallen short and your suggestion that a
$10m contestable fund is needed in 2025 to better support commitments for a new National
Action Plan.
As part of my briefing as incoming Minister, officials at the Public Service Commission
signalled that enabling greater involvement of citizens in policy making and service design is
an important driver of trust and confidence in government. This Government is committed to
strengthening democracy and to the principles of open government.
I have also set clear expectations that agencies align their work programmes with this
Government’s priorities and focus on delivering better services for New Zealanders. As you
may be aware, my current priority is delivering this Government’s first Budget, including our
commitment to improving the efficiency of public services and ensuring the value for money
of expenditure. After the Budget has been delivered, I wil be in a better position to consider
the way forward for 2025.
Thank you again for writing to me with your suggestions.
Yours sincerely
Hon Nicola Willis
Minister for the Public Service
