This past week hasn’t been the greatest for our politicians, with tales of disgraced Ministers and their spending habits headlining every current affairs show and newspaper from Kaitaia to Invercargill. While the money was paid back, it leaves us with some serious questions around accountability within government. What does the scandal means to people like us who either work in or consult with the public sector?

Last Friday I gave comment on the subject for Sky News. The fact is we do hold our elected officials to a higher standard of ethical responsibility, in the same way that we expect high levels of service from our public sector. Is that fair? Perhaps not—people are, as they say, ‘only human’—but I find it unlikely that any public servant would have made the career-destroying mistakes the elected MPs did… and not been brought to task long before the news hit the media.

The conversations that have arisen as a result of the scandal have only served to underline to me the importance of the public sector’s administration—those checks and balances that ensure the integrity of our government’s services. (Of course, it would be nice to retrospectively apply them to people in elected government…)

Warmest regards,

Campbell Hepburn