Reform, hybridization, and revival: the status of new public management in Australia and New Zealand

Figures & data

Table 1. Selected public administrative reforms in New Zealand.

	Reform programme	Characterization	Government and PM	Reasons
1980s-90s	State Sector Act 1988 Public Finance Act 1989	Managerialism Decentralization Output funding Contractualism	Labor (1984–90) Lange, Palmer, Moore	Limitations of traditional public administration Economic theory Diffusion of NPM ideas
1990s	Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994 Strategic result areas and Key result areas	Budget transparency Debt management Link agencies to Government priorities (abandoned 1999)	National (1990–99) Bolger Shipley	Public choice theory Experience of previous governments International diffusion
2000s	State Sector Amendment Act 2004 Crown Entities Act 2004 Managing for results/outcomes (implementation unclear)	Limited recentralization to SSC Codification Linking outputs to outcomes	Labour-led coalition (1999–2008) Clark	Report of the Advisory Group on the Review of the Centre Reaction to decentralization and limited results focus International diffusion of centralization and results narrative
2010s	Better Public Services Results 2013 Amendments to State Sector Act, Public Finance Act, and the Crown Entities Act Performance Improvement Framework	Shared agency quantitative results focus Performance measures Improve central leadership Capability building and performance improvement	National (2008–2019) Bolger English	Better Public Services Advisory Group International diffusion Continuing focus on results and collaborative government
2020s	Public Service Act 2020	Codification and evolving agency forms Rhetoric of unity, results, and spirit of service Leadership focus Some decentralization	Labour-led coalition or Labour (2019–23)* Ardern Hipkins	Codification of previous debates

* National-led coalition elected November 2023, expected to challenge consensus.

Table 2. Public administrative reform programmes and pendulum swings in Australia*.

	Reform programme	Characterization	Governments & Prime Ministers	Reason
1980s-90s	Reforming Australian Public Service 1983 Financial Management Improvement Program 1984	Managerialism (NPM1): Management improvement	Labor, 1983–1996 Hawke; Keating	Limitations of TPA Diffusion of reform ideas internationally
1990s	National Commission of Audit 1996 Public Service Act 1999	NPM2: outsourcing, contestability, privatization. NPM1: decentring Public service regulation	LNP Coalition * 1996–2007 Howard	Smaller state, private sector agendas. Diffusion of smaller government ideas
2000s	Corporate governance, connecting government	Reintegration, Public governance	Coalition, Howard phase 2	Reaction to decentring and governance issues
2010s	Blueprint Report (AGRAGA 2010) Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013	Public governance & management Rationalised financial governance framework	Labor, 2007–2013 Rudd; Gillard	Reaction to fallout from GFC; governance issues
2010s	Commission of Audit 2014	Austerity, NPM2 contracting, cuts, contestability	Coalition, 2013–2015. Abbott	Deficit reduction; agendas private sector values and efficiency
2010s	Independent Review of APS 2019 (largely unimplemented)	Transformative aims: operations culture, capability	Coalition, 2015–8 Turnbull	Improve governance; united APS; cultural change, technology
2010		Austerity, contracting, contestability, staff cuts	Coalition, 2018–2022. Morrison	Small government ideology
2020s	Labor government reform agenda	Incorporates 2019 Independent Review. Integrity, public service strengthening	Labor, 2022- Albanese	Reactive to Morrison’s agenda

*Indications of primary activity, main reason, and characteristics of reform programme.

National Commission of Audit. 2014. Towards Responsible Government: The Report of the National Commission of Audit Phase One, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

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AGRAGA/Advisory Group on the Reform of Australian Government Administration. 2010. Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

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