New public management and employment relations in the public services of Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

This study begins with a brief theoretical discussion of the defining features of new public management (NPM) and its employment relations implications. This is followed by analyses of the managerial and union strategies through which change was effected, resisted and negotiated in Australia and New Zealand. The discussion contrasts the approaches to regulating employment relations that waxed and waned under a succession of Labor and Coalition governments in Australia and Labour and National governments in New Zealand. The conclusion is one of survival in both countries, both of elements of NPM and of public sector unionism.

Keywords:

• convergence versus divergence
• decentralisation versus recentralisation
• decollectivisation versus recollectivisation
• new public management
• public service employment relations
• public value