Public Policy Issues in New Zealand: Pressure, Uncertainty, and Politics - Essay Sample

According to Head (2008), public policies refer to laws and regulations formulated by the government. Generally, some public policies may be controversial to the system of government hence difficult to address and implement due to interference from governmental and non-governmental organizations. Elliot (2017) holds that New Zealand’s way of handling difficult public policy issues is usually affected by the pressure from the media, uncertainty, and politics, leading to constant transformations on how the country responds to challenges from time to time. This implies that the country deals poorly with challenging public policy problems. Professor Jonathan suggests that the New Zealand political system does not create nor implement sustainable policies that facilitate long term growth.

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In addressing policy problems, the minister for health Dr. Jonathan Coleman in 2017 overlooked the People’s Mental Health Report's recommendations. The minister claimed that the group that came up with the report included individuals who were anti-government protesters and were associated with other political parties. The report was created after the citizens complained about the deteriorated state of the country’s mental health system that had led to an increase in suicide cases among all the age groups every year. This clearly shows how poorly the government, through political influence, addresses problems that require urgency and seriousness (Elliot, 2017).

Uncertainty about the future is another factor that significantly influences how the New Zealand government deals with public policy problems. Boston et al. (2019) contend that certain issues are unpredictable; hence policymakers tend to underestimate or even overestimate the effects as well as the budget for solving such problems. Besides, some problems are complex, and responding to them requires sophisticated solutions that can take a lot of time to formulate and implement policies (Eppel et al. 2011). These factors hinder the government from dealing appropriately with challenging public policy problems.

Constitutional factors such as the time the parliament is in the office usually affect how the government addresses public policy problems. New Zealand parliament has three years in office, which is a short time compared to other countries. As such, the government mainly focuses on short term issues rather than long-term problems. The pressure from the media also affects the implementation of public policy as the media criticizes the government to address the society issues, thus making policymakers make haphazard decisions (Luetjens et al., 2019).

In conclusion, Professor Jonathan notes that New Zealand struggles with poor governance and political culture that produces leaders with short term agendas leading to short term planning. Public problems such as housing crisis, unemployment, poverty, and trade imbalance in New Zealand require visionary leaders who can formulate ideal policies.

References

Boston, J., Bagnall, D., & Barry, A.,(019). Foresight, insight and oversight: Enhancing long-term governance through better parliamentary scrutiny. Victoria University Wellington.

Elliott, M. (2017). Jonathan Coleman's attack on 'anti-government' ActionStation is a smokescreen. And it’s nonsense. The Spinoff. Retrieved 31 July 2020, from https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-05-2017/jonathan-colemans-attack-on-anti-government-actionstation-is-a-smokescreen-and-its-nonsense/.

Eppel, E., Matheson, A., & Walton, M. (2011). Applying complexity theory to New Zealand public policy: principles for practice. Policy Quarterly, 7(1). Victoria University Wellington.

Head, B. W. (2008). Wicked problems in public policy. Public policy, 3(2), 101. ResearchGateLuetjens, J., Mintrom, M., & t Hart, P. (2019). Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand (p. 550). ANU Press.

Professor Jonathan B. (2015) Reflects on governing for the future. School of government Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 31 July 2020 (2015. From: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/sog/about/news/news-archives/2015-news/professor-jonathan-boston-reflects-on-governing-for-the-future