PUBLIC SERVICE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 123, 6 March 1936, Page 3

PUBLIC SERVICE

THE QUESTION OF CONTROL. STATEMENT BY PREMIER. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 5. An important statement on the future control of the public service was made by the Prime Minister (the Hon. M. J. Savage) when replying to representations made to him and the Minister for Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) by the executive of the Public Service Association of New Zealand. The association requested that the Government should appoint a Public Service Com mis si oner without delay and should also consider the appointment of a commission of three to control the public service in future, least to be appointed after consultation with the association. Mr Savage said that since its return to office the Government had been engaged on major issues. Before the Government did anything of a far-reaching nature affecting the public service, it would naturally consult the association. The appointment of a Public Seivice Commissioner was one of the very least of the questions they had to deal with. They realised, of course, that a permanent appointment should be made at the earliest possible moment and that would be done, but, as he had indicated, there were .bigger things that had to be done first. Some of the Ministers were working for very long hours from 8 a.m. till midnight. That was what they were up against at the moment in trying to implement their programme. They had been talking about that programme for long enough, and the time had come to put it into operation. Speaking of the appointment ol a Public Service Commissioner and two assistant commissioners, Mr Savage said that the v/hole institution needed some serious thought—frankly, he did not know of anything better—but up to the present he was not sure that the Public Service Commissioner’s office had been a place for the Government to hide itself in. The objective of the Government was about the same as that of the association. 4 They wanted satisfaction in the public service and they wanted the co-operation of public servants. The Government could get that only when they worked with them; then they could expect co-operation in return, but not otherwise. It was a question of the Government getting the best ideas about the appointment of commissioners or the setting up of an institution which would do the work that commissioner w r as doing. When, that was done a lot of detailed work naturally followed.