New chairman responds to P.S.A. criticism

Press, 26 February 1986, Page 8

New chairman responds to P.S.A. criticism

By

MARTIN FREETH

in Wellington

The new chairman of the State Services Commission, Dr Rod Deane, said last evening that he had not sought the appointment and had been approached by the Government.

Dr Deane, an economist and deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, was responding to strong criticism of the appointment by the Public Service Association.

The P.S.A. president, Mr Colin Hicks, labelled, it an ominous and disturbing sign, referring to previous statements by Dr Deane on Government fiscal policy and State-sector pay levels.

Mr Hicks said that in simple terms, Dr Deane had suggested State workers could be “paid

less than the going rate for any job as a deliberate means of disciplining private sector wages.” Such a "posture” was not consistent with the obligation Dr Deane would have under the State Services Conditions of Employment Act to maintain broad relativities between the sectors, Mr Hicks said. Dr Deane’s extensive writings implied he “could be looking to try to make State operations fit existing monetary policy and that seems to be an ominous posture,” Mr Hicks said.

“We are very concerned about what we see as a Government programme to severely cut a State sector that has a proud record and that has generated a broad base of services for the commun-

ity as a whole and not just for those who can afford to pay for things.” His “grave doubts” that Dr Deane was the right person to head the commission were also based on the latter’s background which had involved no direct experience of the Public Service. “At a time when radical reorganisation is afoot and an air of uncertainty prevails, it will be no consolation to public servants to find that the new S.S.C. head is an outsider,” Mr Hicks said.

The P.S.A. would be looking to Dr Deane’s performance to “convince us that he is not being installed to oversee the destruction of the Public Service.”

Dr Deane said he was saddened by the “exaggerations and distortions”

contained in Mr Hicks’ statement.

It was not a useful way to start what would need to be a close relationship between him and the association, Dr Deane said.

:i “I hope the level of communication in future will be more statisfactory than their statement would imply.” Dr Deane said he had met Mr Hicks “over a beer” on Monday evening, hours after the public announcement of the appointment, in an introductory session arranged by the retiring chairman of the commission, Dr Mervyn Probine. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, and the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger, yesterday declined to comment on the P.S.A.’s criticism of Dr Deane.