Mr Shand takes . post

Press, 26 August 1986, Page 4

Mr Shand takes . post

PA Wellington The former Treasury financial support services head, Mr David Shand, flew to -Australia during the week-end to become First Assistant Secretary of the' Finance Department in Canberra. Mr Shand will be responsible for running the Australian Government’s budgetary process, its financial management strategies, and financial reporting policies. He praised New Zealand’s Public Service managers and said they were very much in favour

of the restructuring taking place at the moment. A lot of able public servants formerly felt “sat on” by their over-con-trolled environment They now had the opportunity to have their performances measured and were quite excited about the opportunities opening up in their organisations.

Mr Shand said that managers must be given a little time to move from the previously “hamstrung situation” to the new competitive one. He was disappointed with the Public Service Association which, he

said, still had "a 1930 s mentality” and responded negatively to suggestions about the Public Service being made to perform better. Mr Shand said there was quite a lot of division within the Labour Party about the attitude towards the Public Service. There had been a failure among

some sections of the party to rethink attitudes. Too many people were “stuck in the 19305.” Mr Shand believed the Government — after the upheavals — might have a hard job winning the next election. But New

Zealand got the standard of living and Government it deserved. The National Party was promising a return to the past, he said.

The election woiuld be a hard fight and the Labour Party would have to be careful to explain its policies carefully so that consumers could understand.

The difficulty was that the benefits of the present action would only be seen in about three years. In view of the three-year election cycle, he could only marvel at the courage of the present Government, Mr Shand said.