Andrew Dickens: Public services looks to be the common factor in our recent woes

Great news for the ski fields. Winter has finally decided to do its thing and snow is dumping. 

And the wild and wooly weather arrived in the week we learnt that we are no more ready for a natural disaster today than we were before Cyclone Gabrielle. 

A few weeks ago work stopped on the COP project. 

COP is Common Operating Platform. It’s a data system that could mean that any agency involved in a disaster can communicate with each other in real time. It’s making sure all the computers and phones can talk to each other. 

We need one for all sorts of things - weather events, fire, terrorist attacks, invasions. Everyone needs to be able to access it - Police, Fire, Army, Civil Defence. 

And then the whole thing can be coordinated from a local, regional or central position. 

Not having a common operating system was cited as the major failure in Gabrielle so this is a big thing. And I was very glad to hear the Prime Minister and Mike talking about it this morning. 

After describing the problem, the PM then said you can see how big our turnaround job is. And yes it is. 

And then Mike read out a text complaining that Ardern and Robertson were asleep at the wheel over this issue. 

Blaming the previous administration for all our woes is why nothing ever happens. 

The reality is the programme to create a common operating system started in 2014 under the John Key administration. His cabinet also ordered spatial data infrastructure be built to house the COP. Infrastructure that all New Zealanders could use to improve their business communication. They failed.   

The Bill English administration failed to implement the system. And then the Ardern administration and then the Hipkins administration and now the Luxon administration. Because they’ve let the parties walk away. 

The common factor in all the failures over a decade is the inability of the public services' involved to agree. They are also loathe to share data. 

And there’s the rub. Politicians and governments come and go, but the public service is forever. And in this case, they just may be pretty useless. 

Now whenever I get stuck into public servants, I’m told off for punching down and that the buck stops at the top with the minister. 

And I get that. But at some stage, you’ve just got to stop blaming the coach and sack some players. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the really good news over the course of this
week was that it snowed, and it's snowed big time.
In fact, it dumped, and this is great news for
the Skifields who have been surviving on man made snow
the whole time, and now they've got some real stuff.
And this is good. And the wild and wooly weather
arrived in the week that we learned that we are
no more ready for a natural disaster today than we

(00:22):
were before Cyclone. Gabrielle or gabriel to her friends. A
few weeks ago, work stopped on the COOP project. You
may have heard about this on Tuesday when we're talking
to the Prime Minister. So the COOP projects COP stands
for Common Operating Platform. It's a data system that could

(00:43):
mean that any agency involved in a disaster can communicate
with each other in real time. It's making sure that
all the computers and all the phones can all talk
to each other, and everybody's got contact lists and we
can become one big team sorting stuff. We need one
for all sorts of things. We need it for weather events.
Obviously we didn't have it before, Gabrielle. We needed for bushfires.

(01:06):
We would need it in terrorist attacks. We would need
it in invasions. Everyone needs to be able to access
it and want to talk in police and fire and
army and ambulance and civil events. And then once we
have a cop common operating platform and the whole thing
can be coordinated either from a local level or a
regional level, or you can go down to the basement

(01:27):
of the beehive and do it from a central position.
Most places have a COP, we don't. Not having a
common operating system was cited as the major failure in Gabrielle.
This is a big thing. I was very glad to
hear the Prime Minister of Mike Hosking talking about it
earlier in the week. But after describing the problem, the
PM then said, you can see how big our turnaround

(01:50):
job is with this country, and yes it is. And
then Mike read out a text complaining that Dirda and
Robertson were asleep bit the wheel over the issue of
the COP and I just thought, oh, here we go again.
Blaming the previous administration for this thing is why sometimes

(02:10):
nothing ever happens, and we do it a lot. Labour
used to do it about national now nationals doing it
about labor and the reality about the cop program creating
a common operating system. It all started in twenty fourteen
under the John Key administration. His cabinet also ordered spatial
data infrastructure be built to house the common operating platform

(02:35):
infrastructure that all New Zealanders could use to improve their
business communication. And according to MB, if we had it,
it'd be worth billions to our economy. But they failed.
They didn't make it twenty fourteen. The bil English administration
then failed to implement a system, and then the Durned administration,
and then the Hipkins administration and now the Luxid administration

(02:56):
because they've let the parties walk away just a few
weeks ago. And the common factor in all these failures
over a decade is the public service. The problem has
always been the inability of the public services involved to agree.
They are loath to share their data apparently, and they're

(03:17):
worried about privacy, and there's the rub okay for this country.
Politicians and governments come and go, but the public service
is forever. And in this case, I think they're being
a bit slack. And whenever I get stuck into public service,
I'm told off for punching down that the buck stops
at the top with the Minister, and I understand that too. However,

(03:40):
at some stage, when you've been waiting for something that
the whole country needs, both in terms of disaster and
for our business efficiency and our productivity, if you've been
waiting ten years for the public service to get it together,
at some stage you've just got to stop blaming the
coach that you've got to start sacking some players. For

(04:00):
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