Key Notes: How are we making a difference?

For too long, governments measured their success in public services by how much money they spent on them.

And for too long governments were indifferent to the return on taxpayers’ money.

We are changing that.

We know New Zealand families expect the Government to spend their hard-earned taxes on things that matter.

So we established the Better Public Services programme to focus on getting results that make a difference to people’s lives, especially those who are most vulnerable.

We have set 10 challenging targets we want government agencies to achieve. Some of them are tough, and deliberately so.

But having concrete targets, and being accountable for them, is focusing people across the government on achieving actual results.

This week we released a mid-year progress report on the Better Public Services targets.

We are making great progress in areas like reducing crime, reducing welfare dependency, and increasing educational achievement, and there’s more work to do in other areas like reducing child assaults and rheumatic fever.

What matters most is the difference these targets are making to people’s lives.

Watch my latest video to hear more about what we’re doing.

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