The trouble with transparency: 'opening' government without blunting advice

By Richard Mulgan
Updated April 24 2018 - 8:15pm, first published October 30 2015 - 3:27pm

The new Public Service Commissioner, John Lloyd, is unafraid to speak his mind publicly. He appears to have little taste for cautious and convoluted mandarin-speak but says what he thinks in plain and direct language. Predictably, reactions to this unusually frank mode of talking depend on whether people agree with him. When what he says strikes a chord with listeners, he is welcomed for his refreshing willingness to call a spade a spade. For example, his recent statement that a CV is sufficient for a job application will have been greeted with cheers throughout the public service (except among HR branches anxious to maintain their workload). Unmasking the mind-numbing irrelevance of most application statements was an "emperor-has-no-clothes" moment, which could yield major service-wide efficiencies.

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