Part 3: A stable foundation

Having a stable foundation means having a clear understanding of the organisation’s purpose and values, which must be informed by the wider constitutional framework in which it operates.

Respecting our constitutional framework

Why it matters: Following constitutional norms is a given when it comes to integrity and ensuring the legitimacy of the government

New Zealand does not have a written constitution. Instead, the power of the State is regulated by a range of laws, documents, practices, conventions, and institutions. These operate together to ensure that the government’s actions are legitimate and accepted by the public.

Public organisations must act in a way that respects our constitutional framework. If public organisations flout constitutional norms, the legitimacy of their actions – and the legitimacy of the government – is undermined.

What it looks like: Knowing and honouring obligations, commitments, and duties under the law

Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi

Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi (te Tiriti)¹⁰ is at the heart of the relationship between Māori and the Crown.¹¹ Te Tiriti is one of the major pieces of New Zealand’s constitutional framework.¹²

Te Tiriti established a partnership between Māori as tangata whenua and the Crown. It affirmed the existing rights that Māori had to live as Māori and to exercise tino rangatiratanga over their lands, resources, and other taonga.

"If integrity is about alignment of values and actions, then the starting point for the public sector system is the foundational agreement between the Crown and Māori (te Tiriti). This could result in an opportunity to bring about the most meaningful change between public sector organisations and the public.”

Crown entity senior leader

All public organisations need to consider te Tiriti when making policy, applying and enforcing the law, and carrying out their functions. The Cabinet Office has issued guidelines for policymakers to consider te Tiriti in policy development and implementation.¹³ It is critical that organisations are aware of all their obligations and have processes to ensure that they are complied with.

"While it is all good that CEOs are learning to mihi – this is not the mahi. It’s not just about agencies looking more Māori, with their name, use of reo etc. It is about doing their job for Māori.”

Haemata Limited, Māori perspectives of accountability

Organisations need to consider what capability building is required for them to meet their responsibilities under te Tiriti. The types of activities organisations can carry out could include:

• developing a position statement that sets out how the organisation understands its role as it relates to te Tiriti and to iwi, hapū, and whānau Māori;
• researching and documenting the organisation’s history from a Māori perspective;
• understanding the impact its actions have had on Māori, both positive and negative, and how its actions can be improved; and
• consistently upholding tikanga Māori (for example, through karakia, pōwhiri, and relationships with iwi and hapū), and observing tikanga as part of daily practice.

Section 14 of the Public Service Act 2020 recognises the role of the public service in supporting the Crown’s relationship with Māori under te Tiriti. There are provisions in the Act that put explicit responsibilities on public service leaders to develop and maintain the capability of the public service to engage with Māori and understand Māori perspectives. Te Arawhiti has developed a wide range of tools and guidance to support organisations with building public sector capability.¹⁴

"Participants felt that currently in the Public Sector there is a lack of consequence for failure to meet Māori outcomes. Participants spoke of cases where senior managers continued to be rewarded despite continually failing to achieve positive outcomes for Māori. Poor Māori health and Māori education outcomes were highlighted as examples of this.”

Haemata Limited, Māori perspectives of accountability

A public organisation’s commitment to supporting the Crown’s relationship with Māori under te Tiriti must be realised in an observable way. If it isn’t, the organisation’s integrity will likely be questioned.

Acting with integrity with respect to te Tiriti requires more than engaging and understanding perspectives. It requires proactively considering principles of equity, options, active protection, and rangatiratanga.

The law

Integrity starts with following the law. Law includes primary legislation (law made by Parliament), secondary legislation (law made by someone else using law-making powers delegated by Parliament), and common law (law made by judges).

Common law influences how legislation is interpreted and applied, and it includes administrative law principles that require public organisations to act reasonably and fairly when they make and implement decisions. Legislation and common law might recognise elements of tikanga Māori. Legislation might also include obligations that recognise or give effect to te Tiriti.

Legislation can apply to public organisations in different ways:

1. Legislation might establish positive obligations to act in ways that are ethical and in the public interest. For example, an Act of Parliament might require public organisations to take necessary measures to safeguard a right or, more precisely, to adopt reasonable and suitable measures to protect the rights of the individual.^15,16
2. Legislation might inform the purpose of public organisations and what they can do. If a public organisation is established by legislation, the legislation will most likely set out its purpose and functions. Some legislation applies to categories of public organisation (for example, the Public Finance Act 1989, the Crown Entities Act 2004, and the Local Government Act 2002).
3. Legislation might govern the stewardship responsibilities that public organisations have over the information they hold. For example, public organisations might have responsibilities under the Privacy Act 2020, the Official Information Act 1982, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the Legislation Act 2019, and the Public Records Act 2005.

It is critical that public organisations are aware of all their legal obligations and have processes to ensure that they are complied with.

International obligations

New Zealand’s international obligations arise from agreements that New Zealand enters into with international partners as well as from customary international law and other sources of international law.

For example, New Zealand is party to seven core international human rights treaties of the United Nations:

• The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
• The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
• The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

New Zealand also supports the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, although that is not a legally binding instrument under international law.

By signing up to international human rights treaties, New Zealand has assumed obligations under international law to respect, protect, and fulfil the human rights of everyone in New Zealand. This means that the State must protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses, take action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights, and refrain from actions that interfere with or curtail the enjoyment of human rights.

International law does not legally bind public organisations until it is incorporated into legislation. However, New Zealand’s international law obligations are an important part of the context in which public organisations operate.

Public organisations need to be aware of and have regard to New Zealand’s international law obligations and international standards. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains a list of treaties that New Zealand is party to.¹⁷

Organisational purpose and values

Why it matters: An organisation’s purpose and values provide a shared understanding of what the organisation is here to do and how it will go about it

An organisation’s purpose sets out a clear explanation of why an organisation was set up and what it is meant to do or achieve.¹⁸ Organisational values set out expectations for the organisation’s culture and behaviours.

"In our organisation, part of planning any piece of work involves assessing whether it fits within our mandate. Our founding legislation gives us quite wide-ranging powers, so we want to be certain that we only use these powers in a way that supports us fulfilling our organisational purpose. Operating outside of our mandate or abusing our powers would have a negative effect on the credibility and integrity of our organisation.”

Government department team leader

When considered together, an organisation’s purpose and values identify what matters most to the organisation. They provide direction for the decisions and actions of staff by empowering people to balance and achieve what’s agreed to be important.¹⁹

When an organisation’s values are strong, stable, and effectively communicated, people can be guided by them in their day-to-day work. Values that are designed and clearly linked to an organisation’s purpose are the cornerstone of integrity because they:

• help people make ethical decisions – values guide decision-making and actions and clarify what the organisation stands for;
• align the organisation – shared values communicate the bigger purpose that everyone works towards together, provide clarity on what is acceptable, and empower people to have difficult conversations in a safe environment;
• improve motivation – understanding and agreeing with the organisation’s values gives staff collective “buy-in” and a sense of belonging; and
• communicate to the public – organisational values can help communicate what the public can expect from an organisation and help hold it accountable.

What it looks like: A statement of what the organisation stands for and the culture it collectively seeks

Operating with integrity means staying true to the organisation’s purpose and values in everything an organisation does. Each organisation should be clear about its purpose and identify core values that it is committed to and wishes to be held accountable for.²⁰

A public organisation’s purpose will be informed by the wider constitutional arrangements in which it operates. The purpose of a public organisation might be set by specific legislation and should state its role (as part of the Crown) in meeting its obligations under te Tiriti.

A purpose statement should be:

• tailored to your organisation’s role;
• clear enough for staff to understand;
• stable enough to stand the test of time;
• practical enough to guide decisions; and
• authentic enough to make sense and appeal to staff.²¹

Identifying organisational values begins with a clear understanding of the purpose of the organisation.²² Values are what the organisation strives for and seeks to maximise or protect in achieving its purpose.²³

Organisational values set out the expectations for an organisation’s culture and behaviours. It is not enough for an organisation to just have values – they need to be clearly expressed throughout the organisation (for example, in the code of conduct) and demonstrated internally as well as externally. This gives everyone who works at an organisation a shared understanding of what each value means and looks like, and what they and the organisation are guided by and held accountable for. Having clear values attracts people to work for the organisation who also hold those values.

What an organisation stands for is wider than staff behaviour. Consideration needs to be given to how third parties working with an organisation understand and are guided by the values of the organisation. Organisations also need to manage the risk of unethical supplier practices, such as actual, perceived, or potential conflicts of interest, fraud, corruption, tax avoidance, and modern slavery.

"Staff talk every day in their morning debrief about the values, picking one to talk about it, sharing experiences that resonate.”

Government department staff member

Once an organisation has developed its values, it is important that there is a process to work through what they look like in practice, so they are embedded into interactions and decisions. Take every opportunity to actively to promote them.

10: We use “te Tiriti” in this guidance to refer to the Māori and English texts together. If we are referring specifically to the English language version, we use the Treaty of Waitangi. If we are referring specifically to the Māori language version, we use te Tiriti o Waitangi.

11: The term “Crown” refers to the Executive branch, which develops and administers the law. See Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission’s “How the public sector is organised” at publicservice.govt.nz.

12: Cabinet Office Circular CO (19) 5, Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi Guidance, paragraph 2, at dpmc.govt.nz.

13: Cabinet Office Circular CO (19) 5, Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi Guidance, paragraph 2, at dpmc.govt.nz.

14: See “Tools, resources and funding” at tearawhiti.govt.nz.

15: See, for example, the Public Service Act 2020, the Human Rights Act 1993, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, and Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016 | Māori Language Act 2016.

16: Although the Public Service Act applies to only some public organisations, in our view, the Act’s purpose, principles, and values provide an ethical framework that all public organisations can use. This includes local government, especially as there is no equivalent piece of legislation that codifies its purpose, principles, and values.

17: See “New Zealand Treaties Online” at mfat.govt.nz.

18: The Ethics Centre (2020), A guide to purpose, values and principles: How to establish an ethics framework for small and medium businesses, at ethics.org.au.

19: The Ethics Centre (2020), A guide to purpose, values and principles: How to establish an ethics framework for small and medium businesses, at ethics.org.au.

20: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Institute of Business Ethics (2017), Embedding ethical values: A guide for CIMA partners.

21: The Ethics Centre (2020), A guide to purpose, values and principles: How to establish an ethics framework for small and medium businesses, at ethics.org.au.

22: The public organisations that must comply with the Public Service Commissioner’s standards for integrity and conduct (under the Public Service Act 2020) should do so with reference to the public service principles, values, and code of conduct. Other organisations are also welcome to adopt this framework.

23: The Ethics Centre (2020), A guide to purpose, values and principles: How to establish an ethics framework for small and medium businesses, at ethics.org.au.