Introduction

The publication of public servants’ advice to ministers under freedom of information threatens to undermine good government, the head of New Zealand’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has warned, in comments echoing several senior Australian bureaucrats.

Speaking to the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand last month on the issue of “free and frank” advice, Andrew Kibblewhite argued that while “more transparency almost always improves the conditions for democracy to flourish”, he also believes “if the free and frank advice officials provide to support ministerial deliberations were routinely released, it would pre-empt some options.”