The Hindu Business Line : Politics for you and me

The first thing you notice about Jenny Shipley is the air of confidence and quiet determination. Which is perhaps natural, considering she is a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the country's first woman PM at that. What you also notice is that she is friendly, approachable and puts you at ease.

A trained teacher, Shipley taught in primary schools for several years. Her first foray into politics was at the local government level. Elected to Parliament in 1987 as a candidate of the National Party, she took over as New Zealand's Minister of Social Welfare in 1990.

The decision to enter politics was influenced by her belief that in every country some things have to be done collectively. "For me, a dynamic concept of public service means you need people of skill, talent, commitment, ethics, values and beliefs to be willing to contribute part of their life to the service of the public," she explains. So doing what is right for the public is what motivated her to stand for Parliament.

From1990, till she became Prime Minister in 1997, Shipley held portfolios as diverse as social welfare, women's affairs, health, transport and State-owned enterprises. During this period, she was responsible for overseeing pension reforms, tax reforms, reform of the health sector and of public sector companies.

Much of her work in Government was to help people understand the need for reform and also design systems to ensure that reforms happened. "It was a lot of hard work, but the leadership did come from politicians because the public expected them to change," she says.

Initially, the public had serious doubts about the reform process, but in time, attitudes changed. The key, in most instances, was to involve the public as much as possible, she says. For instance, Shipley believes that initial public offerings (IPOs) offered ordinary New Zealanders a chance to participate in the prosperity of many joint-venture companies such as the Auckland airport.

Good governance practices such as transparent design of public systems and transparent reporting of government initiatives also helped improve public faith in the reform process. Public-private partnerships can also be strong drivers of social change, says Shipley. This belief is based on experiences during her tenure as Minister of Social Welfare. The social welfare department found that children belonging to New Zealand's Maori community were not participating in immunisation programmes. So, Maori organisations were invited to join the immunisation effort as service providers. Senior Maori women, in particular, were involved, and asked to coordinate the immunisation programme in remote areas. As a result of this participatory programme, the immunisation levels of Maori children rose from 35 per cent to 92 per cent, she says.

Today, New Zealanders use such partnerships that involve public money and private delivery — with good accountability practices — to achieve great outcomes, she says. Right through her tenure in Parliament, Shipley held firmly to the belief that she wouldn't stay there forever. "I saw it as a period of my life I was prepared to contribute... and I always felt that when I had made my contribution to public service, I would step back and let others take on that role," she says.

So after the National Party, which she headed, lost the elections in 1999, Shipley had a stint as Leader of the Opposition before deciding to retire end-2001. After 15 years in Parliament, the time had come "for me to go and find other challenges," she explains.

One of those challenges was to draw on her experiences in New Zealand and work as a consultant on economic and social development, helping countries around the world deal with change. She also speaks for the Commonwealth and other organisations, and serves on the board of a company in China. She recently visited Kerala as a Commonwealth speaker at a workshop on governance for public service providers. However, governance in itself is not an area of interest, but part of a toolbox used to build policies that facilitate change and continuous improvement, she says.

Much of her public work now focus on matters such as the implications of globalisation and measures to ensure economic and social justice. Or as she puts it, her work is essentially about helping countries develop strategies that make a difference. This perhaps stems from her conviction that politics "is about helping people's dreams come alive".

Picture by S. Mahinsha

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