Candidates for appointments

Balanced representation

The Government wants its commitment to equitable treatment for all its citizens to be reflected in the appointments it makes. Proposals for appointment should seek to achieve appropriate gender, age, geographical and ethnic balance. It is particularly important that where the body concerned is serving a particular community of interest, individuals representing that community should be considered for appointment.

The Government wants to ensure balanced representation on government bodies reflective of wider New Zealand society. It is particularly committed to appointing Maori, Pacific peoples and women to government bodies to improve balance in representation. Cabinet has invited Ministers and chief executives to take personal responsibility for achieving balanced representation on the boards for which they are responsible.

Ministers preparing papers on appointments are invited to seek nominations for vacancies on boards from the Ministers of Maori Affairs, Pacific Island Affairs and Women's Affairs. Te Puni Kokiri and the Ministry of Women's Affairs have databases of suitable candidates that should be consulted, and the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs is able to suggest suitable candidates. Departments have been directed to explore alternative means of finding candidates where existing methods do not produce a suitable balance of candidates for APH to consider.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has issued guidelines for consumer representation on boards, advisory bodies, departmental working parties and companies. The guidelines apply to appointments where the mix of members includes lay or consumer representation but not to appointments to Crown companies constituted under the Companies Act 1993 or to district health boards. See http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz.

Cabinet has agreed that papers proposing appointments are required to have a section headed "Representativeness of Appointment". This section should contain a statement from the Minister confirming that full consideration has been given to the need to achieve appropriate gender, age, geographical and ethnic balance.  See the CabGuide section on the content of APH papers for more information on the requirements for appointment papers.

Public servants on boards

In March 2002 Cabinet agreed that, as a general rule, Ministers should not appoint public servants to statutory boards. It was acknowledged, however, that there may be special circumstances which justify appointing a public servant to a board. See Cabinet Office circular CO (02) 5, Appointment of Public Servants to Statutory Boards for details.