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J.K McLay Limited: Changing an Economy by Changing iLs Public Sector ?Ura. , Part I Background Overall reform process To understand the changes that have taken place in the New Zealand public sector, it is necessary to place those changes into the overall framework of economic and structural reform that has taken place in New Zealand since the early 1980s. New Zealand is a stable democratic country with Western culture and values. It is part of the world's fastest growing economic region, the Pacific Basin. Its people enjoy a high standard of living; and has swell-educated workforce. While its traditional wealth has been built on the export of primary produce, it also has natural resources that support industries in horticulture, fishing, forestry, energy, manufacturing and tourism. It is gaining an increasing reputation for the export of services.l The country has earned international commendation for its consistent business environment; and has a sophisticated, Western style infrastructure. New Zealand's constitutional structure Constitution New Zealand is a monarchy, with asingle-chamber democratically-elected Parliament. Although comparatively "young" in terms of European settlement, it has one of the world's oldest continuously functioning democracies, with the world's eighth oldest Parliaments (first elected in 1854). New Zealand does not have a formal written constitution; there is no single written document containing supreme or fundamental laws. This reflects New Zealand's inherited Westminster or British tradition. Instead, the New Zealand Constitution is contained in a combination of - • formal legal documents (particularly the Constitution Act 1986 (which succeeded an earlier Constitution Act passed by the United Kingdom parliament in 1852); the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of the Governor-General; and some provisions of the Electoral Act 1993 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990); New Zealand covers 268,000 squaze kilometres (similar in azea to the LRC or Japan); but only has a population of 3.6 million. From north to South it stretches about the same distance as from Seattle to Los Angeles. Auckland, the lazgest city has approximately one million people and Wellington, the capital, approximately four hundred thousand. The population is eighty percent European and thirteen percent Maori; the balance includes Pacific Islanders, etc.