Public Policy – everything, everywhere all at once

When you get in your car and go for a drive, that’s public policy in action.

In fact, public policy is all around us, which is precisely why POLS321: Public Policy in New Zealand is one of the most useful papers any student at Otago can take, teaching fellow Michael Swanson says.

“Almost everything we do every day touches on public policy in some way, shape or form. When you drive your car, rent a house, or apply for a student loan you’re dealing with a whole bunch of different regulations and laws.

“So, we should all care about public policy. And this paper is a good way to get a grip on how that system works.”

POLS321 – which is being offered as a Summer School paper on campus and via distance learning – aims to teach students how and why public policy is made in New Zealand.

“We start off at that really high level. What is public policy? What are some of the theories around it? What does it cover? And, it might be a spoiler, but it’s pretty much everything.

“Then we move into the kind of mechanics. We look at the different branches of government and the different roles. We don’t just look at politicians, but also different types of public servants – policy advisers, communications advisers, professionals with the expertise that feed into the policy process and where they fit into the whole policy puzzle.”

“At its core, it’s understanding the policy process in the political space and how you as a professional in your area, whatever that may be, can influence it." – Teaching fellow Michael Swanson

Michael, who has a background working in government, introduced two practical assessments when he became involved with teaching the paper last year – the first is a mock select committee where tauira take on the persona and position of a politician and the second task is to develop a paper that will help a government minister make a decision on a certain policy.

Both assessments are designed to put learners in the shoes of politicians and those who work for them in policy roles in Wellington. Roles they may just find themselves in one day, Michael says.

“One of the things I found when I got to Wellington was that I had a lot of knowledge, but I hadn't really thought about how to actually put that into practice.

“I wanted to bring something into this paper that says to them, you will be asked to do these kinds of things. How would you do that? Where would you find this information and how would you put it together? It means they can actually dip their toe in that water now rather than when they get to Wellington.”

The mock select committee is particularly popular with students, he says.

For this assessment, students are randomly assigned to a party and take on the persona of either a specific politician from that party or a generic party person. They then give a speech to a mock select committee on a particular issue, such as changing the Fees Free Tertiary policy or the liberalisation of Genetic Engineering laws.

“I think last year’s students got more into it than they expected to, especially those putting themselves in the shoes of a real MP.

“And for some of them, it was really challenging because they might be a Green Party voter who got assigned an ACT portfolio, or a New Zealand First voter who suddenly had to put themselves in a Labour Party MP’s shoes.”

The final assessment, writing a report for a minister or an MP on a particular issue, also got good feedback.

“In Government, you’re dealing with people who are swimming in information and short on time. So, you've got to get to the point really quickly.

“A skill we really want graduates to develop is to be able to take a mountain of information and turn it into a four-page document that gets to the heart of the issue and gives a clear set of facts, figures and desired outcomes, which they can give to the people further up the pay scale who make the decisions.”

POLS321 is also designed to make students think about how a government might solve the “really big gnarly issues”.

“We talk about climate change, homelessness, crime. We ask students how they would go about addressing these problems and then ask why governments might not have done those things,” Michael says.

“We workshop their solutions and say, what about the voters who don't agree with that? Are you going to lose people overseas because they don't want to pay taxes to support that?

“It's about being realistic but at the same time saying to them not to stop having idealistic thoughts because, actually, every idea is a good idea. It's just about testing it to see if you can make it work and how they can put it into action.”

Having the knowledge to navigate, and potentially change policy, is why this paper is relevant across a range of fields, Michael says.

“At its core, it’s understanding the policy process in the political space and how you as a professional in your area, whatever that may be, can influence it.

“There are so many industries where graduates in their day-to-day lives will come across government. And this just helps them really understand why government are asking the questions that they are, why governments are doing the things they're doing, and how they can most effectively impact those decisions.”

– Kōrero by Internal Communications Adviser Laura Hewson

Find out more about POLS321

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