Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

For my wife and I, March 2012 will forever be etched in our hearts because on the 16^th of this month Natalie gave birth to our first child, a beautiful baby boy called Emlyn.

He arrived a week early and weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces. We are exceptionally grateful to the wonderful service that has been provided by our midwife and Tauranga Hospital's staff, and also to many people in Tauranga who have sent us cards and given us their kind wishes. For those of you interested in the origins of the name Emlyn, it is a family name on Natalie's side and is Welsh, meaning to strive and achieve.

Building better public services

People tell me they care deeply about the quality of the public services they receive and what those services achieve.

They care whether the health system treats patients promptly and effectively. They want to know that children are getting the chance to achieve at school. They want to see the government tackling crime and looking after the vulnerable in our community.

Those same people are also taxpayers. They pay the bills. They want to know that the public sector is spending money with the sort of care they would themselves.

Delivering better public services within tight financial constraints is one of National's four key priorities for this term in Government. We're working to make sure the public sector becomes more innovative, efficient, and focused on delivering what New Zealanders really want and expect.

Getting results

The Prime Minister has recently announced three changes to help sharpen the public sector's focus on providing better frontline services and getting better results. We are:

1. Setting a result-driven focus for the public sector.
2. Lowering the cap on core government administration employees.
3. Creating a single, dedicated, business-facing government department.

We will set the public sector 10 challenging results to achieve over the next three to five years. These cover areas such as reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment, cutting crime, and improving people's dealings with government.

Results will be publicly available so you can see real progress.

We've reset the cap on the number of fulltime equivalent roles in core government administration at a lower level of no more than 36,475. We are already below that number and will stay under it.

The cap will count most people working in government departments, but it does not include frontline staff such as teachers, hospital staff, and police officers.

Our new Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment will help drive National's key priority of building a more productive and competitive economy. It will pull together four departments – the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Department of Labour, and the Department of Building and Housing.

It will strengthen the public service's ability to work on business policy, regulation, and engagement. Businesses will see a much more focused approach from government.

Together, these changes are a big shift – a shift towards better results that matter to New Zealanders, and delivering them within the tight financial constraints we all face.