Behind the Scenes with James Shaw - a private secretary story
I was there for Census 2018 and the development of the Living Standards Framework. Two pieces of work that I will never forget being a part of.
In April 2018, I started working as StatsNZ's private secretary for Min James Shaw1, who was not only Minister for Statistics but also held the vital portfolios of Minister for Climate Change and Associate Minister of Finance. Little did I know that this year would be a pivotal one not just politically but personally.
It was marked by the tumultuous Census 2018 and significant climate change initiatives like the no new offshore oil and gas exploration as well as the development of the zero carbon bill (now the Climate Change Response Zero Carbon Amendment Bill). It was also the start of Jacinda Arden’s coalition government with the Greens and NZ First.
It was the year where I found a new sense of confidence. A confidence I had been looking for after years of chipping away in the Wellington job market after moving here as a hopeful 29 year Mexican migrant. My first few years in Wellington were pretty bad, which is a story for another week.
My first day in James Shaw’s office, coincided with a groundbreaking announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister Shaw – no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits and it had been a month since Census day 9 march 2018. So the energy in the office was vibrant and high, the Minster and his Climate Change team were all over the moon. I remember having to run into the bathroom to google about the announcement because I had no idea what was going on.
That day I was clueless to the ramifications of both events - Census and no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits announcement. It was the start of what would be a rollercoaster of a year for James Shaw, StatsNZ and myself. I was about to face one the steepest learning curves of my professional life, not only about how Parliament works but what my role was within it.
I was blessed to have been led by Liz McPherson, then StatsNZ Chief Executive Officer and Chief Government Statistician at the time, who I grew to trust and respect. She was smart, kind, dedicated and with a sense of integrity I don’t see often. She was a great boss and role model. Below a photo of both of s when she attended an event I produced for a few years that created a space for critical gender related topics.
James managed a forward-thinking, open-plan office, fostering a friendly and productive environment. Having an open-plan office is not common practice in that building and the fact that he did that by design, speaks volumes to his leadership style. It allowed us as a team to feel like we could always talk to him, his political advisor and senior press secretary.
His integrity and ethics shone through, and my time with him transformed my career positively. He was incredibly hard working and even though there were many stressful days with Census, he never ever made me feel like I shouldn’t be there. For example, there were many moments where I couldn’t wait for the next meeting I had with him, and I could just ask him if he had 5 mins for a quick chat to give him some advice or ask him for advice on a best way to move forward with something Census related. Every time StatsNZ released a press release that year regarding Census, it mean that I was going to get snowed under with request from the opposition, and knowing I could just walk up to him and ask him a question without fear of being told off made a huge difference.
He had a team:
one Private Secretary for The Treasury
two Private Secretary’s for climate change from the Ministry for the Environment
one Private Secretary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to help with international climate change topics
He had a press secretary, political advisor, admin private secretary and senior private secretary.
We all became very close friends and to this day, I remember all of them with a lot of love and respect2.
Working closely with James Shaw offered me a unique perspective. I witnessed his dedication to initiatives like the Zero Carbon Bill and the Living Standards Framework. Two initiates that required bipartisan support, I watched him walk that line with other parties and between government agencies with a lot of professionalism, lightness and practical thinking. For example, for the Living Standard Framework, work he did as Associate Minister for Finance, he collaborated with The Treasury to integrate statistics and finance. It was hard, technical and relentless work.
The Census 2018 crisis presented immense challenges. StatsNZ, an apolitical agency by law, found itself in unprecedented political territory. As Private secretary for StatsNZ, I was at the coalface of that crisis, and it taught me more than I could have ever hoped for. StatsNZ went from little to no attention from the opposition, to a hot point n 2018. That meant that I had to answer more correspondence, official information act request and written parliamentary questions than StatsNZ had ever had to answer as an agency. We were not prepared for that volume of political scrutiny. We went from getting maybe 20 written parliament questions (WPQs) a week to hundreds of WPQs a week. It was brutal!
Following my role as StatsNZ's private secretary, I accepted a secondment to the Ministry of Innovation and Employment as Manager for Minerals Team, I managed the team that regulated the mining sector, offering a stark contrast to being around the Climate Change Minister for the past year. I remember telling Min James Shaw about my new job and his first response was: “You are joking right?” - the irony didn’t escape us. He said thanks for all your work, and take care what you are about to do is very hard work.
These experiences gave me a well-rounded understanding of the complexities of climate change and the far-reaching consequences of political decisions on communities that live far away from Parliament. Traveling to country to see mines and talking to the mining sector, offered me a unique perspective into what they are actually doing to support the environment and what impacts the announcement on no new mines on conservation land did. Because of that announced we couldn’t accept any permits but the Minerals Crowns Act had not been amended so we couldn’t decline them either. Sending the agency into a legal and regulatory nightmare witch had direct impacts on those communities. James Shae was right, it was very hard work.
While working in James Shaw office, I would see Tory Whanau, Chlöe Swarbrick, Golriz Ghahraman, Gareth Hughes walk in and out of the office. I couldn’t speak with them because agency staff have very strict rules of not interacting with political staff. But I experienced a great sense of team work and trust and good will between them. This was in 2018, so a lot could have changed since then between them, but my experience of them in that place was very positive. A tight nit, hard working whanau.
It wasn’t all fluffy rainbows, it was the year where the Francis Review started its investigation into bullying allegations within Parliament, and I remember that well. I wasn’t blind to bullying and harmful behavior and I wasn’t exempt to that environment while working there either. Its a tricky place to work, there are a lot of political and comms advisors that happen to be mostly male and mostly white, mostly young, confident and smart but also arrogant and professionally immature - a complex combination. So for a Mexican women, I had to shapeshift into something that could help me cope with that everyday and not loose my sense of self or my mind.
One particular moment I do remember was when a political advisor asked me if they teach to write in Mexico because my briefing was shit. Or when somebody signed my goodbye card in Portuguese. We speak Spanish in Mexico.
So each incident in itself doesn’t amount to much, but the constant subtext of office racism was definitely there, just hard to point out because its very subtle. Our office racism has developed into a very sophisticated type of discrimination, disguised as a compliment (infantilization) or one that hides in the darkness and hits like a kick in the teeth without really knowing who or how it happened.
That was the worst of it for me, overall it was hard for everybody: white, Māori, brown and migrants, young and old, new and more seasoned public servants. Nobody was exempt to the fierce air you had inhale and exhale to survive there. That building is unforgiving and relentless with everybody.
It was not easy and it took its toll. Today I don’t want on focus on that side of it, I just want to highlight that working for James was a positive and transformation experience. Some days where very hard, I cried a lot because the opposition hammered us with WPQs about Census and it was relentless. I failed at parts of the job, and I succeeded at others and I took the wins and losses of that year and turned them into a sense of confidence I wouldn’t have been able to get any other way.
Kia kaha James, thanks for your relentless work and service!
an important caveat, all this information is mainly public, I am not disclosing any confidential information I had during my time in this role or any there role. I appreciate its not common practice for public servants to share what their job is like for all sorts of integrity and ethical values the Public Service has. This is my personal experience, just sharing a perceptive in the spirit of transparency.
I don’t mention them by name or show photos of them to protect their privacy.
I really appreciate getting a human perspective of what goes on within the walls of government. When I see politicians in the media they come across as caricatures, but it's so nice to get a sense of their integrity as people and how they work with their teams. Thanks Natalia!