Contracting between government and the voluntary sector: where to from here?

Abstract

In the 1980s and 1990s public sector management in New Zealand underwent a profound reorganisation. This involved the corporatisation and privatisation of many state assets, with the separation of the roles of funder, purchaser and provider. Non-commercial or ‘core’ public functions of the state were separated from commercial functions to enable the latter to be contracted out to private organisations, in the pursuit of effi ciency and effectiveness.