Ta te rāngai tūmatanui hanga Diversity and inclusion

A diverse workforce and inclusive practices ensures the public service is well placed to engage with, understand and respect our communities, which in turn leads to the design and delivery of better quality public services.

The Public Service has been focused on improving diversity and inclusion for some time now. Papa Pounamu is the comprehensive programme guiding our diversity and inclusion work. The programme has identified 5 priority areas that will make the most positive difference for all our people across several diversity dimensions. Public Service chief executives have agreed to make these commitments mandatory in their workplaces.

Papa Pounamu Diversity and Inclusion progress across the Public Service

Although there is still work to be done, we’re seeing some positive results from this work. The latest data shows that the Public Service is becoming more diverse, for example:

• Pacific (11.0%), Asian (15.9%) and MELAA (2.3%) representation in the Public Service workforce continues to increase, while Māori (16.7%) representation has stayed steady for the last three years.
• The number of women in senior management continues to rise (56.7%), moving closer to female representation in the Public Service overall (61.9%)
• Gender and Māori pay gaps are continuing to close.

We’ve been reporting on demographic information since 2000. We’ve also got better information on our faith, disability, and Rainbow communities.

In 2021, the inaugural Te Taunaki Public Service Census enabled us to report for the first time on how our people experience inclusion at work.

•  Just under three quarters (72%) of our people feel they have access to employee-led networks relevant to them.
• Most of our people feel they can be themselves at work (82%).

We will be running Te Taunaki again in 2025. Having this data helps us to understand our progress, what’s going well and where we need to do more.

Diversity and inclusion

Te Taunaki found that 8 in 10 public servants (82%) feel they can be themselves at work and most people (78%) felt that their organisation supports and promotes an inclusive workplace. Almost everyone (96%) reported feeling comfortable working with people from backgrounds other than their own.

Most people (72%) said they had access to employee-led networks that were relevant to them. However, those from smaller ethnic groups were less likely to have access compared to their Pacific, Māori, Asian, and European colleagues.

Te Taunaki also told us that some of our people from Rainbow communities, those who reported a mental health condition or disability, and those from smaller ethnic groups felt less able to be themselves at work.

This visualisation allows you to explore Census results on feelings of inclusion by various demographic groups.

Inclusion(XLSX, 15 KB)

We use the ‘social model’ of disability and promote the participation and leadership of disabled people in society, with the same access to opportunities as non-disabled people. ‘For more information, the Office for Disability Issues website has more information.

Guidance for policy makers — Office for Disability Issues

Disability information was gathered through the commonly used Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability which is not designed to provide disability counts or prevalence rates. The Washington Group Questions on Disability are internationally recognised as the best way to gather disability information.