The Hon Paula Bennett, Minister for State Services, Local Government and Associate Minister of Finance for the New Zealand Government is visiting the UK to meet a number of social service providers, senior officials and academics in the fields of social housing, public sector reform and data analytics/open data.

As part of her visit, she is taking time to come to the School to give a round table discussion, starting with a short opening by the Minister, followed by an interactive Q&A session, hosted by Professor Ngaire Woods.

Hon Bennett is the highest-ranking woman in NZ government, responsible for overseeing 75% of the government’s expenditure, and weighty portfolio responsibilities covering the creation of a social housing sector; public service reform; holding the role of associate Finance Minister and being responsible for the entire local government sector. She has spent the past 6 years as a minister tackling New Zealand’s high rates of child abuse and neglect, and undertaking a complete reform of the Welfare system.

This is a closed event for Blavatnik School of Government faculty, DPhil students and researchers, along with other invited academics from Social Policy.