DOC to backtrack on some changes nationwide

Flawed restructure forces DOC to backtrack some changes nationwide http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/70806427/flawed-restructure-forces-doc-to-backtrack-some-changes-nationwide

"It's about how we plan the work, how do we do the work, and who does the work. This isn't a restructure. What we are doing is building on the structure." So, 'restructuring' means firing people ?.

yes and backtracking means firing some more but hiring some of the first fired back in there place

A major "restructure" is what Al Morrison needed for his CV so he'd be able to state he'd had a lasting effect on the organisation, during his time as Director General, before he moved on. This time around it's more about Lou Sanson fixing everything that didn't work, so he's in charge of a functioning organisation again.

Al Morrison was a press gallery journalist who leaned strongly towards the National Party. Amazing, eh?

I don't mind so much if people have political preferences. Few people don't. But for this type of thing it also needs to be plausibly separated from the work. If he leaned towards the National Party, then to be fair he was actually hired in 2002 and promoted to DOC DG in 2006, during all of which Labour was in power. It's really the SSC who makes decisions on hiring Chief Executives for government departments, but it'd probably still consult the Minister to ask for input on what sort of department they want. My main issue with Al Morrison, I think, isn't really a political one. It's that he came across as being more interested in management and leadership for its own sake, to be one of the elite executives who simply needs to be at the top of something being mega-paid to "take responsibility" for something that's defined very ambiguously. Hence the restructuring, because restructuring stuff is the type of thing highly paid executives like to be seen accomplishing. It's the signature they leave on places they've been. The peers in management and future employers understand a giant organisation-wide restructure, whereas they probably don't understand obscure minor domain-specific things like species' saved or recreation goals achieved. He was probably right that DOC needed its structure adjusted, but the way in which that was done didn't seem to take much notice of what was actually needed. And now he's been pulled into the State Services Commission as the DC of State Sector Reform, which is probably the next step up the ladder. Go figure. Lou Sanson seems a good replacement for running DOC though, thankfully. Hopefully. From what I've seen I hope he manages to stick around for a while.

Well, aside from all that, government spending reductions across the board is usually associated with a shrinking economy in general. However the question in my mind is which came first. Given the leverage power of government spending and government debt, its entirely possible doc downsizing is just a peice of a bigger picture. PS. what i thought was an isolated "This track is presently in poor condition" sign, is not. In the weekend i saw several more, in the curtis falls and enchanted areas. http://zoneblue.org/files/IMG_4073.jpg

I wish they'd use that type of sign more than Track Closed signs.

they maintain far less tracks on forest parks than the forest service used to... numerous tracks disappeared in the tararuas.. theres probably more high grade tracks than there used to be,,, some tracks have had massive amounts of work done on them... I was on one great walk and they've basically turned several miles of track into a quadbike track including upgrading the bridges to take a quadbike... the whole track is being constantly upgraded, smoothed out, numerous loads of gravel applied to the track and removal of rocks , adding of stairs... other tracks have had blasting work done on them and diggers used to excavate a benched track... seems doc are moving in two distinctly different directions around track maintenance...

The core problem for DoC is that it's almost impossible for them to find the kind of people to maintain the traditional bush track by manual labour. The kind of basic bush skills needed are almost non-existent these days. Most people young and fit enough to do it just find it too hard, too cold, too wet and too dangerous. That's why the emphasis is on tracks they can maintain with machinery.