Partnership and Politicisation: New Relations for Senior Executives in the NT

Despite substantial evidence to the contrary, claims that the increasing emphasis on performance-based contracts and other changes in tenure arrangements for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and other senior executives will inevitably lead to 'politicisation' of the public sector persist. Those claims were particularly shrill during discussions of the new Commonwealth Public Services Bill in 1997 and have resurfaced in more recent commentaries. This paper argues that the claims have not been substantiated after more than a decade of experience in other jurisdictions; and that, in fact, the relationship between governments and their senior employees is more robust and honest, and therefore more appropriate to the times, than the critics would have us believe. While the argument is based on the Northern Territory experience, its application in other jurisdictions is also addressed.