The Prime Minister’s new chief science advisor John Roche says any advice he tenders, now as a public servant, will be “considerate of the drivers of the day”.
Speaking to Q+A, Roche — who was appointed to the role in May — outlined how his role represented a shift from the structure used by previous chief science advisors Dame Juliet Gerrard and Sir Peter Gluckman.
“A key difference is that they were seconded in from university environments as almost independent contractors, and therefore to provide advice to the Prime Minister in that capacity,” Roche said.
“I’m a public servant, and have been seconded from within the public service. I remain a public servant. The freeness and the frankness of the advice — there’s no difference.
“That’s what he wants me there for. But obviously I abide by the public service rules.”
Roche was questioned in the interview about whether the independence of his role had changed with a modified terms of reference.
He said: “If I look back at Dame Juliet and Sir Peter’s role, I mean, they provided independent advice in a contextualised way. And I think that’s one of the key things that scientists sitting outside a system need to understand — that we tend to have specialties, and therefore our focus tends to be on that specialty.
“We really need to understand the other science areas that are also feeding into a decision-making process. And the real role of the chief science advisor is to be able to gather all of that evidence together and provide a contextualised and considered view into a decision-making process.”
He added: “The advice I give is independent. It’s independent of thought, but it is considerate of the drivers of the day.”
Roche said his current focus centres on the Government’s ongoing science reforms rather than the broad policy synthesis that predecessors had undertaken on topics like 1080, gang harm, food waste, or cannabis.
“That’s not part of the role as yet. Now, obviously the key focus at the moment is the science reforms. Whatever way you slice and dice it, we’re going through major reforms of our science system, both in terms of the form of our public research organisations, but also the ecosystem of our science funding landscape as well.
“That’s the key focus at the moment. Once we have those in a place, the Prime Minister may request other things,” Roche said on Q+A.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
