OECD scores NZ Government highly

The OECD has published ratings for its members governments. The overall data is pretty good for New Zealand. Some highlights:

• Citizens rate government satisfaction 10% higher than OECD average
• ICT expenditure by Govt is highest in OECD at 2%
• Trust in Government up 2% since 2007 (down 5% for overall OECD)
• Income inequality (Gini coefficient) reduces from 0.45 to 0.32 after tax and welfare transfers.
• Education performance on PISA is 521 compared to OECD average of 495 despite average expenditure per student of US$70,100 compared to OECD of $83,500.
• Govt employees make up 9.7% of labour force compared to OECD of 15.5%
• Women are 29% of Ministers compared to 25% for OECD
• Confidence in government is 61% (OECD 40%), Police 83% (72%), Education 71% (66%), Health care system 83% (71%) and Justice system 58% (51%)

On the not so good side:

• Deficit at 7.5% of GDP is higher than OECD average of 3.5%. But this is 2010 data which includes earthquake. Still shows how important it is to reduce and eliminate the deficit.
• Government senior managers paid $397,000 on average compared to $232,00 OECD average (in US$ PPP)!