Part 4: Preliminary thoughts on the minimum standards of integrity and conduct

19 This section outlines the range of issues that come within the Commissioner's sphere of interest, sets out the SSC's preliminary thinking about the principles or other considerations that apply to each issue, and presents some preliminary conclusions for the behaviour of Crown entity board members, statutory office holders and other employees. The actual standards that are appropriate for each entity, or group of entities (e.g. district health boards), will be worked through in the discussions with entities.

Methodology

20 Recognising that behaviour reflects values, and that values underpin relationships, the SSC has rationalised the Commissioner's interests in terms of four relationships¹:

• integrity and conduct in relation to Ministers, the Government and Parliament
• integrity and conduct in relation to the public
• integrity and conduct in relation to the entity
• personal integrity and conduct.

21 Within the framework of these four relationships, the SSC considers there are fourteen issues within the Commissioner's sphere of interest, as shown below.

¹ This is similar to the approach in Canada (in the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service) and Australia (in the publication Australian Public Service Values and Code of Conduct in Practice)