Amid one of the many government shake-ups in employment, housing and social services over the years, it became the MSD in 2001 with the merger of the Department of Work and Income, with which she was based, and the Ministry of Social Policy.
She became the Hawke’s Bay-based East Coast regional commissioner in 2021, having stepped in as acting commission upon the sudden death of Annie Aranui, who had the previous year been a recipient of the New Zealand Public Service Medal, also part of the Royal New Zealand Honours system.
Bartlett, who was acting commissioner at the time of move of the MSD, Work and Income , Kāinga Ora and Oranga Tamariki into a new building in Napier in 2021, is particularly commended for her work in the response to Covid-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle, a profile saying she was committed to ensuring community and individual needs were met throughout the region.
Following Cyclone Gabrielle, she convened a response and co-ordination group of available public service leaders in Hastings to provide support and practical leadership for the immediate response.
She had personally led and influenced joint outcomes involving employers, councils, agencies, iwi and community, including a partnership with Te Whatu Ora since 2021 providing cadetships for MSD clients and with Topline Academy, supporting the most at-risk clients into employment.
She initiated a development programme within Hawke’s Bay to upskill and provide a larger pool of locals to recruit from for the Whakarongorau Telehealth Lines at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga Call Centre.
Bartlett is providing leadership with the Tēnēi Tamaiti, Tēnēi Whānau project, involving 10 public sector agencies, to address the decline in student attendance and engagement in education.
Along the way to becoming regional commissioner, she had been in such positions as managing the Flaxmere office, and says the relationships she developed became key as agencies and people worked together at the time of the cyclone crisis.
With her own office closed, she worked alongside leaders of other agencies elsewhere in Napier, and staff were scattered among makeshift offices such as garages and kitchens in their own homes.
Staff were out in the community within two days, many of them while facing personal impacts from the cyclone, but she said it was part of their own commitment to “doing the right thing for whānau and their community”.
“It was shocking for everyone, but everyone I know was doing their very best, doing everything they could to help.”
She said rather than being a recognition of her own work, the MNZM is recognition of all of those with whom she’s worked, particularly at times of community crisis, and it is a job that has its highs and lows.
She steps down from the role of commissioner next month, seeing the need for succession and continuity, but will continue on “project work” for the MSD.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
