You’ve got to admire MBIE. Really. Most organisations would struggle to be owner, funder, steward, architect, bricklayer and building inspector. But not our Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) – they’ve nailed it. Nailed themselves to the floor, mostly.

MBIE, for those who have been blissfully unaware, is the government's sprawling super-ministry that oversees everything from immigration to science policy. One of its tasks is to lead the reform of New Zealand’s science, innovation and technology system — the system we’re meant to rely on for our future industries, exports, and economic growth.

When the government set out to reform this system, the bold idea was to unlock economic potential, support start-ups, and maybe even invent something the world wants to buy. Instead, we got a colour-coded org chart and some Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) playing musical chairs.

But let’s be fair: MBIE is trying. It’s just that trying to steward a whole system while also worrying about who left the lights on at the research institutes is a bit much. Naturally, the reform gravitated toward what MBIE knows best: monitoring, rearranging, and rebranding.

Meanwhile, our one dedicated innovation agency, Callaghan Innovation — created to connect research with business — is being quietly wheeled out the back. Failed? Certainly. Fixable? Probably not. But the solution? Fold critical innovation functions into MBIE — an organisation about as well suited to supporting entrepreneurs as a filing cabinet is to launching tech start-ups.

Thankfully, Sir Peter Gluckman, former Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, has wandered back into the picture. Gluckman chairs the new Science System Advisory Group. He might not have all the answers, but his presence has introduced something radical: competitive advice. Suddenly, MBIE has had to explain why doing the same thing again would be different this time. And it can’t.

So now, on Gluckman’s advice, we have the PM’s new advisory council and whispers of an Advanced Technology Research Organisation (or as insiders call it, “the policy placeholder with potential”). Better still, Gluckman’s second round of advice is headed straight for the startup and commercialisation ecosystem — the bit everyone agrees matters, but no one got around to properly set up and resource.

Whether or not he gets it right, someone is finally looking in the right direction.

If MBIE’s reform journey has taught us anything, it’s that when the house is sinking, rearranging the furniture won’t help — even if you file the change request in triplicate.