The IMF/World Bank Annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia had a strong focus on Human Capital; promoting national spending on health and education programmes, to accelerate investments in people for greater equity and economic growth. Interestingly, the New Zealand government is developing, for the first time, a ‘wellbeing’ budget, featuring Human Capital (among other capitals) as a dimension to focus analysis. With New Zealand prepared to expand the application of this tool well beyond current international thinking, to cover all other sectors from justice to international trade, it would appear that New Zealand public servants can be counted among global thought leaders.