Dame Margaret Clara Bazley ONZ DNZM (née Hope, born 23 January 1938) is a New Zealand public servant.

She has continued with public sector work throughout her retirement and has a reputation for reform, transformational leadership and problem-solving.

[2][3] Bazley attended Waihi College, and left school at 18 to begin working as a psychiatric nurse in Wellington.

[10] She was the lead author of a textbook The Nurse and the Psychiatric Patient (1973),[11] and had a paper about the hospital published in an international journal.

[15] She was the driving force behind New Zealand's public sector restructuring that took place in the 1980s and the replacement of government departments with state-owned enterprises.

Her findings were accepted by the Commissioner of Police and a ten-year monitoring and reporting regime was put in place.

[28] In 2009, Bazley was appointed by then Minister of Justice Simon Power to review legal aid in New Zealand after reports that lawyers were taking advantage of the system.

Her report, released in November of that year, found that the system was facing serious challenges and system-wide failings, and was indeed open to abuse by a small but significant number of corrupt lawyers.

[29] Her report led to a number of reforms including the introduction of new legislation and the expansion of the Public Defence Service.

[33] On her retirement she was praised by local groups including Ngāi Tahu and Federated Farmers for contributing to significantly improved relationships between their members and the council.

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel praised Bazley for her "legacy of excellence" during her public service career.

[37][38] In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for public services, lately as chief executive of the Department of Social Welfare.

[39] She was made an additional member of the Order of New Zealand in the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours.