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YET AGAIN more evidence of our increasingly politicised and obfuscatory public service. The transport ministry (agsin).
And again, not those public servants at the coal face, but rather those under the direction of senior management.
Our govt depts and ministries are being run as little feifdoms subject to ministerial whispers and nudge nudge wink winks.
No regard for parliament and citizenry. No regard for OIAs or indeed democratic principles.
This really is 3rd world stuff and the only way it can be changed is with a change of govt followed by a number of these masters of the universe to lose their jobs.
I cannot understand why opposition parties haven’t seized on it as an election issue.
Yes that’s for sure and Mr Coleman; – “Winter ills fill hospitals: ‘We simply haven’t got the space’ ”
Have you visited one of your so-called world class medical hospitals Emergency department lately?????
I did as I was in such pain I got 2 hours broken sleep last night and came in almost crawling as the pain walking on my leg knee was so painful words cant express it.
And then the receptionist asked coldly, “and what do you want us to do for it????
That was just after midday after me & my Wife drove 80 kms to our nearest Emergency department so I could get some relief before the knee goes rotten!!!!
No sense of care at all, but when I looked around the room their were many before me.
3 hours later my name came up and a doctor said we cant do any surgery here or injections with Cortisone or any other treatment but he gave me a script for Codene, (a barbituate drug).
Many sick folks there were coughing up sputum and shivering in that cold atmosphere, so Mr Coleman, is this the “Brighter future you said we will get??????
I have now witnessed our former world class health system destroyed as the Kiwirail railway has, as they had sold our assets and is this just all we got was a third class medical system here now.
I now also have contracted the flu after sitting in that “Emergency” room full of poor souls coughing up sputum for three hours!!!!!
Pathetic Dr Colman. Nactional = gone by september.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335368/winter-ills-fill-hospitals-we-simply-haven-t-got-the-space
Winter ills fill hospitals: ‘We simply haven’t got the space’
New Zealand Health
less than a minute ago
Hospitals have been forced to leave patients to wait in ambulances due to a lack of space as emergency services and departments are overwhelmed by a surge in winter illnesses.
Yep, i’m well aware of the ‘ills’ in the health system CG.
If you compare where we are at now with when the Gnats first took office it’s shameful. And again, rather than administrators pointing out the problems forcibly and publicly to their responsible Minister, generally they engage in spin and dishonesty.
I mentioned the 3rd world (above). I actually received better care in a 3rd world country recently than i have over the past 5 years in NZ.
NZ is ripe for public service reform – at local and central govt levels. (You get council administrators for eg thinking its OK to manipulate emails from people to their elected representatives).
As for our central govt depts and ministries, the list of fuckups and bad behaviour is now very long.
There are ways of fixing it but the longer its left, the harder it is.
Ministry of Transport seems to be under an assassination attack from the Government (possibly from SS Joyce/MBIE) (who hates MoT as they are critical of Gov’t over running down rail)
As I have experienced a stone wall also when I approached the MoT two weeks ago for documents on RAIL as they tell us their staff are strangely absent at this time all the way to the most senior administrators.
When I requested to discuss this with the manager for “ROAD & RAIL” I was again informed he was on long leave??????
So they passed me over to a lady who was supposed to be “handling” all enquiries at this time!!!!
She said send a Official Information form (OIA) with our request for rail studies information” so I now am forced to wait for a month for this information.
IT SEEMS THAT THIS VITAL ONLY GOVERNMENT “ALL TRANSPORT AGENCY” IS BEING INTERFERED WITH BY GOVERNMENT NOW. SIMON BRIDGES IS BEING TRICKY ON THIS AS sUE MORONEY STATED TODAY FOR SURE.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/335373/transport-ministry-accused-of-dodging-oia-request
POLITICS TRANSPORT
about 1 hour ago
Transport Ministry accused of dodging OIA request
about 1 hour ago
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Benedict Collins, Political Reporter
@rnzbenedict benedict.collins@radionz.co.nz
Emails from the Transport Minister show he told his own ministry that its plans to withhold information from a Labour MP were at odds with its promise to be open and transparent.
Simon Bridges in Parliament. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Documents obtained by RNZ show the Transport Ministry was going to claim that information about the fraudster Joanne Harrison did not exist – despite knowing that it did.
Harrison stole nearly $750,000 while employed at the Transport Ministry and was sentenced this year to three and a half years in prison.
Labour MP Sue Moroney used the Official Information Act to request information about taxpayer-funded flights to the Far North that Harrison had taken, and a restructure of the finance team that took place at the Ministry while she was employed there.
Emails obtained by RNZ show the Transport Ministry’s chief legal adviser David Bowden knew the information existed but was going to refuse to release it.
Labour MP Sue Moroney. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Mr Bowden said the financial restructure happened just outside the timeframe the MP had identified in her request, so the Ministry would say the information did not exist.
He said the Ministry would not release the costs of Harrison’s flights because the MP asked for information on flights to Kaitaia, whereas Harrison had flown to a different airport in the region.
But the emails showed Transport Minister Simon Bridges’ office told Mr Bowden that taking such a “narrow and literal” interpretation of the requests flew in the face of the Ministry’s claims to be acting in an open and transparent manner on the matter.
While the information was subsequently released, Ms Moroney said the Ministry’s conduct was poor.
“It’s disappointing because the Ministry of Transport came to the select committee earlier in the year and said that they were going to be as transparent as they could over what had happened with the Joanne Harrison fraud.
“And it’s clear … that they continued to play ducks and drakes with it and hide as much information as they possibly could.”
Another email obtained by RNZ shows Mr Bridges recommended in May that the Ministry not give further interviews about Harrison, and only provide written statements to the media.
Ministry intended to provide ‘factual responses’
Yesterday, the Transport Ministry said David Bowden was not available to be interviewed.
But it issued a written statement saying it was “not usual practice for the Ministry to second-guess what a requester is trying to ask, when their question is clear”.
It said it was intending to provide factual responses to the questions asked.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the response was not good enough.
“If you want accountability in public life then there should be serious questions as to whether the people making those decisions should be in their job.
“In short, if they can’t read a simple (legal) requirement like that then it begs the question what else they’re qualified for.”
Mr Bridges was not available for an interview but issued a statement saying he backed his office.
The minister and his staff are being investigated by Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier in relation to another OIA request, in which they urged Kiwirail not to release a report on a proposed Auckland rail line – despite Kiwirail having legal advice saying it should be released.
Green Party transport spokesperson Julie-Anne Genter said the OIA was becoming increasingly politicised.
“Since National’s been in power, one thing that we’ve found a little concerning is the way that government departments and State Owned Enterprises have been increasingly reluctant to release information,” she said.
“We should have the right to request this information, but it is often being repelled and they know that even if we go to the Ombudsman it’s unlikely they’re going to be forced to release it.”
The Transport Ministry’s chief executive at the time of the Joanne Harrison’s fraud, Martin Matthews, stood down from his new role as Auditor General in May while an investigation was carried out into his suitability to remain in the job.
The findings of that inquiry have not yet been publicly released.
The State Services Commission is also now investigating whether whistle-blowers in the Ministry’s finance team where forced out in a restructure influenced by Harrison.
The rail issue is a “NO BRAINER, A WIN WIN SITUATION (GOING FORWARD)” to use their parlance.
But you have to understand that experience and common sense are now so passe – eclipsed by risk management and neoliberal ideology/religion/faith. It’s sort of a faith based orthodoxy that eclipses the basic tenrts of 5Bull Unglihizz Catholicism, or even a Bakshi-Singh (rather Singh Bakshi if he were honest) belief systems.
Lets not get started on a heap of others such as a Chris Finlayson, or the thick shits whose only abilities seem to be to learn ( parrot fashion, and by ideological system – without critical thought or question) the spin, language and baubles as followers of the faith……right up until it all turns to shit …… whereupon they’ll scrream like banchis and shout “wasn’t me”
There’s now so much (30 plus years) kaka, they could start a synthetic manure business and sell it to China, or as the basis of an FTA with the Muddle East. I’m surprised the Grocer isn’t already doing so (going forward)
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