Yay! The neoliberal Wellington Bureaucratic elites who brought you the state housing meth testing fiasco, Census fiasco & Oranga Tamariki baby trafficking fiasco get to denounce any actual political promise for real change by claiming it’s too expensive!
Why on earth would we trust these people to cost out political promises? Didn’t the Greens just catch WINZ out lying about drug sanctions against beneficiaries?
MANA suggested a Financial Transaction Tax in 2014, Treasury would prefer to crawl naked over broken glass while being sprayed with vinegar than ever allow that to become policy.
The job of Politicians is to control bureaucrats, not empower them to simply veto policy ideas during an election.
The Cost Benefit Analysis on the Neoliberal Experiment was a real F%#k Up IMHO.
The sale of the BNZ was a classic example which I think in the end, it cost the country to sell the BNZ to Fay Richwhite.
What country sell it’s banking sector to Offshore Interests. I doubt you will ever see the Japanese selling the Bank of Japan ?
The Cost Benefit Analysis on the Neoliberal Experiment was a real F%#k Up IMHO.
The sale of the BNZ was a classic example which I think in the end, it cost the country to sell the BNZ to Fay Richwhite.
What country sell it’s banking sector to Offshore Interests. I doubt you will ever see the Japanese selling the Bank of Japan ?
Oh bollocks Martyn.
I can accept that outcomes from Oranga are hardly ideal but it has nothing to do with malice IMHO. Same with State Housing.
The fact is that most Government employees have good intentions, it is the execution of those intentions that are lacking.
As the old saying goes “never put down to malice what can be put down to incompetence”.
That said, why would you not want promises costed and checked for reasonableness? Some checks have to be better than none.
When I was running strategy for MANA, we put forward a Financial Transaction Tax and the Feed the Kids Bill, both were savaged by the neoliberal Wellington elites – they serve themselves not the people
Well, I have worked in government departments and the vast majority of people were very keen to do the best for NZ. However many of them were also grossly incompetent.
So I am calling bullshit on your crusade against Oranga and co.
Well I’ve worked with lots of people on the receiving end of Oranga Tamariki persecution, WINZ persecution, MSD persecution, Corrections persecution and state housing persecution so I stand by my crusade against middle class wellington elites implementing neoliberal policy.
The problem is not with ‘the vast majority” of public servants @Jays. Far from it. The problem is usually with the Masters and Mistresses of the Universe that “lead” them – the Senior managment “teams” and sometimes even those over-ambitious specimens, or others parachuted in from the Empire to show us all the way.
I realise that the ‘recolonisation’ phenomenon is becoming a bit a bit of a trendy excuse, however the anecdotal is becoming overwhelming.
Maybe have a listen to ” Kingi Snelgar – Decolonising the justice system” on RNZ ‘Saturday’ today (24/08/2019). You could line up with the few of the feedback commenters getting all defensive about it all.
And by the way, Lianne and Raf must be bloody rapt. Looking at the immigrant visa prioritisation system decreed by one of the MotU’s in an email shown in one of Gil Bonnett’s stories, a Baxendale should be with us all before too long.
Like I keep harping on about around the place, something has gone seriously wrong within the senior and upper middle ranks in our public service over the years. It’s become a cultural phenomenon that’s affected a number of state agencies/departments/ministries.
The latest to emerge ….. Civil Aviation
I wondered when I heard the Chairman’s name whether it was the same guy I’d come across 3 or 4 decades earlier, at the time thinking this guy is destined to grease his way up to Master of the Universe status. Everything I heard on RNZ NinetoNoon today suggests a better career path might have been climbing the ranks at Harcourts. He probably have been in a nice comfy position as a Council CEO somewhere by now
Probably the SSC (who is increasingly beginning to look like he’s just a little out of touch – poor ‘sophisticated bloke’), and a number of others might come to realise the public service is there to serve.the.public in an apolitical way; and that parachuting people into senior positions from the former Empire before they have even come to familiarise themselves with ‘Life in NuZull’; or that appointments to senior positions with people who have a ‘Respect MY Authority!!!” authoritarian streak’ are doomed to cause him embarrassment – at the very least within the timeframe of his tenure.
He should consider the above whilst reviewing things like Codes of Conduct, declarations of conflicts of interest, the spirit and intent of OIA, and the bugger’s muddle of legislation that tries to simulate a constitution.
Oh well………..2 down, many more to go eh?
Why would you trust them? clearly you would not! Unfortunately here is barely a Labour Caucus Member or a Green when it comes down to it, that get that State Sector CEOs and senior managers are NOT their friends in anyway. They are in the main dirty bastards that detest public ownership and infrastructure, yet are happy to cream huge salaries off the taxpayer.
Good on you Martyn. The very last thing we need. And to be captured by appointments by whichever side is in power so they can rubbish the opposition. Technocrats with the power to direct policy. The Greens need to have a serious rethink. All climate change initiatives will become too expensive.
The question I would ask is “is there any real distinction between the bureaucrats and politicians? For myself I can see not discernible difference just as I can no longer see any real distinction between Labour and National.
The difference is @ Sean, when you watch a Wellington bureaucrat enter Unity books they’ll head straight for the business management or self-improvement or psychology sections, whereas the politician usually has wider interests.
Comments are closed.