Labour didn’t expect to win 2017 and they didn’t expect to win an MMP majority in 2020 so they had no reform agenda to force the Public Service to act in the interests of citizens and not themselves.
Grant Robertson’s Central Wellington wonksters however had other plans.
The policy wonks saw an opportunity to reform policy and expand the State that way rather than take cattle prods to the eyeballs of their Wellington bureaucrat comrades.
The Wellington Central Wonksters allowed their Wellington bureaucrat brethren to keep their fiefdoms while expanding the State by building a bigger kingdom.
And so it has come to pass:
- 3 waters – will take all local water for the glory of the State!
- Radical Public Health Authority – goodbye failing DHBs
- Universal Union Membership – watch as the capitalists scream
- RMA reform – watch as the capitalists scream more
There isn’t any beauty in the Frankenstein State monolith Labour’s wonk team have welded together, but sweet Jesus it’s huge.
The danger is the wonksters for a bigger State won’t limit themselves to policy and will also create a Big Sister State that criminalizes speech and stomps on civil liberties to punish breaches of woke dogma.
The Wellington bureaucrats will allow this policy reform to pass as it doesn’t impinge on their glass palaces but at some stage the Left have to urgently reform the neoliberal welfare system or allow these unelected bureaucrats to continue to call the shots.
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As Martyn has suggested if labour can make this work they get to have their cake and eat it to. Gradually accumulating the State owned enterprises back to where they belong under its matronly care and also carry on with the trickle down neoliberal BS that even I know doesn’t work. I have no objection to the State owning and administrating some important entities but labour never know when to stop. Their ideological power grab of the country’s major assets would be acceptable to me if they had the slightest chance of doing it properly, but they haven’t. Especially this labour lead coalition. They’ve fucked up everything they’ve touched and will continue to do so in my opinion.
The PSA must die.
Why? They are a pretty good union to belong to.
Perhaps not the PSA take the brunt, but enable all workers to improve their lot and act quickly to restore legal aid and enable workers to take a reasonable case in a timely fashion, with a limited and low legal bill.
Unlikely at the present.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/is-this-justice/453297/kiwis-in-need-of-legal-aid-stung-by-interest-that-outstrips-mortgage-rates
Some of New Zealand’s poorest citizens now owe a share of $177 million in legal debt – and the government’s charging them 5 percent interest. In this story from the Is This Justice series, Farah Hancock meets a man who ended up with a government caveat over his home.
Or perhaps Labour should be taken to Court for carrying on business under a misnomer – it’s name and supposed purpose a fraud, perhaps Martyn you could hold a competition for a new name for The Labour Party.
Labour has greatly increased the number of Wellington bureaucrats, just sayin’
You mean bureaucrats as opposed to frontline staff that actually do stuff?
So much has gone wrong with our public service over the years that things no longer happen. Unfortunately many politicians seem quite OK with it as muddle/senior bureaucrats and politicians piss in each others pockets even IF they start out with the best of intentions.
Everyone wants to leave NZ now.
100% Martyn
Now you can understand how the USA got into its current position. The long term employees of the federal agencies control the country with the elected politicians little more than puppets and bystanders. Their democracy is a sham and any elected government that dares to constrain the powers of the bureaucrats quickly finds himself set up to be vilified in media, spied upon and attacked with ‘lawfare’ using a weaponized justice system. That’s what we’ve witnessed for the last 5 years.
I think this has not gone far enough. Frankly, we need a bigger state sector. I’d say 4-5million govt employees would be ideal to manage all the promises smoothly. Funded by 1 million taxpayers. Perfect ratio. Only then will stuff get done. For example, 3-4000 wonks down there could be involved in ordering the vaccine boosters. This could never be done with one phone call and a bank transfer to Pfizer. You need 3-400 wonks. Look Folks, we all know that only govts gets shit done properly. Also, you can apply for your 2-stroke govt Trabant ‘Der Bombermobil’ on a 10-year waiting list. I’ve been to East Germany in its hayday. A kiwi socialist dream! You’d all love it!
I’m confused by this article and comments. What is writer conveying / what have I missed? I get this bit from article: “The Wellington Central Wonksters allowed their Wellington bureaucrat brethren to keep their fiefdoms while expanding the State by building a bigger kingdom.”
What are the comments about though? What is PSA, for example?
In my opinion… Our bureaucracy is behaving erratically because our bureaucracy is being parasitised by rich americans with plans and schemes thus the Wellington bureaucracy MB writes about is no longer ours. Surely the question then is, who’s is it?
Do any of you actually think it’s no big deal that multi billionaires are coming and going like they fucking own the place? The emphases being on “own the place” !
Are you really that unimaginative? You don’t think it’s strange that our government, what ever the fuck that is, is blind to their outrageous colonisation by devious stealth, 21 st century style?
Let this sink in…?
BBC.
“…Located more than 6,000 miles (10,000km) from the US mainland, New Zealand was recently identified as a country more resilient than most to the threat of climate change.”
Peter Thiel, a co-founder of Paypal and early investor in Facebook, once described the South Pacific island nation as “the future” and became a citizen back in 2011. He has since invested heavily there.
“Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and one of the world’s richest men, has been granted New Zealand residency under a category for wealthy investors.”Applicants are required to invest at least NZ$10m ($7m, £5m) in New Zealand over three years.
“Mr Page, 48, had applied for residence in November. However, his application could not be processed because he was offshore at the time.
“…But in January, the US tech billionaire was allowed into New Zealand so his son could be evacuated from Fiji because of a medical emergency, the government confirmed on Thursday. His application was approved in February…”
So? Multibillionaires are here. They have hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars to play with and all they have to pay out TO FUCKING US LETS NOT FORGET is a paltry $10 million…?
‘Labour’ isn’t ours? Labour, like National, are gone. They’re a quaint memory of what was once our AO/NZ.
You’re wondering why the Wellington bureaucracy is behaving in a manner that appears to be outside our governments steerage and control? Well, it’s because it is.
What’s funny to me as a farmer is that the americans can shut us out of trade deals but they can buy our lands for a shitty few million. ( No disrespect to Maori. I’m truly sorry for any offence my opinions cause. )
P.S. If the yanks want a piece of our paradise action then make the fuckers really pay for it.
Larry? You have 170 + or – $ billion? Great. Pay us $169 billion of it to live in our beautiful country then. That billion US you’ll have left will still go a long way in Nightcaps mate.
We’re being suckered and I’m a bastard for saying ” I told you so.”
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