RICHARD PREBBLE: Is the Public Service Neutral?
We rarely lose a constitutional principle abruptly.
It is chipped away until one day, when it is too late, we realise it is gone.
A politically neutral public service that we can trust is one such principle.
On 9 September almost 10,000 public servants went on strike.
A coordinated public-service strike 47 days before voting begins is unprecedented.
The PSA has always been a political union. It says it campaigned against the National Government in 1999.
But this year it has gone much further.
It has registered as a third-party election promoter. Its campaign is called “Change the Government”. It has distributed election material in government workplaces.
Sir Brian Roche, the Public Service Commissioner, has said that its postcards are election advertising and that displaying them in public-service workplaces is inconsistent with political neutrality.
Where are our political leaders?
A neutral public service depends not only on the mandarins. It also depends on politicians defending the principle.
The government has condemned the strike as political.
Why has the Opposition not upheld the principle of a neutral public service and called on the PSA to abandon its political campaign?
And what about the strike?
Did the 10,000 strikers lose pay for the hours they were not working?
Or did we pay for the walkout?
Once I would have dismissed as paranoia the idea that the public service might deliberately sabotage a government’s re-election.
Richard Prebble is a former Minister and ACT Party leader. He writes at I've Been Thinking
I am surprised you would have dismissed that notion.
For myself having returned from a 40 year absence from this land of my birth it is abundantly clear that there has been a complete divorce from the idea of democratic accountability. In this government minsters pull the levers of power and nothing happens or the exact opposite occurs.
Equally apparent is that people need to be fired in the good old way people used to be “let go”.
Start with the Public Service Commissioner and move on down.
NZ has a choice at the next election party vote NZ FIRST OR ACT………
I think for once it's clear to all that we hold no responsibility for these people they are activists and deserve to go.
You go on strike you loose money if not then the people who pay them go its fraud and collusion, no where else could that happen.
I pick that they will cost votes on the left. But will Luxon even get it!
The public service has not been politically neutral... well forever...
However, when the number of public servants is bloated by 40%, many of which are dei recruitments who naturally support one side of politics, then the public service becomes a strong political group
In essence an obstacle or handbrake for any govt that wishes to implement legislation counter to this group-think.
On other sites there is comment about the accredited employer scheme. People are going to the accredited employer list on the Immigration website to use their search by keyword facility.
They are finding bottle shops, fried chicken, vape shops, doordash, cafes, McDonalds. Dominos, Pizza hut, corner dairies, supermarkets,and a whole lot of other places are being accredited to employ from overseas. (and a lot of them)
This accreditation is being bestowed by public servants - who get to be pretty anonymous. Then there's the visas given to the employees brought in on the scheme.
To me this goes way beyond not being neutral. It's more like deliberately trying to sabotage the country.
Prebble confuses public service employees (represented by the PSA) with the Public Service departments. While the public service must be politically neutral, the people themselves are allowed to hold a political opinion.
Let’s face it, Prebble is vocal about this only because the PSA is anti the National government. If the PSA supported the government, this column wouldn’t be appearing. And why are the PSA wanting a change of government? Because the government is targeting a reduction to no more than 55,000 full-time equivalent employees by mid-2029 through agency mergers and restructuring, and restricting public service pay offers significantly below the current inflation rate.
The PSA is only putting their vision into action. The PSA’s purpose is “to buil…