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
They must remain within the boundaries of their professional code of practice and uphold the duties they are paid to carry out on behalf of New Zealand taxpayers. This includes following all government directives and meeting the regulatory requirements set for their role. This is not a choice this is professionally required
Hopefully their pay was cut for the time off. An OIA enquiry is in order to answer that one.
Maybe the government should have locked them out and terminated their employment, 10,000 less public servants gets us part way to ridding ourselves of all the extra civil dis-servants Labour hired in its last term.
A much smaller public service might just be the kick start the economy needs to get growing again.
Not to be forgotten is the social cancer of woke politics. Anyone failing to conform to the party line gets ostracised, demoted, pushed out. One must be a team player...
There is absolutely no reason for public service unions.
All they ever do is hold the country to ransom at the tax payers' expense.
Abolish them. They are parasites. We do not need unions financed by the taxpayer.
Sack all 10,000. They won’t be missed.