I would have a lot more sympathy with the apparent new concern by journalists about "cronyism" and political appointees had they shown the same level of angst with political appointments made by previous administrations. As Bryce has noted, these types of appointments have gone on for many years, by politicians of all colours, not that you would know that from current journalism. There was barely a syllable written about in the (in)appropriateness of Craig Renney's appointment as political adviser to Grant Robertson - as close to the centre of political power as you can get. (While some might argue that a CTU appointment to Robertson's office is benign and doesn't really count, the fact is the CTU is a lobbyist for its membership, which itself is only a small proportion of NZ society). Labour made many other political appointments to Crown Entity Boards, most of which were ignored by media and some only came to light when they spectaturly had to leave office for inappropriate behaviour.
I have seen the work of a number of political appointess (aka "cronies") over the years - appointed by politicians of all colours - and many of them have been very good. What matters is their ability to do the job given to them. One of the advantages that so called crony appointees have is that they understand what the audience (politicians) need in terms of solutions that can be made to work in political systems. Too many "independent experts" don't have this knowledge, and many struggle to work out how to be effective in a political environment. They tend to end up being very, very reliant on the officials supporting them, which tends to negate the value of the "independent experts" from the get-go.
What matters is competence for the role that appointees have been appointed to, not their political colour or history. But understanding that is beyond the wit of many contemporary commentators.
As noted, there is nothing INHERENTLY wrong with appointing qualified "cronies" - the problem is the lack of checks & balances to show a) they ARE qualified and b) they don't have conflicts of interest as in the Mercer case (and others no doubt)
An Integrity Commission sounds like an interesting solution - while there are cronies appointed that do a reasonable job, it continues to erode public confidence & buy-in when the PERCEPTION is snouts in the trough by and for mates.
The standout here has to be Bishop giving ex Whanganui and list MP Harete Hipango a job keeping sports clean after she was outed by her bestie and briefly Nat leader Judith Collins for claiming on furniture she had bought on the taxpayer's dime, and was forced to repay Parliamentary Services.
What's that olde saying about poachers and gamekeepers, and has Bishop lost the plot?
... and by the end of January 2022 new leader Luxon had branded her silly and unwise, and had Nicola Willis give her a good talking to for further indiscretions including hanging out at anti vax protests and getting a staffer to delete unpalatable references from her Wikipedia entry.
Does the NZ government have a cronyism problem? Yes absolutely and this goes back to the previous government(s) and effects various levels of the public service.
Governmental "cronyism" has been around forever, but has gotten worse with political polarisation. With a moribund, stonewalling public service riddled with activist, leftist, go native fanatics, there really aren't too many choices available to cut out the rot other than appointing those who are guaranteed to be enthusiastically on side, to stand any chance of quickly digging the country out of the destructive mess left by the Ardern regime.
At least right now there's enough morality left so that cronyism doesn't involve as it does in some less than democratic countries shooting potential opposition. Unfortunately the days of "yes Minister" are long gone, or rather nowadays it really is yes Minister.
The main issue is the whole system, built on a colonialist (european supremacy, imperialism/capitalism ergo neoliberalism) structure, what i like to call a Heteronormative patriarchal cis-tem (the cis implying cisgender), what it has done successfully over the centuries is funnel wealth into the hands of the very few and keep any minorities on the lower rungs of society.
As an aside the gender binary system has only been in place since the mid 1800's, and that was put in place to keep women oppressed, basically any law has been set up to discriminate against a minority...even to this day at the docs it's hard to be heard and get what you require when you're anyone but a cis het white male.
I would have a lot more sympathy with the apparent new concern by journalists about "cronyism" and political appointees had they shown the same level of angst with political appointments made by previous administrations. As Bryce has noted, these types of appointments have gone on for many years, by politicians of all colours, not that you would know that from current journalism. There was barely a syllable written about in the (in)appropriateness of Craig Renney's appointment as political adviser to Grant Robertson - as close to the centre of political power as you can get. (While some might argue that a CTU appointment to Robertson's office is benign and doesn't really count, the fact is the CTU is a lobbyist for its membership, which itself is only a small proportion of NZ society). Labour made many other political appointments to Crown Entity Boards, most of which were ignored by media and some only came to light when they spectaturly had to leave office for inappropriate behaviour.
I have seen the work of a number of political appointess (aka "cronies") over the years - appointed by politicians of all colours - and many of them have been very good. What matters is their ability to do the job given to them. One of the advantages that so called crony appointees have is that they understand what the audience (politicians) need in terms of solutions that can be made to work in political systems. Too many "independent experts" don't have this knowledge, and many struggle to work out how to be effective in a political environment. They tend to end up being very, very reliant on the officials supporting them, which tends to negate the value of the "independent experts" from the get-go.
What matters is competence for the role that appointees have been appointed to, not their political colour or history. But understanding that is beyond the wit of many contemporary commentators.
As noted, there is nothing INHERENTLY wrong with appointing qualified "cronies" - the problem is the lack of checks & balances to show a) they ARE qualified and b) they don't have conflicts of interest as in the Mercer case (and others no doubt)
An Integrity Commission sounds like an interesting solution - while there are cronies appointed that do a reasonable job, it continues to erode public confidence & buy-in when the PERCEPTION is snouts in the trough by and for mates.
The standout here has to be Bishop giving ex Whanganui and list MP Harete Hipango a job keeping sports clean after she was outed by her bestie and briefly Nat leader Judith Collins for claiming on furniture she had bought on the taxpayer's dime, and was forced to repay Parliamentary Services.
What's that olde saying about poachers and gamekeepers, and has Bishop lost the plot?
... and by the end of January 2022 new leader Luxon had branded her silly and unwise, and had Nicola Willis give her a good talking to for further indiscretions including hanging out at anti vax protests and getting a staffer to delete unpalatable references from her Wikipedia entry.
Transatlantic Imperial Privately Owned Investment Banker Empire in action right there and almost everywhere.
Does the NZ government have a cronyism problem? Yes absolutely and this goes back to the previous government(s) and effects various levels of the public service.
Governmental "cronyism" has been around forever, but has gotten worse with political polarisation. With a moribund, stonewalling public service riddled with activist, leftist, go native fanatics, there really aren't too many choices available to cut out the rot other than appointing those who are guaranteed to be enthusiastically on side, to stand any chance of quickly digging the country out of the destructive mess left by the Ardern regime.
At least right now there's enough morality left so that cronyism doesn't involve as it does in some less than democratic countries shooting potential opposition. Unfortunately the days of "yes Minister" are long gone, or rather nowadays it really is yes Minister.
The main issue is the whole system, built on a colonialist (european supremacy, imperialism/capitalism ergo neoliberalism) structure, what i like to call a Heteronormative patriarchal cis-tem (the cis implying cisgender), what it has done successfully over the centuries is funnel wealth into the hands of the very few and keep any minorities on the lower rungs of society.
As an aside the gender binary system has only been in place since the mid 1800's, and that was put in place to keep women oppressed, basically any law has been set up to discriminate against a minority...even to this day at the docs it's hard to be heard and get what you require when you're anyone but a cis het white male.