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Thursday, March 9, 2023

Mike Hosking: Those who broke public service neutrality rules are fools - but what did we expect?


Can we call the public service neutrality issue a shambles?

I think we can.

So, Rob Campbell gets sacked because Rob is a off-piste on social media.

Steve Maharey doesn’t get sacked because he's off-piste in a column he writes.

And Ruth Dyson may or may not get sacked because she's off-piste due to having never read the rules.

Dyson is the funniest of the lot. Not only didn’t she read the rules but she didn’t read the rules because she didn’t think about it.

Further, she didn’t read the rules because the day they have set aside where you all traipse to Wellington to learn how to be a 'straight down the middle, don’t scare the horses' public servant on a board apparently, according to Ruth, is really full on. And they don’t touch on the neutrality bit much at all.

Given Ruth found it all a bit hard and complex, can we ask the question whether she's up to much and maybe was a bit out of her depth?

Anyway, what we have left is a Government that seeks a lot of advice every time one of their appointments wanders off the ranch, but then makes different decisions depending on who it is.

Can I be honest - I don’t give a monkey's about any of this.

What else do you expect when you employ flunkies? That’s what they are - they're Labour party hacks, they're old mates.

Campbell was spruiked by Andrew Little as they have union connections.

Ruth retired and what you get when you head out to pasture, and you're not of High Commissioner material, is a board appointment or two.

Maharey is of the same old Labour clique ilk.

If you are going to appoint mates, we already know what they think.

Ruth Dyson spent a lifetime in Parliament. She's not neutral and it's absurd to pretend she is.

Maharey accepted work from a media outlet while pretending to be neutral. How the hell do you think that’s going to turn out?

I'm not sure who the bigger fools are - those who broke the rules by not being bothered to read them, or those taking work that would inevitably land them in trouble.

Or the Government who, for some reason, thought that by hiring apparatchiks and their old drinking buddies that that would somehow fool us.

They are all as hopeless as each other.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.


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