What is the definition of the "deep state"? Wikipedia says it "is a type of governance made up of potentially secret & unauthorized networks of power operating independently of a state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda & goals". It is a "permanent government" of entrenched career bureaucrats or civil servants ..".
Since the National-ACT-NZ First coalition gained power it has been notable how so many folks working in the Reserve Bank of NZ, courts, educational establishments - whether they be schools or universities, government departments which have been leaking like sieves, and Big Media are determined to pretend the election never happened. Is there evidence for such a wide-sweeping claim? For starters, let's ask why, given the Reserve Bank's mandate was changed from dual to single, has it not raised rates to quell inflation quicker, even though it is close to 5%? I've been studying monetary economics for 30 years & its a no-brainer rates should have been raised once inflation became the RBNZ's sole goal - after all, it is only around 3% in the US & there's still talk there that rates must continue to be held or even raised, should inflation not come down more - and the Fed has a dual mandate (!).
Meanwhile our judges have decided that it's the courts that will decide the future of race relations & environmental law, not Parliament. The former Bell Gully Chair, Roger Partridge, quoting barrister & senior King’s Counsel, Jack Hodder, argues, "the Supreme Court now considers it is the Court’s role to divine changing societal values & then use them to ‘develop’ the common law .. Yet, the Supreme Court Act does not refer to ‘development’ of the law. Rather, it expressly refers to the ‘rule of law.’ In short, our Supreme Court now considers itself to be above Parliament. After all, before he died, esteemed scholar Mānuka Henare told me, "What we don't win in Parliament, we will win in the Courts". In addition, most of our academics consider this government to be unconcerned with "evidence-based" policy, which they believe won the day during the pandemic. Go ask Profs Michael Baker & Shaun Hendy. And with Grant Robertson becoming Otago Vice Chancellor, our universities are swinging further left. Robertson's student days at Otago, referred to in his hiring, were spent on rebuffing a revolt from what he called in his BA thesis as "A Step to the Right" by organizations like The Society of Independent Students. The Deep State in NZ is completed by our mainly leftist Main Stream Media, as ranked by surveys of public perception.
In summary, it seems to me that for the NZ Labour and Green Parties, losing the election was largely irrelevant to their plans. Their battles are not much being fought in Parliament these days. Their power and the shaping of this country's future is coming from State and non State institutions where Members of Parliament are increasingly irrelevant.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
Meanwhile our judges have decided that it's the courts that will decide the future of race relations & environmental law, not Parliament. The former Bell Gully Chair, Roger Partridge, quoting barrister & senior King’s Counsel, Jack Hodder, argues, "the Supreme Court now considers it is the Court’s role to divine changing societal values & then use them to ‘develop’ the common law .. Yet, the Supreme Court Act does not refer to ‘development’ of the law. Rather, it expressly refers to the ‘rule of law.’ In short, our Supreme Court now considers itself to be above Parliament. After all, before he died, esteemed scholar Mānuka Henare told me, "What we don't win in Parliament, we will win in the Courts". In addition, most of our academics consider this government to be unconcerned with "evidence-based" policy, which they believe won the day during the pandemic. Go ask Profs Michael Baker & Shaun Hendy. And with Grant Robertson becoming Otago Vice Chancellor, our universities are swinging further left. Robertson's student days at Otago, referred to in his hiring, were spent on rebuffing a revolt from what he called in his BA thesis as "A Step to the Right" by organizations like The Society of Independent Students. The Deep State in NZ is completed by our mainly leftist Main Stream Media, as ranked by surveys of public perception.
In summary, it seems to me that for the NZ Labour and Green Parties, losing the election was largely irrelevant to their plans. Their battles are not much being fought in Parliament these days. Their power and the shaping of this country's future is coming from State and non State institutions where Members of Parliament are increasingly irrelevant.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
Its a hundred days, from my experience Key and English hit the same resistance for 3 years.
What surprises me is that they have not gone harder. If you look at the 18,000 lift in wellington public servants then just mandate a return to 6 years ago over 3 months if needed with legislation.
I give then 365 to show their metal.
Spot on - as usual.
All part of the CRT march through the NZ state.
Critical Race Theory aims to control key state institutions** and ensure that these carry out a specific anti-democracy Left wing agenda.
** Parliament, public service, judiciary, universities, police, media
All is on track. The Coalition must get much tougher to stop this - if not too late. Now deeply embedded since the 1980s.
Yes and either the PM can’t manage it or he quietly subscribes to it. Or maybe because he can’t manage it he subscribes to it. Time for him to explain.
I suggest a public referendum speciically asking the opinion of : if a judge , bureaucrat or government servant of any gender or position denonces the government or the instructions from parliament then they are dismissed forthwith as they have committed treason or miscondiuct in office . YES or NO is the question.
NO IF'S NO BUT'S .
NZ did not vote for their opinion , we do not need to pay their salary.
Right on Robert. Just look how the corrupt Judiciary behave. The Ex Green MP thief is being tried by her close colleague. It’s so in your face.
Absolutely right Robert. Write to a Minister and receive a reply from the same bureaucrat who was advising the previous Minister. Even worse be referred to the same bureaucrat to pursue the matter.
In about 1990 the late Peter Neilson Labour MP for Miramar wrote a paper setting out how Labour could become the natural party of government.
Labour has followed his advice.
Big changes are required at the top of the not so civil service. Firing the minnows won’t change anything.
How do you feel about the job as State Services Commissioner Robert?
That the courts and Public Service are in control may be no bad thing. Just consider the quality of the elected representatives as they appear in the House. Its a circus complete with clowns. Are the voters so ignorant as to elect cowboy hatted, painted faced, racist ranters who display no knowledge of affairs, to represent them? And that is just one of the party "leaders." At question time we see a high proportion of young women that give me no confidence that our government is in their inexperienced hands. Already some of them are falling by the wayside with emotional and marital problems. Truly you get the government you deserve.
The courts and Public Service are more capable of running the country than the circus complete with clowns that fronts up in the House these days.
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