The spad is an unelected position made by government ministers or local councils whose appointee will tell bosses what they want to hear and generally confirm all their prejudices. They are allegedly of a different stripe from the civil service which my sources amusingly describe as ‘neutral’ and unlikely to have political bias.
Spads are the modern equivalent of the eminence grise, the powerful, behind the scenes operator, well-connected and with knowledge of where the bodies are buried which they can use as leverage. A spad is not normally a public servant, and so is not bound by neutrality, is not elected so not directly accountable to Parliament, and is not supposed to direct officials.
In itself the role of special advisor is not reprehensible. It is just that the unscrutinised nature of their influence can lead to accusations of dirty tricks. No doubt many bright young spads have truly believed that they were putting their smarts to good use, only to be relegated to the naughty corner when trust and influence run out.
The unlucky Peter Mandelson, the very ex UK ambassador to Washington who, as our grannies would have said, was so sharp he cut himself, is an example of a spad. Even more notorious is Andrew, the former prince who was Trade Envoy for Britain for ten years from 2001. You would imagine that Westminster ministers, as deluded as they have since shown themselves to be, cannot have been dim enough to listen to any special advice that Andrew may have offered.
In our country it is probably obvious to any observer of our councils that spads are thriving locally.
The recent stoush between the owners of the Sands Apartments on Auckland’s North Shore illustrates this. In 2022 a pohutukawa tree from the adjacent Sacred Grove fell onto the land belonging to the apartments.
Geoff Parker outlined the issue in Breaking Views last month, https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2026/02/geoff-parker-sacred-grove-fallen-tree.html where he stated that the issue is still unresolved after four years and more than half a million dollars. Included in monies already spent is $82,197 paid to Mana Whenua for what must have been regarded by the council as helpful and necessary advice. Advice on how to remove a fallen tree.
We have a friend with acreage near Kerikeri who wanted to put a pond on his land for irrigation and emergencies such as fire. Amidst the usual back and forth with officials there arrived at his door someone who wanted to advise him of a problem noted by council. A deceased relation of the visitor had once lived on part of the land owned by our friend, and his spirit would, it was asserted, be offended by the planned pond. Our friend, as an experienced resident of the far north, was not shocked by this erosion of the rights of private ownership but asked how the spirit of the deceased relation could be mollified.
Between them they decided that $10,000 would have a calming effect.
Wellingtonians and indeed the whole country must be pondering the special advice that was given to the council that prioritized a cycle lane over providing effective civic sewage treatment.
And who are the spads advising the Medical Council of NZ that registered doctors should actively advance Māori health equity, identify and address personal bias through “critical self‑reflection”, support Māori leadership in the health workforce and work to dismantle unfair systems and power imbalances in healthcare? And to dob in colleagues who fall short?
It would be unfair though to say that all spads are merely the puppets of idealogues. Just today, National’s Simeon Brown said this about Hipkins’ failure to listen to advice during covid:
“The Royal Commission has now confirmed that Chris Hipkins kept Auckland locked down longer than required, despite receiving advice that restrictions could end sooner. Despite that advice, he kept (the Auckland boundary) in place for another 32 days over the Christmas and New Year period and never told the public.”
Who knew! Certainly no one in Auckland with any clout.
Chris Luxon came into government in 2023 understanding, we all thought, that attempts to divide us along racial lines were deeply unpopular and promises were made that such coercive policies would stop, and even that they would be wound back.
People close to the beating heart of the Beehive claim that Luxon doesn’t like advice. This is a pity because a half-decent spad could tell the PM that he’s not listening to the room right now and it could cost him.
Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives in NZ and France.
4 comments:
Luxon meets with Key all the time. The rumour I read is that Luxon isn’t taking any of Key's advice. We ain’t gonna fix this by adding extra people. The eternal middle manager is the problem.
In Aotearoa, it would seem that every rort leads to money and power.
So can one add to the List of "spad's", those who placed themselves on the front lawn of Parliament (during the time of JA's Govt) to "advise" on the action of vaccination, impact of said vaccination and the unjust manner
in which The Good Citizens were being prevailed upon to adhere to the 'strict socialist' approach to this action, can rest assured, that their collective voices, at the time, meant nothing, so were sent to the corner of the room for providing bad advice?
Yup I can see why other spad's feel the same, when their advice is ignored.
Mind you Luxon is no different to Barack Obama, who ignored "most" advice given to him.
All rorts have a self-correcting feature. As M Thatcher once said, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.