Colinxy: The Public Sector as Political Actor - When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Job

The Principle We Pretend Still Exists

New Zealand’s public service is supposed to operate on a simple constitutional rule:

The government decides; the bureaucracy implements.

Not “interprets.” Not “nudges.” And certainly not “advocates.”

Yet every few months, we discover, again, that parts of the public sector have quietly redefined themselves as political actors with taxpayer funding.

NZCPR Newsletter: Activist Capture

Two weeks ago, the first day of racing of the Sail Grand Prix regatta in Lyttleton Harbour was cancelled due to the sighting of a Hector’s dolphin. That followed a practice day, where sailing was restricted to only 11 minutes. And on the final race day teams were again refused practice time.

The race area is a dolphin sanctuary and the race organisers had agreed to abide by the special protocols that were put in place.

However, world champion New Zealand yachtsman and SailGP Executive Director Sir Russell Coutts believes the restrictions were excessive and a symptom of a wider problem that New Zealand faces.

Penn Raine: So Proud

When I was at university, student politics meant someone standing on a lunchtime soapbox stating where our troops should not be sent, mocking certain politicians, and being outraged at the price of a caff pie. Imagine my interest this week at seeing clips of pro-Palestinian US students chasing Jewish scholars from their own campus into the university library, where staff barricaded the doors to save them from injury.

This university, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, is a private New York institution which was founded in 1859 by the philanthropist, Peter Cooper. I wonder what Cooper would have made of this kind of advanced mob thinking.

Clive Bibby: The evolution of the activist in Godzone

Anyone interested enough to consult the dictionary about the title "Activist" may be surprised to discover that it is awarded far more "brownie points" than you might have first thought. But does it fit our modern occupier of the throne.

My search found that an Activist is "a person who works energetically to achieve political or social goals". That doesn't sound like an accurate description of the ones l know or know of in this country.

Karl du Fresne: Why celebrity activists piss me off

I tuned into the BBC World Service in the middle of the night recently, as one does, and found myself listening to an interview with an American woman whose identity, since I came in part-way through, was not evident to me.

She was lamenting the appalling state of the world and the heartlessness of the people who allow it to be that way.