Cam Slater: The Peter Principle in the Labour Party

You may have heard of Laurence J Peter’s Peter Principle, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”. Nothing epitomises the Peter Principle more than the modern state of political parties and the Labour Party in particular.

With the ascendancy of Chris Hipkins to the prime ministership, we have seen a clear-cut example of the Peter Principle in action. So too with the promotion of lacklustre ministers with a solid record of ordinary performance at best and abject failure at worst. Yet promoted they were.

Cam Slater: The Peter Principle - A NZ Case Study

You may not have heard of the Peter Principle which is a concept of management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”. In other words, employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

I would suggest to you that the advent of MMP has led to all political parties gradually developing a culture of incompetence, where useless people are rewarded for their ability to look and sound good rather than any demonstrable ability in any chosen field.

Before we get into the current Government and their distinct incompetence it would do well to look at our past, particularly since the advent of MMP.