Adrian Orr Jumps

An embarrassment of resignations under National.

I hate to break it to you babe, but I'm not drowning
There's no one here to save

Who cares if you disagree?
You are not me
Who made you king of anything?
So you dare tell me who to be?
Who died and made you king of anything?

Songwriters: Sara Beth Bareilles.

---

It’s hard to be surprised by much these days.

Trump is finally building his wall, one of isolationism built out of tariffs that pose a far greater threat to US workers than economic migrants arriving across their southern border.

We have David Seymour acting like a petulant child, continuing to evade Erica Stanford, hiding behind Luxon as if to say - “You can’t touch me. My Dad is the boss.”

Yet I was still surprised by yesterday’s announcement that the Reserve Bank Governor had resigned, with seemingly immediate effect.

This would be newsworthy in itself, but it was just the latest in a rash of resignations from senior officials, to the government’s ministers, and even their politically motivated appointments since the coalition came to power.

On hearing the news, I posted:

Sorry to see Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr go. Curious how many senior officials have opted to resign under this government.

While there has been a growing tendency in Aotearoa to follow the example we see overseas, with more political appointments of officials and people being replaced when governments transition, this lot has really ramped things up.

It seems there is no room for those unwilling to close their eyes and declare loudly that things are Back on Track. In addition, officials are expected to swallow a bunch of dead rats and stand behind policies they fundamentally disagree with. Meanwhile, Government ministers take potshots at them when they try to do the right thing.

A certain amount of toeing the line is required of a public official, of course, but you’d normally expect that they could answer some questions openly. Honestly - with this regime, I don’t think they could get away with signalling in Morse code by twitching their eyebrows.