A very important newsletter, Nick - thank you. I'm really shocked at the way this FMA chair has 'got away' with behaving badly. He should be sacked - if I could work out who actually employs him. Well said Marama.
Not quite at the Stobo level but in the area I follow most closely, education, a number commentators are mentioning very odd interactions with ministry folk. Also interesting that the acting CEO of the Teachers Council runs a private teacher education establishment. They are also making the council smaller by disestablishing the roles of teacher representatives on the council. As you say Nick there is Insidious creep towards ideological 'plants' on important groups.
I note that today I am Brie Elliot's fb page is down. Brie has been a vocal commentator on current changes in Education. She had recently had direct comments on fb from an moe person.
Edit: Brie's page is back up. Apparently she took it down herself to do a clean up but it just goes to show me how low trust has gotten when I assume...
Since the days of Jonkey, National have been ‘stacking’ the Boards and selecting compliant bosses of every possible state organisation. They actually started this before Trump dived in…
✔️💯 - If it was not OK for Rob Campbell (& I agree it wasn't, even though he was in his wheelhouse & totally correct 🤔) then these politically non-neutral appointees shouldn't be allowed to get away with it either, especially as it is OUTSIDE their actual remit & grossly biased by any analysis. Interesting to see what the "investigation" is about and whether they will have the guts to hold him to account if it includes this unprofessional behaviour ⁉️ Thanks for the video link 🤗
Of course the transgression of Rob Campbell was low hanging fruit for Seymour. He immediately saw an opportunity to undermine Campbell and force his resignation because Campbell is known to lean left. Campbell
honoured the neutrality clause, did the honourable thing and resigned his commission.
Roche and Stobo are neoliberal arch Atlas acolytes and as such are untouchable and cloaked in Teflon.
I had been been asked to about appear on The Platform with one Sean Plunket (post stroke around 2022).
Turned out Mr Plunket wanted to 'have a crack at me'.
I declined the offer but sent him a cover letter I wrote saying he was welcome to use it. On air.
I treated it like it was replying to a dating agency.
Hello there ! I'm an overweight, disabled former drug addict and alcoholic with no disposable income, but with a friendly smile to brighten your day.
I live alone in a unit that smells of old people.
My favourite pastime is to take a handful of my anti-psychotic meds before bedtime and see which form of Willy pops up the following morning. Good Willy ? bad Willy ? ha ha ha...oh how we laugh.
I enjoy long walks on my mobility scooter, fishing in drain water and catching my own phlegm.
I have attached a photo of me in rehab.
So, if you like what you see, can you lend me $20.00. (I don't get my benefit till Friday ).
Superlative beauty expressed so wittily Willy! Admirably eloquent and superbly speaking one’s truth. You are indeed a craftsman of superlative skill. And the wonderful ways you help me feel…are absolutely worth your weight in gold young man!
well you just made my day Brian, nay, my week, actually my month....aww the hell with it, MY YEAR ! You're too kind, no really you are too kind. Be a bit shittier next time !
Does scoring a PhD Scholarship at the age of 54 to go and write a new theory/explanation of the evolution of what is unique about human cognition for 7 years at ANU in Canberra. count????...anyway, Keith, I thought Willy was being sarcastic in his reply to Brian.....so I answered in kind....and. let's face it Brian did sound a bit OTT/facetious didn't he....guess it might be catching.....eh mate,,,,!
As a former PSA delegate, I spent a lot of time ensuring that employees (very different to managers, CEOs, and Board Members) were allowed their political freedom ti comment on certain areas - for EMPLOYEES that means they can make public political comments on any area EXCEPT the one they work in, (or coverwd by their Minister) provided they dont claim to do it in their capacity as a public servant - they must do it as a private citizen.
I made many political comments on social media and occassionally, people actually emailed my employer to complain, as they googled me and easily found out where I worked - their complaints were rejected as I never spoke about my Ministers areas of work and never said I was commenting as a public servant - they just googled me (easy) and write to my bosses - what a bunch of LOSERS
Thanks Brian - my mum drummed into my brother and I a deep-seated principle of fairness, so she gets most of the credit for how I tuned out - and I would certainly love to be more quiet and respectful, but frustration at things gets the better of me all too often - like everyone else, I am still very much a work in progress, and at 57 I am definitely more than halfway to the finishing post!
Great to know that you regard yourself as a ‘work in progress’!! Cue an acronym WIP!
Back in my youth I immersed myself in music, bands and artists and performers…including a band called DEVO. WIG might abbreviate the lyrics of one song of theirs: ‘whip it good…”!!?!
I look for ways to re-energise. Music, art, culture, reading are my go-to’s!! Wishing you well
Yes Martin, I understand. I try my best also, to regulate my emotions (including anger and frustration). Some days I achieve the balance I seek. Others, I might fall short and know, that I am human and therefore vulnerable and fallible.
It is at these times, that I also - through all the vulnerability that I swim through - try to remain kind to myself. To forgive my faults and seek forgiveness from others.
I stand in solidarity with you as you stand strong - thinking, feeling, and doing and being…and also in our shared vulnerability.
The puzzling thing for me has always been the open union affiliation of public sector unions in Australia to Labour. Yet here, we have public sector unions (PSA, NZNO, NZEI etc) who have staunchly stood by non affiliation and it is down to the private sector unions to try to influence the only party (Labour) that has an official role for union affiliates. Sometimes. public and private sector unions cross over; for example in care and support workers. Yet we have a public sector union and workforce who are speaking out openly against the government, members in tow on picket lines. I am glad they are, but I always thought this neutrality was used against them.
It's very important to have a person of the highest integrity as head of the Financial Markets Authority, since this is the authority that regulates non-deposit-taking financial institutions (shadow banks). The world is now in the looming shadow of an asset-bubble about to burst: most famously AI stocks, but other stocks & real estate will also be affected. You may well ask "so what if a bunch of shareholders lose their shirt?" but the greater problem is that much of this shareholding is significantly leveraged: i.e. a 'shadow bank' has 'lent' the balance of the cost of a share purchase, and should the 'post-crash' value of the share be insufficient to cover the borrowing, the shadow bank is 'on the hook' for the value that they can't reclaim, rendering them insolvent. This is very similar to the scenario that triggered the financial contagion that spread at the time of the 'sub-prime mortgage' fiasco- the GFC of 2007/8.
Given that our politicians can barely tie their shoe-laces when it comes to economics, It's likely that this individual was recommended to the government for appointment by the very institutions that the FMA is supposed to regulate- rather like the way that leading staff in the Reserve Bank and Treasury often seem to come from the clearing bank sector. This is always justified by the need to appoint 'relevant experience at the highest level'. Collateral conflict of interest never seems to be a consideration.
Until the world agrees to stop running investment banking like a wild-west casino, this problem will recur time-and-time again, with 'future taxpayer' picking up the tab for the fallout.
Thanks for explaining it all so clearly, Kevin.... I've only just begun to get my head around these boom/ bust cycles, through reading about the present AI stocks-bubble....seems to me that free-market economic systems that do not tax the rich enough will ALWAYS end up in "crashes'.....and the fact that governments, with their reserves/coffers amassed from taxing the working and middle classes always have to stop these gambling fat-cat billionaire tax-dodging gambling-addicted assholes from going under and thus collapsing the whole system....!... means , in short WE SHOULD TAX THE CREAM OFF THE TOP OF THE INCOMES OF THE FILTHY RICH FOR THEIR OWN GOOD....just like we used to 60 to 70 years ago when one full time worker in one job could afford to buy a house.....REMEMBER??? When decent heath care and university education was free for all???
Understanding tax as an economic regulator rather than as a source of funding removes the Neoliberal argument that high tax on the very wealthy- who need no more (probably less) public services than the poor- is unjust. Of course this 'need no more' falls over when government bales out a crash, but the notion that crises 'just happen' implies that it's ok that 'society' pays for the covert malfeasance of speculators.
High investor after-tax income bids up asset prices, creating a feedback loop of earnings expectations and speculation (so-called 'greedflation'). Thus, top level tax needs to be set at a level that stops the prices of investor assets growing faster than general inflation.
Leveraged asset purchase exacerbates the problem and transfers risk from the investor to the financial system and thus to the public because of 'too big to fail' and increasingly because the villains of speculation are government mandated pension schemes and sovereign wealth funds.
The class of assets upon which leveraged purchases are permitted should be strictly controlled with a presumption to disallowing the practice in the interest of financial stability and sustainability.
Kevin, I enjoy some literacy however I’m on quite a journey to increase my financial literacy and economic literacy! So many thanks for your comments which also serve to keep me moving forward on my journey!
Have you seen or heard of the book written by Ingrid Robeyns “Limitarianism - The Case Against Extreme Wealth” (Allen Lane 2024, Penguin Books 2025)? Essentially making a strong case to put a cap on how much the richest are able to own.
I’ve only just begun to read Ingrid’s book.
Robeyns touches on so much which is relevant to us all.
She suggests there are several key actions which limitarianism requires in order to be put into practice (and I quote):
- Dismantle neoliberal ideology,
- Reduce class segregation,
- Establish a balance of economic power,
- Restore the government’s fiscal agency,
- Confiscation of dirty money,
-Make the international economic architecture fair,
- Limit executive pay.
Robeyns makes the comment that in the transition to a new limitarian economic system…”those who will gain (from this new system) vastly outnumber those who will lose from the transition” (p. 230)
I commend Ingrid Robeyns for the work, research and her truth that she shares with us. She notes: “In the end, the most important change is to abandon the mantras that ‘greed is good’ and ‘the sky is the limit’.”
Brilliantly put....you really know your economics, Kevin....wish you were running this country, eh....me I'm a politically irrelevant 'evolutionary philosopher' trained in all the various theories about human evolution.....in short, viewing 'why we are the way we are' as being explained by the last 6 Myrs [because this was when we human apes became obligate bipeds...there can be no doubt of this anymore due to the newly discovered 6.3 MYA fossilized footprints near the town of Trachilos on the NW seashore of Crete....and guess what, they were wading and diving, probably for shellfish, at the time, so Oxford Professor Hardy and hence his acolyte Elaine Morgan were quite right] of our evolutionary history.....so to 'read the back-trail' of 1970's Neoliberalism using my evolutionary POV, it is glaringly obvious that the clever 1970's West Coast American[Reaganomics] Corporate Neoliberals ripped off Darwinian Evolutionary Theory by seizing upon the concept of Darwinian "Natural Evolution by Survival of the Fittest via Competition for Resources" (Free Market Principles) leading to "the best possible adaptive fit"....and THUS selling the view that competitive capitalism is a "natural process" that should be allowed to "freely evolve" and the "temporarily" poor and dispossessed....!! ...."well yes, but some sacrifices do have to be made on the way to the naturally perfect system'"[..which OF COURSE, fitted very nicely with untold millions of DUMB pre-MAGA Christian Evangelist beliefs in "The Coming Rapture"...!] would in the end naturally come to be supported by the now infamous 'Trickle-down Effect" !!!.....of course this was and is all a load of clever grifting Darwinian bullshit....and the most honest SOB is Elon Musk, smiling, deliberately making his cheeky/insulting Neo-fascist/Nazi salute when on stage with Trump....FFS we humans have been existentially living outside the controls of Darwin's "Natural Order" ever since we stopped being hunter-gatherers....which is undoubtedly when 'The Big Religious Fascistic/Goddess/God Narratives" started.....and that grift is still in play of course....
Thanks Kim. I really only know the basics, but I think a lot of commentators are unable or unwilling to draw the conclusions that I make. There is a strong belief among the entire political class and much of the commentariat that the finance sector needs to be handled with kid-gloves lest they turn vengeance on the polities of their host nations- which they are well able to do. It's a parasite that is so deeply embedded that its excision will necessarily be a painful surgery. Nevertheless it must be excised or we, the host, will soon be entirely consumed.
Agree with your comments Nick. If a ground level, customer facing, public servant was to make these sorts of statements to the media I’m certain they would be facing disciplinary action and probably be fired. It really doesn’t matter what level of Public Servant you are, your job is to remain neutral and serve the public to the best of your ability in whichever Ministry / Department you work for. Seems to me that some in the upper echelons need a few lessons from the people who work at the grassroots level.
Adore Marion. Have heard and enjoyed his voice before, now I know who he is. There has been some great Māori music releases in recent times. Thanks for drawing him and this rotten FMA chair’s history to us.
A very important newsletter, Nick - thank you. I'm really shocked at the way this FMA chair has 'got away' with behaving badly. He should be sacked - if I could work out who actually employs him. Well said Marama.
Hear, hear!!!
Not quite at the Stobo level but in the area I follow most closely, education, a number commentators are mentioning very odd interactions with ministry folk. Also interesting that the acting CEO of the Teachers Council runs a private teacher education establishment. They are also making the council smaller by disestablishing the roles of teacher representatives on the council. As you say Nick there is Insidious creep towards ideological 'plants' on important groups.
I note that today I am Brie Elliot's fb page is down. Brie has been a vocal commentator on current changes in Education. She had recently had direct comments on fb from an moe person.
Edit: Brie's page is back up. Apparently she took it down herself to do a clean up but it just goes to show me how low trust has gotten when I assume...
Couldn’t agree with you more Heather! It’s a scandal!
Since the days of Jonkey, National have been ‘stacking’ the Boards and selecting compliant bosses of every possible state organisation. They actually started this before Trump dived in…
✔️💯 - If it was not OK for Rob Campbell (& I agree it wasn't, even though he was in his wheelhouse & totally correct 🤔) then these politically non-neutral appointees shouldn't be allowed to get away with it either, especially as it is OUTSIDE their actual remit & grossly biased by any analysis. Interesting to see what the "investigation" is about and whether they will have the guts to hold him to account if it includes this unprofessional behaviour ⁉️ Thanks for the video link 🤗
Of course the transgression of Rob Campbell was low hanging fruit for Seymour. He immediately saw an opportunity to undermine Campbell and force his resignation because Campbell is known to lean left. Campbell
honoured the neutrality clause, did the honourable thing and resigned his commission.
Roche and Stobo are neoliberal arch Atlas acolytes and as such are untouchable and cloaked in Teflon.
Thanks for pointing out the Atlas connection Ross.
Replace Stobo. Call out conflicts of interest and corruption wherever they are. Accountability has to be iron clad.
I had been been asked to about appear on The Platform with one Sean Plunket (post stroke around 2022).
Turned out Mr Plunket wanted to 'have a crack at me'.
I declined the offer but sent him a cover letter I wrote saying he was welcome to use it. On air.
I treated it like it was replying to a dating agency.
Hello there ! I'm an overweight, disabled former drug addict and alcoholic with no disposable income, but with a friendly smile to brighten your day.
I live alone in a unit that smells of old people.
My favourite pastime is to take a handful of my anti-psychotic meds before bedtime and see which form of Willy pops up the following morning. Good Willy ? bad Willy ? ha ha ha...oh how we laugh.
I enjoy long walks on my mobility scooter, fishing in drain water and catching my own phlegm.
I have attached a photo of me in rehab.
So, if you like what you see, can you lend me $20.00. (I don't get my benefit till Friday ).
Shock horror. he never used the letter !
Superlative beauty expressed so wittily Willy! Admirably eloquent and superbly speaking one’s truth. You are indeed a craftsman of superlative skill. And the wonderful ways you help me feel…are absolutely worth your weight in gold young man!
well you just made my day Brian, nay, my week, actually my month....aww the hell with it, MY YEAR ! You're too kind, no really you are too kind. Be a bit shittier next time !
Excellestitudinous post, Willy
how utterly splendiferous of you Kim. I am humbled by the fact you feel it is excellestitudinously worthy of your reaction !
Ditto that with extra ice cream - did you get nominated for a Literature Prize?
ha ! close Keith, it was actually a nomination for an 'IIliterature prize . I came 14th. there were only 12 entries.
Does scoring a PhD Scholarship at the age of 54 to go and write a new theory/explanation of the evolution of what is unique about human cognition for 7 years at ANU in Canberra. count????...anyway, Keith, I thought Willy was being sarcastic in his reply to Brian.....so I answered in kind....and. let's face it Brian did sound a bit OTT/facetious didn't he....guess it might be catching.....eh mate,,,,!
As a former PSA delegate, I spent a lot of time ensuring that employees (very different to managers, CEOs, and Board Members) were allowed their political freedom ti comment on certain areas - for EMPLOYEES that means they can make public political comments on any area EXCEPT the one they work in, (or coverwd by their Minister) provided they dont claim to do it in their capacity as a public servant - they must do it as a private citizen.
I made many political comments on social media and occassionally, people actually emailed my employer to complain, as they googled me and easily found out where I worked - their complaints were rejected as I never spoke about my Ministers areas of work and never said I was commenting as a public servant - they just googled me (easy) and write to my bosses - what a bunch of LOSERS
Thank you Martin for showing us all the way. Being real; showing up; a quiet but respectful presence.
Thanks Brian - my mum drummed into my brother and I a deep-seated principle of fairness, so she gets most of the credit for how I tuned out - and I would certainly love to be more quiet and respectful, but frustration at things gets the better of me all too often - like everyone else, I am still very much a work in progress, and at 57 I am definitely more than halfway to the finishing post!
Great to know that you regard yourself as a ‘work in progress’!! Cue an acronym WIP!
Back in my youth I immersed myself in music, bands and artists and performers…including a band called DEVO. WIG might abbreviate the lyrics of one song of theirs: ‘whip it good…”!!?!
I look for ways to re-energise. Music, art, culture, reading are my go-to’s!! Wishing you well
Yes Martin, I understand. I try my best also, to regulate my emotions (including anger and frustration). Some days I achieve the balance I seek. Others, I might fall short and know, that I am human and therefore vulnerable and fallible.
It is at these times, that I also - through all the vulnerability that I swim through - try to remain kind to myself. To forgive my faults and seek forgiveness from others.
I stand in solidarity with you as you stand strong - thinking, feeling, and doing and being…and also in our shared vulnerability.
Ecenomic Comentator lol
The puzzling thing for me has always been the open union affiliation of public sector unions in Australia to Labour. Yet here, we have public sector unions (PSA, NZNO, NZEI etc) who have staunchly stood by non affiliation and it is down to the private sector unions to try to influence the only party (Labour) that has an official role for union affiliates. Sometimes. public and private sector unions cross over; for example in care and support workers. Yet we have a public sector union and workforce who are speaking out openly against the government, members in tow on picket lines. I am glad they are, but I always thought this neutrality was used against them.
I’v always thought the PSA (to which I once belonged), was a pro Labour union, its logo has always been a wonderful scarlet red.
It's very important to have a person of the highest integrity as head of the Financial Markets Authority, since this is the authority that regulates non-deposit-taking financial institutions (shadow banks). The world is now in the looming shadow of an asset-bubble about to burst: most famously AI stocks, but other stocks & real estate will also be affected. You may well ask "so what if a bunch of shareholders lose their shirt?" but the greater problem is that much of this shareholding is significantly leveraged: i.e. a 'shadow bank' has 'lent' the balance of the cost of a share purchase, and should the 'post-crash' value of the share be insufficient to cover the borrowing, the shadow bank is 'on the hook' for the value that they can't reclaim, rendering them insolvent. This is very similar to the scenario that triggered the financial contagion that spread at the time of the 'sub-prime mortgage' fiasco- the GFC of 2007/8.
Given that our politicians can barely tie their shoe-laces when it comes to economics, It's likely that this individual was recommended to the government for appointment by the very institutions that the FMA is supposed to regulate- rather like the way that leading staff in the Reserve Bank and Treasury often seem to come from the clearing bank sector. This is always justified by the need to appoint 'relevant experience at the highest level'. Collateral conflict of interest never seems to be a consideration.
Until the world agrees to stop running investment banking like a wild-west casino, this problem will recur time-and-time again, with 'future taxpayer' picking up the tab for the fallout.
Thanks for explaining it all so clearly, Kevin.... I've only just begun to get my head around these boom/ bust cycles, through reading about the present AI stocks-bubble....seems to me that free-market economic systems that do not tax the rich enough will ALWAYS end up in "crashes'.....and the fact that governments, with their reserves/coffers amassed from taxing the working and middle classes always have to stop these gambling fat-cat billionaire tax-dodging gambling-addicted assholes from going under and thus collapsing the whole system....!... means , in short WE SHOULD TAX THE CREAM OFF THE TOP OF THE INCOMES OF THE FILTHY RICH FOR THEIR OWN GOOD....just like we used to 60 to 70 years ago when one full time worker in one job could afford to buy a house.....REMEMBER??? When decent heath care and university education was free for all???
Yes.
Understanding tax as an economic regulator rather than as a source of funding removes the Neoliberal argument that high tax on the very wealthy- who need no more (probably less) public services than the poor- is unjust. Of course this 'need no more' falls over when government bales out a crash, but the notion that crises 'just happen' implies that it's ok that 'society' pays for the covert malfeasance of speculators.
High investor after-tax income bids up asset prices, creating a feedback loop of earnings expectations and speculation (so-called 'greedflation'). Thus, top level tax needs to be set at a level that stops the prices of investor assets growing faster than general inflation.
Leveraged asset purchase exacerbates the problem and transfers risk from the investor to the financial system and thus to the public because of 'too big to fail' and increasingly because the villains of speculation are government mandated pension schemes and sovereign wealth funds.
The class of assets upon which leveraged purchases are permitted should be strictly controlled with a presumption to disallowing the practice in the interest of financial stability and sustainability.
Kevin, I enjoy some literacy however I’m on quite a journey to increase my financial literacy and economic literacy! So many thanks for your comments which also serve to keep me moving forward on my journey!
Have you seen or heard of the book written by Ingrid Robeyns “Limitarianism - The Case Against Extreme Wealth” (Allen Lane 2024, Penguin Books 2025)? Essentially making a strong case to put a cap on how much the richest are able to own.
I’ve only just begun to read Ingrid’s book.
Robeyns touches on so much which is relevant to us all.
She suggests there are several key actions which limitarianism requires in order to be put into practice (and I quote):
- Dismantle neoliberal ideology,
- Reduce class segregation,
- Establish a balance of economic power,
- Restore the government’s fiscal agency,
- Confiscation of dirty money,
-Make the international economic architecture fair,
- Limit executive pay.
Robeyns makes the comment that in the transition to a new limitarian economic system…”those who will gain (from this new system) vastly outnumber those who will lose from the transition” (p. 230)
I commend Ingrid Robeyns for the work, research and her truth that she shares with us. She notes: “In the end, the most important change is to abandon the mantras that ‘greed is good’ and ‘the sky is the limit’.”
Brilliantly put....you really know your economics, Kevin....wish you were running this country, eh....me I'm a politically irrelevant 'evolutionary philosopher' trained in all the various theories about human evolution.....in short, viewing 'why we are the way we are' as being explained by the last 6 Myrs [because this was when we human apes became obligate bipeds...there can be no doubt of this anymore due to the newly discovered 6.3 MYA fossilized footprints near the town of Trachilos on the NW seashore of Crete....and guess what, they were wading and diving, probably for shellfish, at the time, so Oxford Professor Hardy and hence his acolyte Elaine Morgan were quite right] of our evolutionary history.....so to 'read the back-trail' of 1970's Neoliberalism using my evolutionary POV, it is glaringly obvious that the clever 1970's West Coast American[Reaganomics] Corporate Neoliberals ripped off Darwinian Evolutionary Theory by seizing upon the concept of Darwinian "Natural Evolution by Survival of the Fittest via Competition for Resources" (Free Market Principles) leading to "the best possible adaptive fit"....and THUS selling the view that competitive capitalism is a "natural process" that should be allowed to "freely evolve" and the "temporarily" poor and dispossessed....!! ...."well yes, but some sacrifices do have to be made on the way to the naturally perfect system'"[..which OF COURSE, fitted very nicely with untold millions of DUMB pre-MAGA Christian Evangelist beliefs in "The Coming Rapture"...!] would in the end naturally come to be supported by the now infamous 'Trickle-down Effect" !!!.....of course this was and is all a load of clever grifting Darwinian bullshit....and the most honest SOB is Elon Musk, smiling, deliberately making his cheeky/insulting Neo-fascist/Nazi salute when on stage with Trump....FFS we humans have been existentially living outside the controls of Darwin's "Natural Order" ever since we stopped being hunter-gatherers....which is undoubtedly when 'The Big Religious Fascistic/Goddess/God Narratives" started.....and that grift is still in play of course....
Thanks Kim. I really only know the basics, but I think a lot of commentators are unable or unwilling to draw the conclusions that I make. There is a strong belief among the entire political class and much of the commentariat that the finance sector needs to be handled with kid-gloves lest they turn vengeance on the polities of their host nations- which they are well able to do. It's a parasite that is so deeply embedded that its excision will necessarily be a painful surgery. Nevertheless it must be excised or we, the host, will soon be entirely consumed.
That’s very disturbing.
Agree 💯 Nick it feels like insidious moves to wreck whatever democracy is left if any.
Yep
Agree with your comments Nick. If a ground level, customer facing, public servant was to make these sorts of statements to the media I’m certain they would be facing disciplinary action and probably be fired. It really doesn’t matter what level of Public Servant you are, your job is to remain neutral and serve the public to the best of your ability in whichever Ministry / Department you work for. Seems to me that some in the upper echelons need a few lessons from the people who work at the grassroots level.
Totally agree with your comments today Nick. No integrity from public servant heads or the COC it seems. No surprises in case of the latter though.
Love Marlon! And Rob Campbell!
Adore Marion. Have heard and enjoyed his voice before, now I know who he is. There has been some great Māori music releases in recent times. Thanks for drawing him and this rotten FMA chair’s history to us.