Kiwiblog

The Press reports:

Massey University’s Dr Richard Shaw and Victoria University senior lecturer Dr Chris Eichbaum said they were concerned about the risk of politicising New Zealand’s neutral and expert public service.

Bit too late to be worried only now.

Eichbaum said a significant number of new ministerial staff were about to start work in the Beehive, many of whom had no experience of working within government.

Dr Eichbaum, whom I have blogged on previously, is a former staffer to at least three Labour Ministers, including Helen Clark and has been reported as being a member of the Labour Party for the last 20 years.

They needed a formal induction process with guidance on the rules and conventions governing their relationship with ministers and a code to clarify their role, he said.

“Who’s going to tell them what the rules of the game are and kinds of things they have to be wary of doing like giving direction to public servants, which they don’t have authority to do, or filtering advice which they can’t do?” said Eichbaum.

My suggestion would be to do the opposite of what David Benson Pope’s office did, and they will be fine.

Actually more seriously, the suggestions by the two academics is not at all a bad one. Ministerial staff do have a role not well understood or defined. In theory they are employees of the Department of Internal Affairs and bound by the same code of conduct as all other civil servants. But in reality many of them are operating in a highly political role, and it would be useful to have that role better defined.

The two researchers have actualy published a very interesting paper on the role of Ministerial staff. Their research found the most the most common activities done frequently were:

• Assist with oral and written questions 97%
• Convey Minister’s wishes to officials 91%
• Read advice from officials before passing onto Minister 89%
• Respond to OIAs 78%
• Accompany Minister to meetings 78%
• Meet with PMs Office 69%
• Broker meetings with Minister and interest groups 66
• Ask officials for advice on an issue 63%
• Assist with Budget round 59%
• Assist with Coalition consultation 59%
• Meet with officials to develop policy 50%
• Raise/debate policy with Minister 50%

The full paper is worth a read. Back to the news story:

“Here we have a vital institution, the Beehive, with very important decisions being made and lots of people with very little experience and we are going to leave them to find their own way?”

The tone here is somewhat unfortunate and patronising, and damages what is essentially not a bad idea. Firstly many of the current Opposition staff are highly experienced in Parliament and Government. Secondly I expect a number of former Ministerial staffers from the 1990s will return with their experience. And thirdly not all Ministerial staffers are political and National Ministers will keep on some of the current staff.

Having said all that, some clarity of role in the form of a code of conduct is not a bad thing. Some staff may not realise that every request they make of someone, is treated as a request by the Minister. Any actions they take, will be assumed to be approved by the Minister.

I mentioned yesterday how the Government’s appointment of Chris Eichbaum to the Board of the Reserve Bank forgot to mention his role in at least three Labour ministerial offices.

Now I have no position on the merits of Dr Ecihbaum’s appointment as I simply have not read enough of his background and CV to judge the contribution he can make to monetary policy.

But a reader has sent me this extract from NBR in 2002:

In a letter published last week in response to the previous week’s NBR editorial, “Chris Eichbaum of Wellington” accused the National Party of hiding the identities of funding donors through trusts. Mr Eichbaum claimed this did not allow citizens to judge the extent to which particular interests, whether domestic or foreign, were influencing policy formulation. Several people have asked if this is the same Chris Eichbaum who is a senior lecturer in public policy at Victoria University’s school of government? Yes And if he is the same Chris Eichbaum who disqualified himself recently as chairman of a debate between Social Development minister Steve Maharey and National’s welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins because he was seen as too close to Mr Maharey to be neutral? Yes And if he is the same Chris Eichbaum who once worked in Helen Clark’s office? Yes As he is the same man, ought not he have disclosed his background before calling on all donors to the National Party to do likewise? No, he says.

Of course it is now members of Helen Clark’s Government who are facing questions over secret trusts and her Government which was so remiss in mentioning Dr Eichbaum’s background with this appointment.

NBR also reported he has been a member of the Labour Party for more than 20 years.

Before I get onto the main topic, I noted on the Reserve Bank website there has been a new appointment to the Board of the Reserve Bank. Dr Chris Eichbaum. Dr Eichbaum recently published a fascinating paper on the role of Ministerial Advisors.

I have absolutely no view on the suitability of Dr Eichbaum’s appointment. I do note however that the Minister forgot to mention that Dr Eichbaum worked in the Ministerial offices of Steve Maharey, Mike Moore and Geoffrey Palmer. That would have been useful to disclose.

The Government has been busy with over a hundred appointments in recent times – they also just appointed four Labour/left people to the new Land Transport Board.

Anyway back to the official announcement:

“Recent oil and food price increases mean that annual CPI inflation should peak around 5 percent in the September quarter of this year. However, we expect that inflation will return inside the target band in the medium term. The weaker economy is expected to reduce pressure on resources, making it more difficult for firms to pass on costs and for higher wage claims to be agreed.

So the cash rate dropped 25 basis points to 8.00%. I would like to know exactly when the Reserve Bank thinks inflation will drop back to under 3%? 2009? 2010? 2011?

TVHE comments:

Even ignoring inflation, it appears that the Reserve Bank values the livelihood of those who have mortgages above people who are struggling to pay their food and fuel bills (which will go up, as a lower exchange rate will increase the New Zealand price of both).

I predict inflation will remain outside the target band for some years.