Hard-working and Conscientious

Anyone who listens to Parliament, will know that Helen Clark’s response to any question about whether she has confidence in a Minister is to say “Yes because s/he is a hard-working and conscientious Minister”.

This line was trotted out yesterday in defence of George Hawkins.

Isn’t it appalling though that this is now the only criteria for being a Minister. Basically that you turn up to work on time and don’t steal from the cookie jar.

Nowhere does the Prime Minister ever refer to whether a Minister is effective, successful, or competent. Never mind that they may ignore the leaky homes scandal despite letters of warning. As long as they turn up. Never mind that their department may constantly get savaged by the Auditor-General, that won’t be a problem.

What an awful standard of accountability we have, when we allow the Prime Minister to keep useless Ministers in a job purely because they are “hard-working and conscientious”.