The key skill of top civil servants is to be boring in public. That way, they stay out of political controversies and can work for governments from both sides of the house. No one cares what the opinions are of civil servants unless they are controversial.
There seems to have been almost no media coverage of an extraordinary statement put out late on Wednesday by the going-rogue Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr. Perhaps he was fortunate that all eyes were already on Thursday’s Budget.
I’ve been drawing attention to the way in which Orr has been speaking out on all and sundry issues – often contentious political issues – for which neither he nor the Bank has been assigned responsibility by Parliament. We’ve had climate change issues, infrastructure spending, both sides of the bank conduct issue (where he was defending the banks only to flip sides and start poking a stick at them), sustainable agriculture, and capital gains taxes. (Various posts touching on the Governor’s comments are here.)
Last week he was at it again, giving an interview to Stuff’s Hamish Rutherford in which he took the opportunity to attack the…
View original post 3,180 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments