A standard proposition in the literature on delegating public powers to unelected (agents or) agencies in a free and democratic society is that such agencies should operate in a way that leaves no basis for any reasonable person to suspect that those running the agencies are using their platform, and the associated public resources and powers, for any purpose other than the very specific ones Parliament has provided those powers/resources for. Abuses and departures from this norm need not – and fortunately in New Zealand rarely do – involve officeholders seeking to personally enrich themselves or their families. Here it is more likely to take the form of using the platform/powers provided for specific narrow purposes to advance the personal ideological and policy preferences of top managers/Board in quite unrelated areas.
The fact that those individuals, in abusing their powers, do so believing – probably quite sincerely – that they…
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