Locke Keith: Urgent Debates — Setchell Inquiry—Report to State Services Commissioner 
Locke Keith: Urgent Debates — Setchell Inquiry—Report to State Services Commissioner 
[Volume:643;Page:13090] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I will take a relatively brief call on behalf of the Green Party because I think this issue is fairly simple in its essence. We congratulate Mr Hunn on the report. I think that it has re-established the principle of a politically neutral Civil Service. That is particularly important on all sorts of levels. 
On the first level we do not want people discriminated against because of their political views. We have a politically diverse society one that is reflected in this House under MMP and we want to maintain that. We do not want anyone to feel that his or her career opportunities are in any way hindered by his or her political views. Our Government should encompass the range of political views that exists in this society. It makes it a more efficient Civil Service too because it means that the Government can draw on the full range of expertise in the community and not exclude a section of the community whose expertise because of those people’s political views would otherwise not be acceptable. Our Civil Service would be weaker if that were to be the case. 
A further element is that in any good Government situation it is actually an advantage to have a range of political advice. In some ways although people’s advice might be politically coloured to some extent however much they try to take it out different ways of looking at things within our Civil Service lead to better decision-making. The Government of the day can take the political advice or leave it and having a certain range there is important. 
Although political advice might be politically coloured to some extent I think we have to accept that people can be very professional in separating their obvious political bias and even their actual political bias from the expert advice they give to Ministers and from the role they play in the Civil Service. We have all sorts of examples of that and some Ministers have said that after several years they still do not quite know the political leanings of the people giving them advice. I think it shows the effectiveness of a professional Civil Service that one can read a report or listen to advice but say that the adviser is very professional has taken the criteria that have been laid down and has given the best advice under those criteria. 
The other reason why the Green Party is supportive of re-establishing a politically neutral Civil Service is that to not have such a service is disruptive of community and personal relations. This is particularly true in a relatively small city like Wellington where people tend to know other people and where the career paths of people in a particular family or within a particular bed are often quite disparate. One member of the family or one partner cannot be damned with the politics or the career path of another. We have to trust people. If we do not have that basic trust then we are going down a very difficult track. 
One of the things that makes our political system quite good and quite healthy—and I have noticed that in some ways it is true of smaller nations smaller societies be it New Zealand Ireland Norway or other Scandinavian countries—is the small scale of our country our society our political system and our cities. In some ways there is an advantage as there is a social and political mixing that helps us to reach a sort of consensus as a society and helps us to move forward politically. Having those clear rules about having a politically neutral Civil Service actually assists that because even the most dyed-in-the-wool conservative often comes up in his or her social life against people with quite radical views of the left against radical Greens or against whomever else. 
That debate is not only in this Parliament but also outside Parliament in every party in every sports club and so on and that is good. We do not want people saying they do not want to go to a particular party because that will affect their career path or that they do not want to mix with a particular sort of person because that will affect their career path. They may say that they do not want to go out on a date with a particular man or woman because that might affect their career path. So if we do not have a politically neutral Civil Service it is disruptive of our society and disruptive of people’s lives in general. 
This issue does relate to the current events around the alleged terrorism raids etc. but I have great confidence that we can move through this because we have social networks and we have ways of engaging between communities. I saw some of the younger Tuhoe people outside here today and clearly they were quite angry. That matter is related to the topic at hand; we have a society in which political views can engage where the community has goodwill. Within that framework of goodwill we can allow people with a whole range of political views to take up a whole range of Government positions in a politically neutral way and we can accept their professionalism. 
The Green Party is very pleased that the Hunn report has established that the State Services Commissioner and the chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment have both accepted some fault in this matter. We have been put back on the right track with the assistance of Mr Hunn. Thank you.