Author: Richard Preeble

Opinion: Richard Prebble. We rarely lose a constitutional principle abruptly. It is chipped away until one day, when it is too late, we realise it is gone. A politically neutral public service that we can trust is one such principle. On 9 September almost 10,000 public servants went on strike. A coordinated public-service strike 47 days before voting begins is unprecedented. The PSA has always been a political union. It says it campaigned against the National Government in 1999. But this year it has gone much further. It has registered as a third-party election promoter. Its campaign is called “Change…

OPINION: Richard Prebble. Politicians make mistakes. They are human. Decisions must often be made with inadequate information. It is easy to be wise in retrospect. We should be understanding. What we should not be forgiving is reckless decision-making — when politicians ignore the safeguards designed to prevent foreseeable errors and then refuse to take responsibility for the outcome. Officials are not always correct, but when ministers choose to disregard official advice, they should be accountable for the consequences. Mistakes were made in response to Covid-19, but Covid was unprecedented. The most reckless decision with profound consequences today was made by…