Oversight

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 14th, 2012 - 10 comments
Categories: accountability, interweb, john key - Tags: ,

I’m not actually back from working overseas, so I may have missed something, but from my reading of internet media there seems to have been a lack of focus on a major aspect of John Key and the GCSB (that so sounds like a band name…).

My point has been mentioned, but the focus has largely been on whether John Key has been lying or forgetful.  Yes, John Key’s trustfulness is vital to his ‘brand’, but part of that trust is also about his capability.

And this affair has shown him to be incapable.  He does know or do his job as overseer of our security services.  His first response to this affair (weeks ago) was that you wouldn’t want a politician meddling in the security services.  Well, not meddling, no, but that was not what was being asked for.  Overseeing.

It is typical of John Key’s argument ad absurdum – a request for a $15 minimum wage becomes why not $50 then we could all be rich except businesses would go broke; the Green’s sensible ‘printing money’ to replete disaster funds idea becomes why not print everyone millions then we could be rich like Zimbabwe; and watching over your department becomes ‘meddling’.

There are only 2 people protecting us from illegal spying: the Inspector-General with his staff of 1, and the Prime Minister.  Therefore it is vital that the Prime Minister knows the law they are meant to be enforcing.  They can’t know what they aren’t told, but when the GCSB tells him they were spying on a famous NZ resident, the PM should know that that’s illegal and act on it.  Not wait to be briefed on the affair 7 months later.

It’s called being on top of your department.  Competent.  Having the necessary attention to detail.

If he was anything less than PM, such sloppiness would have resulted in immediate calls for him to resign.  As PM, resigning brings down his government, so it is only now that the calls for his resignation have started – and on the issue of lying, not capability.

But we need our dear leader to be capable as well as truthful.  Lacking either is a valid reason for removal.

But this is my usual Sunday Reading spot so:

Walmart’s workers organise – first strikes against the behemoth

UK Tories – why are they seemingly anti-women?

Is Syria the new Spanish Civil War?

The importance of Narcissism

Domestic abuse – the importance of recognising emotional abuse & bullyin

Journalism and the faux appearance of objectivity through accepting orthodoxy

And the winner and shortlist of the Children’s Eyes On Earth photography prize:

Peaceful Co-existence by Darpan Basak, 9, India

 


10 comments on “Oversight ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. vto 1
    14 October 2012 at 10:29 am

    Dear god that is appalling.

    Two people in NZ to protect us from illegal spying and one of them, John Key, doesn’t give a shit and doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing.

    What a cock.

    And surely he has breached his duty of care? His employment contract? His office? There is surely a case for taking this to court…

  2. PlanetOrphan 2
    14 October 2012 at 10:32 am

    Well said Bunji, Calls for his resignation seem too fall on deaf ears.

    We may have to wait until December 2014 too Vote them out …..
    Here’s hoping the National party get zero votes and are disbanded as a Party completely.

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 2.1
      14 October 2012 at 3:36 pm

      I disagree.

      Here’s hoping the National Party takes the inevitable beating they are going to receive as a lesson, and lifts their game above the current ideologically handicapped mode.

      There is a place for conservatism in politics. No, Colin Craig, not you.

  3. joe90 3
    14 October 2012 at 10:57 am

    More Sunday reading.

    Brain Pickings: As We May Think

    Albert Einstein, 1949: Why Socialism?

    The Economist: The genetics of politics

    The Wilson Quarterly: The Withering of the Affluent Society

    Artist indulges: Self portraits under the influence

  4. Jim Nald 4
    14 October 2012 at 3:49 pm

    I wonder if your title is being intentionally ambiguous and clever.

    You realise there are two different meanings for “oversight”?

    Key would do well to plead guilty to the term that means failure to notice or do something, i.e. failure to actually oversee something.

  5. Fisiani 5
    14 October 2012 at 8:10 pm

    Yawn……..

  6. fender 6
    14 October 2012 at 10:01 pm

    I’m rather more cynical about Key and his band of badly tuned no hit wonders and think they deliberatly broke the law in their desire to please the FBI/US.

    If GCSB is a band it may be short for: Gratuitously Corrupt (american) Sycophant Bumlickers.

  7. weka 7
    14 October 2012 at 11:20 pm

    Thanks for the photography link – some of those images are awesome.