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Tony Pomfret's avatar

This is a very powerful piece of writing as it explains in stark reality the states desire to refute liability for the state’s wrongdoings. It is the state composed of individuals from ministers and ministries officials that will do their utmost to avoid responsibility and therefore admitting liability and the need for compensation.

When Luxon said he would apologise to the victims of Abuse in Care in November, my immediate thought was that gives the ministry officials plenty of time to dream up the reasons they are not responsible and compensation should be minimal.

Are there a politicians or journalists with the ability to organise a campaign to force effective compensation similar to the Post Office scandal in the UK?

Chris……..?

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John Trezise's avatar

'Imperfect though it may be, New Zealand’s democratic system of government makes it relatively easy for the state to present itself as the servant of the people it purportedly serves.'

Since the advent of the Ardern government in 2017, successive governments, aided by complaisant and uncritical journalists, have told us that 'state servants' are now 'public servants', a conversion formalised with the renaming of the State Services Commission as the Public Services Commission in 2020.

We are expected to believe that these government employees are now our servants, the servants of the public. But they will always be the servants of the state that employs them and pays them, and will do to us as the state directs.

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