Just out of interest this PowerPoint presentation gives you some idea of the IT infrastructure of MSD and WINZ (scroll to the bottom). It's two years old, dunno ho much has changed but at least it shows how the agencies are connected.

http://archives.govt.nz/advice/training-and-events/previous-forum-papers-html/making-difference

But at some point, you have to accept that some things actually *are* artistically 'better' than other things

So which is better artistically Hamlet or Lear? Tolstoy or Dumas?

I guess I'm reiterating your point another way Danielle. That is that only analysis and criticism can provide a satisfactory answer to this question.

I really like going to films and analysing them and also watching things just for the pure bubble-gum-for-the-brain joy of it. It is possible to enjoy a film at a number of levels. What's so bad about people expressing their enjoyment of film (or not) in an analytical way as opposed to " This film is fucking ORRRRsome!" and "This movie was so gey!" ? (aka the I like it/don't like it application)

And getting back to the sign, eh, Mosgiel did it already. it was funnier there, in a sad way. This is just plain sad. For a while NZ was hot when the British and Americans found out how cheap it was to make films in NZ, now they realise that Fiji is cheaper, or wherever it is next. Jacksonand Weta is a weird hangover from that period and the sign itself is a last ditch attempt to resuscitate a dying economic era.

The network cut to some duschbag interrupting history around then, and we flipped channels to squeeze out another 2 mins.

Same thing happened when Paul Henry interrupted John McCain's concession speech to give his inconsequential opinion on the matter, which I found similarly rude and boorish.

OAG do a good job, but the level of materiality at which they work means that things under so many $million (I can't remember what level specifically) don't really get looked at.

Oh yeah, not really sure why you said this either. Audit NZ audits everything, from every piddling little school trust right up to the big boys. All are equally likely to get a qualified opinion if they been bad.

A S, it appears I'm a little less cynical than you about democratic process, as you seems to have dismissed our political system in its entirety, but hey there you go.

My view about down-sizing could be slanted by the fact I work in corporate services which is constantly being reviewed, down-sized outsourced. My own agency had their CS slashed in half, had an efficiently review and is not having jobs filled when people leave in just the two years I've been there but I guess YMMV.

Generally govt agencies don't decide OAGs budget and mandate and word on the ground is they want more from their annual audits rather than less. Admittedly some agencies are hostile, especially when their own audit departments come under question but for the most part their work is well received. Not sure why you think they're under-resourced. Their VFM audits have increased by 50% in the past five years.

Bureaucrats will be replaced by consultants including a number, as suggested by someone earlier

Yes but this idiocy has been going on under Labour as well and will probably only end when our financial system finally shuffles off it's mortal coil. It has often crossed my mind that I could get more money out of the govt as a consultant instead of an employee.

Being a whiner is fine when you can get your message out. When you're stuck whining to each other, it gets tired very quickly.

Yes, the behaviour of the previous opposition was foremost in my mind when I made this point. It will be a nice break not having misogynist whiners in opposition. Only I suspect the misogynists are in the house now.

It seems likely that since Key cannot get stuff done unless Act agrees, then it follows that Act has the whip.

I've heard this as an argument against MMP from the other side as well. The standard argument goes "Oh MMP give smaller parties too much power". It's more the Winnie Peters kingmaker affect than anything else. The party still has to govern for the next three years and for Labour the last term was particularly difficult.

At this point ACT has only 5 seats in parliament, how many they have in Cabinet is currently unknown. I think National are in a really nice position to form a Cabinet of their chosing right now and I hope they make the most of it. And where small struggle the most is on representation on Select Committees, the Greens found it really difficult with only 6 seats, they were spread pretty thinly.

That is not to say I'm not a little cynical about the hard right elements within the National Party which could combine with the hard right of ACT to make a nasty looking retrench in recession type government.

Maybe asking the question about how the public service can best serve the public is something that we should all do regularly, regardless of political leaning.

Have you considered the slim chance that we might do that already? You know with the annual budget cycle, laws, policy development and whatnot?

Not to mention govt spending and performance is regularly monitored by the O of the Auditor-G? And the fact that Labour has been in for 9 years does not mean govt departments have been immune to restructuring and down-sizing? On that the parties are fairly similar so...

I think thousands is overstating things fairly massively. There aren't that many in Welly (where the question mark about public sector productivity hangs).

It's amazing to me that you have failed to notice the odd thousand or so civil servants living in this city. Have you not been to The Terrace on a week day lunch-time recently?

The only thing John Key could have ever done to make you happy is lose. Well, tough

Yes you're right, I would have been very happy if John Key lost but I'm not sure how stable a country it would be if he did after the last election and after months of strong pro-National polling. (I might have even been happy if Bill English were prime minister right now instead of John Key.)

In a democracy approx. 50% of people will never be happy. To be honest I'm rather gleeful about being sympathetic to a party in opposition. It's our turn to be the whiners now. In fact it's our prerogative.