Shipley Leadership - Government By Committee - Richard Prebble

Monday 21st Jun 1999
Richard Prebble
Media Release -- Governance & Constitution

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley's latest Cabinet changes shows the Prime Minister's call for renewal and leadership has become government by committee, according to ACT Leader Richard Prebble.

"It's hard to envisage what contribution Hon Tuariki John Delamere is going to make to the new external relations ministerial team," Mr Prebble said. "His latest contribution was to take up almost a week of Parliament's time rushing through a law to defend us from some Chinese boat people who so far don't appear to know how to find us.

"Why we need five Ministers of Education is also hard to explain. Is the Prime Minister saying that the Minister of Education is too busy to visit rural schools and so wants to send a junior Minister in his place?

"If media reports are correct, no fewer than 10 Ministers are now working on the INCIS problem. Where is the evidence that giving a problem to 10 Ministers ever resolved it? Indeed one has to ask the question, who is now responsible for the INCIS computer? Or rural education? Or external relations?

"The public will be forgiven for concluding that these committees may have been set up to create the illusion of action. Instead it's far more likely that we will have paralysis by analysis.

"It's the ACT party's view that we have too many Ministers and not enough accountability."

ENDS

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