Our rogue establishment

So, Nicky Hager has a new book out, this time on New Zealand's involvement in Afghanistan. While the initial media attention is focusing on the spin around the war and the unmentioned close relationship with the CIA (who use our protection to gain "actionable intelligence" - which means stuff that allows them to kidnap and torture people or bomb civilians), the bigger story is that we apparently cannot trust the NZDF or MFAT to obey the lawful instructions of the elected government:

Defence Force staff responsible for the deployment of Orion aircraft and Anzac frigates to the Gulf in the "war against terror" ignored instructions from then prime minister Helen Clark to keep their operations separate from those being conducted by the United States against Iraq. The book quotes unidentified officials and former diplomats as agreeing that Clark - lacking a strong defence minister - fought a lone battle against neverending efforts by the Defence and Foreign Affairs ministries to rewrite Government policy and buy military equipment which would enable New Zealand to build bridges with the United States.

[...]

New Zealand diplomats resorted to underhand tricks when they did not get their way with the last Labour Government. For example, when Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials did not like a particular Government policy decision, New Zealand's ambassadors in Washington and Canberra were told to sound out the views of the local bureaucrats. The ministry would then tell Government ministers that the Americans and Australians had made it known they were very concerned and there could be "relationship implications".

According to Stuff, Hager attributes this to

a culture where some senior officers wanted to obey the Government only when they agreed with it and otherwise quietly undermined its policies and decisions. The same politicisation is seen with some foreign affairs officials.

He suggested the decision by some military and officials to cross the line and involve themselves in politics dated back to their unwillingness to accept New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy of the mid 1980s.

"For these people, the September 11 attacks became an opportunity to achieve their political goals in spite of, and directly in opposition to, the policies and instructions of their civilian leaders."

This is absolutely unacceptable. Public servants are employed to faithfully implement the policies of the government of the day - not their own, and certainly not those of a foreign government. The public servants responsible for this need to be named, shamed, and sacked. They have violated the core principles of our public service, and in the process undermined our democracy. As for the institutions they work for, I think they have some pretty hard questions to answer about how they allowed this culture to grow and what they are going to do to stamp it out. Because its not acceptable in a democracy for chunks of our public service to go rogue and start acting as agents of a foreign power. If they want to work for the Americans, then the Americans can pay for them.