Judith Collins' latest excuse for her dodgy appointment of Dr Jackie Blue as Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner? Blame the Governor-General:
Collins stressed yesterday that the appointment was made by the governor-general under advice from the minister.
But the important part of that sentence is the last part: the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Minister. He has no discretion in this; the constitutional principle in New Zealand is that if the government handed the Governor-General his own death warrant and advised him to sign it, he must. So, he's not someone you can blame for government decision-making. instead, the person responsible is the Minister who actually makes the decisions - which in this case would be Judith Collins.
I'd expected someone like Judith Collins to own her own decisions. Sadly, it seems that the "individual responsibility" she so often preaches only applies to other people. When push comes to shove, she's just another blame-shifting coward - just like her former colleague Aaron Gilmore.
