Its BIM day, and so I'm spending it reading the Briefings to Incoming Ministers. Most of them are dull, but there have been a few interesting bits:
- NZDF has redacted comments about how long kiwi troops will be in Iraq. Its not clear whether this is because they expect the new government to withdraw them, or because they want to keep them there for as long as the US wants.
- The GCSB and SIS want Ministers to trek down to Pipitea House for classified briefings, rather than giving them in the Beehive. Who goes to who shows who works for who, so basicly they're saying they're more important than our elected government. The inconvenience will also deter such briefings, potentially impacting on oversight of both our spy agencies and the intelligence warrant system. The alternative - appropriate secure facilities in the Beehive - is never suggested.
- The State Services BIM has only a single mention of "open government". SSC's BIM does talk about opennness and transparency, but seems to be largely in denial about the problems with the OIA, and uses good statistics on timeliness to pretend that there are no problems around e.g. unlawful redaction. Its certainly not the approach I'd expect from an organisation committed to open government.
- The climate change BIM is informative about expected policy direction, but still has an unhealthy (and, given our lack of access to international markets, utterly unrealistic) focus on using international units to meet our commitments. This is echoed in MFAT's briefing on international climate change issues, which also suggests that MFAT is going to keep pushing for accounting scams for trees in order to actuarially reduce our commitment.
- Unlike Gareth Morgan, DoC thinks domestic cats have a place in New Zealand, even in a predator-free New Zealand. That's a relief for us cat-minions.
