Political polling by departments wrong
Revelations that three government departments have been conducting polling into people’s political persuasions is wrong
and compromises the political neutrality of the public service, says National’s State Services Spokesperson Nick Smith.
“Government Departments polling people on their political views is plain wrong. It is a waste of public money and it
blurs the boundary between the State and political parties. The practice must end to protect the political neutrality of
the public service.
“The sort of polling done by Inland Revenue corrodes public confidence in the public service. It risks policy advice
being targeted towards the supporters of whomever may be in Government when we want tax policy that is good for all New
Zealanders.
“There is a worrying trend under this Government of its departments and others doing work that Ministers and MPs should
be doing themselves.
“We have more than 200 working groups doing the job of developing policy that should have been done in when Labour was
in Opposition. We have taxpayer funded contractors like Sir Michael Cullen attacking the Opposition. We now have
departments doing polling work that should be left to political parties.
“New Zealand needs to jealously guard our democratic traditions where there is a clear separation between the state and
political parties.
“These Government agencies need to fess up the amount they have spent on these dubious polls and the State Services
Commissioner needs to put an end to any more being done.”