Yesterday we blogged on NZTE and its supposed horror nite at the International Business Awards in Auckland this week. We linked the resignation of CE Tim Gibson to the untidy proceedings - apparently there was a technical hitch and MC Carol Hirschfield showed she gets a bit flustered without an autocue.
Anyway - we had quite a few mates there in various capacities, including some captains of industry. Apparently our NZTE snout must have had his nose out of joint over something because, despite the general feeling that Mr Gibson's reign had run its course - he actually resigned a couple of days before the awards ceremony. The Ministers concerned were well aware of his departure on the night of the awards.
So we were wrong. Perception is all, and it seems our informant had a very different view of the evening than most of the others we know who were in attendance as they say it was not near as bad as we painted it.
Anyway we can tell you that there were many soirees around Auckland that night following the awards and in each venue good times were had by all, in one case,till 5am in the morning. Hair of the dog or oyster?
However we still think that NZTE is still a fat govt department. Our money is on the new boy John Allen at MFAT, leaving the diplomatic boys to the schmoozing and grooving and will concentrate his efforts on increasing trade opportunities. To do that it seems very logical to wrap NZTE into the MFAT fold sooner than later.
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2 comments:
Should probably point out that the reason tradenz was taken off MFAT in 2003 (when NZTE was set up) was because the diplomat boys and girls had turned it into an adjunct to the cocktail circuit.
are you so confident that one CEO with a short tenure (3-5 years, if he can be bothered that long with the bureacratic bullshit of Wellington) is really going to change the MFAT culture?
My take would be to take the trade role off MFAT altogether (after all they aren't using it) and set up the old trade and industry department again - with a central focus on trade.
Of course this would also require Treasury to start taking some interest in economic policy (as opposed to constant internal "refocusing" and rearrangement of its deckchairs) - ridiculously naive and unreasonable I know!
"However we still think that NZTE is still a fat govt department."
What govt. dept is not a fat govt. dept?
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