OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND
The Right Honourable Helen Clark
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Dear Prime Minister,
I was informed by Samuel Jennings, a New Zealand Police Legal Adviser,
in a letter dated 18 October 2007, that
the Police do not hold any information as regards
a specific decision that the Police should be "reflective
of New Zealand society," although this policy is the Police's reason
for increasing the number of female police officers by discriminatorily
having lower physical entry standards for female recruits than for male
recruits.
In the same letter, he also informed me that it
is "common sense" that the Police should be "reflective
of New Zealand society."
Under the Official Information Act, could you please inform me:
1. What proportion of government policies exist as a result of "common
sense", as opposed to a formal and transparent decision-making
process?
2. What proportion of government policies exist as a result of some
process other than specific decisions made by specific persons at specific
times?
3. Whether your Government and Parliament intend
to dissolve themselves, since the Public Service appears to be able
to reach "common sense" decisions which are made at no particular
time and by no particular person, which, in turn, means that they cannot
be democratically scrutinised (the function of government and Parliament
being to control the Executive and allow it to be democratically controlled)?
4. Whether it is only areas of government where women (as opposed to
men) want to have more participation that there is a policy that those
areas should be "reflective of New Zealand society?"
5. In what other areas of government (and I suggest teaching, nursing,
the state media, the prison population, and Domestic Purposes Benefit
beneficiaries as examples) is there a policy that those areas should
be "reflective of New Zealand society?"
