The Listener’s Power List

The Listener has again hopped on the trend of publishing power lists and has done a 50 most powerful for NZ. NBR has the full list.

Such lists are pretty meaningless. You probably could do a useful top ten, but thinking there is some difference between No 41 and No 42 is silly. A more sensible way to doo these things would be by groupings – uber-powerful, very powerful, pretty powerful etc.

Having said all that, let’s talk about the rankings and areas of disagreement.

1 – Helen Clark (last year – 1) – agree

2 – Michael Cullen (3) – agree

3 – Don Brash (6) – disagree – no opposition leader is that powerful

8 – Theresa Gattung (21) – agree – seems to be able to get Helen to stop local loop unbundling despite a Ministerial recommendation in favour

21 – Heather Simpson (33) – disagree. Heather should be in the top ten or top five. Heather is the difference between those who mistake the perception of power and actual power.