David McGee

The Independent Financial Review reported yesterday that Clerk of the House David McGee is to become an Ombudsman.  It is a sign of my political geekdom that as a fifth former I purchased (and still have) a copy of McGee’s book “Parliamentary Practice in NZ” when it was first published in 1983.  He wasn’t even the Clerk then, but just the Deputy Clerk – yet already the authoritative source.

Two years later he became Clerk and for over 20 years has advised Speakers and MPs. He’s held in extremely high regard by MPs for his constitutional expertise and impartiality.  There have been a few HR issues in his office, but probably inevitable with any moderately sized employer.

So an outstanding choice to become an Ombudsman.  His successor will have big shoes to fill.

I should do a post one day on how the Clerk’s office works.  They actually are quite powerful.  For example the Clerk (generally through his staff) will reject any oral question that isn’t worded to their demanding standards,  and also that doesn’t provide proof of an assertion.  They also effectively decide which amendments to a bill are permissible – sometimes an amendment can be outside the scope of the Bill etc.

It is a very dumb parliamentary staffer that gets offside with the Clerk’s Office. The closest I came was when I drafted over 500 amendments to the Employment Relations Bill to help fillibuster it.  I recall the Assistant Clerk muttering about abuse of process (which of course it was) and my only defence was I was acting under orders.

One of my proudest days was when the same person said that the technical quality of my amendments was as good as their own staff.  Again at some stage I’ll do an uber geeky post on how to write good amendments to a bill!