Mark Prebble on The Nation

Former head of both DPMC and the SSC, Mark Prebble, is on The Nation on TV3 on Saturday at 11 am, talking about politicians and civil servants,

I’ll be very interested to see what he says. The Dom Post may give us some idea:

A former top public servant has called for changes to the way MPs are funded to make them look less “self-serving”.

Former state services commissioner Mark Prebble, whose new book With Respect is launched today, said most of the practices around MPs’ allowances were fair and they were not overpaid.

“But the big issue is that the system as it is currently run looks too self-serving and that undermines Parliament. Till we get a more independent system it will continue to undermine Parliament.”

He said the rules were set by Parliament for Parliament.

“It should be by Parliament for the people of New Zealand or, to put it another way round, by someone else for the people of New Zealand so Parliament can operate well.”

One solution would be to give greater powers to the Remuneration Authority, which sets politicians’ pay.

“The really good news is that the Speaker has opened up the system and made it more visible to everyone.”

Fair comments. I await the interview with interest.