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Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before travelling to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
It’s good to see that Richard Prebble has resigned from the Waitangi Tribunal. I never go to Wellington anymore – those visits stopped when it clicked with me that useless managers were asking me to do their work for them for free. After my visits, they plagiarized my work and presented it to higher up bosses – or ministers – as their own. It was actually very dishonest of them.
So, coincidentally to Prebble’s resignation, this is how I just replied today to “an invitation” sent by a Big Boss Treasury Adviser. The “adviser” wants advice (it’s Wellington, so advisers can’t give advice of their own). The adviser has tried to cover their tracks well by saying at the bottom of the invitation that “The information in this email is confidential” and that a series of meetings will be held under Chatham House Rules. So I won’t say anything about what the mail is about, other than to comment that either one signs an enforceable confidentiality agreement, or one does not.
The issues discussed at this particular set of meetings by their nature relate to market sensitive information. On second thoughts, maybe I should attend and get rich trading on what I find out? Chatham House Rules mean nothing. Maybe someone should tell the Treasury. So here is my reply. It is not at all confidential:
From: Robert MacCulloch
Sent: Tuesday, 18 February 2025.
To: [Big Treasury Boss Adviser]
Subject: Invitation [purpose is deleted]
Dear [Big Treasury Boss]
It’s not my job to do free consulting for the NZ Treasury – obviously you don’t have the in-house talent to do these jobs yourself and you don’t want to hire expensive consultants either. Sadly, you cannot ask the new Secretary of the Treasury, Iain Rennie, to [work out the solution to these matters] himself, because he also lacks the expertise. My advice is to fire 90 per cent of your managers and hire someone who actually knows what they are doing.
Yours
Robert
Whether it’s Richard Prebble’s Waitangi Tribunal, or a whole bunch of other Wellington formerly prestigious institutions, it’s best to have nothing to do with the place anymore.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
