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A five way test for restoring humility to the top of the state sector

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In a striking Twitter thread, Health Minister Simeon Brow¹n exposed just how far Health NZ has drifted from its core mission. Rather than focusing on timely healthcare delivery, it has become a self-appointed arbiter of economic development, social values, and petty regulation—often with little or somewhat remote connection to actual public health.

Among the more egregious examples: opposing a McDonald’s in Wānaka on ideological grounds, attempting to shut down charity raffles on the basis that gambling is bad, and objecting to bakeries advertising specials on sandwich boards because—apparently—signs on the pavement are a public hazard. These are not the decisions of a health service concerned with treating the sick but of a bureaucratic class that sees itself as the guardian of all right-thinking causes.

To his credit, Brown seems intent on pulling Health NZ back into line. But the problem is not confined to health bureaucrats—it is endemic across the New Zealand public sector.

Take, for example, the Reserve Bank in the last decade, when the bank ballooned in size while its credibility as an inflation-fighting institution eroded. Rather than keeping a laser focus on monetary stability, it waded into promoting Māori culture, climate change policy, and various other fashionable causes² that were—at best—only tangentially related to its core function. Given an inch on these more exciting topics, the bank took a mile.

Or consider the former Privacy Commissioner, who decided that his role wasn’t just about ensuring data security and personal privacy but also about weighing in on transgender issues. Instead of sticking to his statutory remit, the commissioner went to the very outer edge of his statutory remit to advocate push personal views on a politically charged issue, leveraging somewhat stretched privacy concerns as a pretext to insert himself into a wider social debate.

Even New Zealand’s coroners have struggled to resist the temptation of mission creep. A coroner investigating the tragic death of a police officer who was cycling when he was struck by a truck, concluded that high-visibility clothing should be made compulsory for all cyclists. The problem? The deceased was already wearing reflective strips and bike lights, and cycling advocates quickly pointed out that the proposed rule would do little to reduce road deaths. Nevertheless, the coroner saw fit to extend his role from examining causes of death to making sweeping regulatory recommendations.

There is a legal concept known as a fraud on a power, which occurs when someone with delegated authority exercises that power for a purpose beyond what was intended by the person who granted it.³ This does not necessarily mean the action is illegal, but it is an abuse of authority because it subverts the original purpose of the power.

What we see across the public sector is something similar. Officials, entrusted with clear mandates, routinely stretch them beyond recognition—whether by lobbying for ideological causes, engaging in regulatory overreach, or prioritising personal agendas over their statutory responsibilities. Like a trustee who misuses their discretion to benefit the wrong person, these bureaucrats are diverting their time and institutional power toward goals that were never meant to be within their purview.