Was consulting to a SOE who were undertaking a massive project that I was managing. We had to get the Minister of SOEs on side and keep him there at all times. One of our opponents was a commercial firm that would lose out heavily if we succeeded.
In to see the Minister, with his private secretary. Minister agrees with our proposal. We walk back to the office, a walk of 10 minutes, and on arriving receive phone call from the private secretary that minister has done a 180 and has changed his mind. Schedule another meeting and return following day. Minister again agrees with us and again we return to office to get same phone call as day before. We make enquiries and find that each time we visited Minister, the private secretary has pre-warned the opponents and books them an appointment straight after ours.
The Minister could not hold an opinion in his own right and reversed his stance so many times in the same manner that we called him the 'Roundabout'. The Minister was only interested in ass covering and never developed a framework against which he could make decisions. A shallow man despite appearances to the contrary. In the end, we had to use some influence to get around him to the Cabinet and plead our case. The Cabinet backed us and away we went.
The private secretary was so busy playing both sides of the street that he never stopped to think what was the best thing for NZ. He only worried about what was best for his minister and himself. Gotta love those public servants
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