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If I'm underwhelmed at the political leadership around these issues, it is perhaps even more worrying to look at the officials and agencies supposed to support the Cabinet. Our Treasury is led by someone with no New Zealand experience and (more concerningly, as I noted when she was appointed) no experience or background in national economic policymaking. Our Reserve Bank is led by someone with little demonstrated capacity for deep and innovative thought, who has displayed more interest in things he isn't responsible for than those he is. MBIE is led by a former HR manager, and I could go on. Perhaps there are some exceptionally able people the next tiers down, helping frame big-picture thinking and proposing well-thought-out specifics, but the names don't really spring to mind. Our public service (led from SSC, enabled by governments) hasn't encouraged the fostering of those sorts of capabilities. Our institutions have been allowed to run down, under successive governments, and we pay the price for that in tough and highly uncertain times.