There's another side to John Tamihere's story which ran in Wednesday's Herald under the headline, "I've had it up to here with NZ's empire of bureaucrats".
Mr Tamihere makes some valid points, especially around the delivery of Government programmes and services. I don't disagree with some of what he says. These are issues that should be debated, and we're up for that. But is it necessary to put down public servants in the process?
Public servants work hard for New Zealanders every day, often in challenging circumstances. Former minister Steven Joyce said in his farewell speech that in his nearly 10 years as a Cabinet Minister he'd never met a single public servant who didn't come to work every day wanting to do a good job. I know that is the case and I think Mr Tamihere knows it too.
Read more: John Tamihere: I've had enough of faceless well-paid bureaucrats
Mr Tamihere uses the catchy term "faceless bureaucrats". Public servants are an easy target for commentators, but these are not faceless people. They are real New Zealanders, they have real families and live in real communities. Their kids go to school like everyone else's. And no doubt they read the newspapers too.