Stamina the Horse: A Lesson in Bureaucracy, Not Diplomacy

Winston Peters’ diplomatic “gift horse” Stamina from Mongolia has turned into quite the spectacle, although not for the reasons you might expect. Thanks to a tip off and subsequent Official Information Act (OIA) responses (which can be read here and here), we now know that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent a solid five days on what can only be described as a game of “What Do We Do With This Horse?”

An email chain involving 14 (!!!) MFAT officials reveals a whole lot of back-and-forth on issues like what to name the horse (eventually landing on Stamina, which they must have needed a lot of to get through this process), how to handle the paperwork, and just generally what to do with this unusual diplomatic gift. It’s an impressive display of the burden of bureaucracy in action.

With the average Wellington bureaucrat earning around $48.50 an hour, that’s a fair chunk of change spent on horse names, file handling, and, presumably, ensuring that Stamina’s paperwork was in tip-top shape. Five days spent working on a horse’s paperwork doesn’t exactly scream “efficient government spending,” does it?

Of course, the documents released to the public are heavily redacted, which only adds fuel to the fire. It’s hard not to wonder whether the full, unedited version might reveal even more comedic gems hidden beneath all the red ink.