What is the definition of the "deep state"? Wikipedia says it "is a type of governance made up of potentially secret & unauthorized networks of power operating independently of a state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda & goals". It is a "permanent government" of entrenched career bureaucrats or civil servants ..".
Since the National-ACT-NZ First coalition gained power it has been notable how so many folks working in the Reserve Bank of NZ, courts, educational establishments - whether they be schools or universities, government departments which have been leaking like sieves, and Big Media are determined to pretend the election never happened. Is there evidence for such a wide-sweeping claim? For starters, let's ask why, given the Reserve Bank's mandate was changed from dual to single, has it not raised rates to quell inflation quicker, even though it is close to 5%? I've been studying monetary economics for 30 years & its a no-brainer rates should have been raised once inflation became the RBNZ's sole goal - after all, it is only around 3% in the US & there's still talk there that rates must continue to be held or even raised, should inflation not come down more - and the Fed has a dual mandate (!).
Meanwhile our judges have decided that it's the courts that will decide the future of race relations & environmental law, not Parliament. The former Bell Gully Chair, Roger Partridge, quoting barrister & senior King’s Counsel, Jack Hodder, argues, "the Supreme Court now considers it is the Court’s role to divine changing societal values & then use them to ‘develop’ the common law .. Yet, the Supreme Court Act does not refer to ‘development’ of the law. Rather, it expressly refers to the ‘rule of law.’ In short, our Supreme Court now considers itself to be above Parliament. After all, before he died, esteemed scholar Mānuka Henare told me, "What we don't win in Parliament, we will win in the Courts". In addition, most of our academics consider this government to be unconcerned with "evidence-based" policy, which they believe won the day during the pandemic. Go ask Profs Michael Baker & Shaun Hendy. And with Grant Robertson becoming Otago Vice Chancellor, our universities are swinging further left. Robertson's student days at Otago, referred to in his hiring, were spent on rebuffing a revolt from what he called in his BA thesis as "A Step to the Right" by organizations like The Society of Independent Students. The Deep State in NZ is completed by our mainly leftist Main Stream Media, as ranked by surveys of public perception.
In summary, it seems to me that for the NZ Labour and Green Parties, losing the election was largely irrelevant to their plans. Their battles are not much being fought in Parliament these days. Their power and the shaping of this country's future is coming from State and non State institutions where Members of Parliament are increasingly irrelevant.