Brash agenda

Failed leader of the NZ National Party, and current leader of the neoconservative Act Party, Don Brash, has done it again. Speaking to the annual conference of Federated Farmers, the conservative famers’ union and lobbying group, Brash said that the staff who work at the lower levels of local and regional government are "little Hitlers". The reason? What he and other “rightwhingers” consider to be an overzealous enforcement of the Resource Management Act—meaning, any decision they don’t like. Yeah, totally like the “big Hittler…”

But Brash also played the race card yet again over rules requiring consultation with Māori, something he thinks should be abolished because he says communities should be consulted without “racial preference”. He often says similar things, and that appeals not only to racists, but also to conservatives of the near right who think it sounds reasonable. They don’t realise that Brash is really advocating that Māori have little or no say in decisions. Since Māori are a minority, without rules requiring consultation it would be easy for Pākeha like Brash to call the shots, whether Māori like it or not. That’s a direct abrogation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Then to complete his pandering to farmers, he also said that Act wants to dump the Emissions Trading Scheme. He revealed that he’s a climate change denier, arguing that rising global temperatures don’t matter, anyway, because that isn’t necessarily a bad thing (seriously) because people live in both Singapore and Finland, which are very different. Yeah, he’s really that crazy—or stupid, I’m really not sure which it is.

All this from a man who wants to be part of Government—and he will be if National wins the next election. Don Brash is one of the best reasons to vote to change the government.