The Politically Incorrect Show - 08/10/2001

Music - Die Fledermaus

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show for Monday, October 8, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd, the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit & excellence against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.

[Music up, music down!]

You have to hand it to politicians - the fork in their tongues must qualify as a Wonder of the World. Case in point: National's environment spokesman Nick Smith. During his tenure as Conservation Minister, libertarians repeatedly pointed out to him the viciously anti-property rights nature of the Resource Management Act. Dr Smith did not want to know. Instead he defended the Act - after all, his own government had passed it - referred to me personally as a "bastard," refused to participate in a multi-party debate in his electorate on property rights, & continues to describe libertarians' approach to environmental issues as "simplistic."

Now, however, National has tumbled to the vote-catching potential of the antipathy toward the Resource Management Act that is out there. Nick Smith & his leader have taken to the road in a bid to tap this potential. Today, he wrote this in his weekly Sunday News column:

"National last week outlined plans to fix the Resource Management Act. Home-owners, farmers and businesses need a break from the stifling bureaucracy that has grown from this 10 year-old act. It is madness that it takes seven years to get consent for a new road. No wonder our cities are gridlocked every morning and evening. The delays and costs caused by the act are driving away investors and jobs in key industries like timber processing. Kiwi battlers trying to build a simple patio or garage on their section are frustrated by some of the stupid rules that have come out of the act. The government is not just ignoring the problem but making it worse. It won't stand up to the extreme Greens on this issue and New Zealand is the loser. ..."

Excuse me? Is this the same Nick Smith who stood idly by while Steve Applegath got done for $25,000 for turning a bog on his property into a duck-pond without Resource Consent? While Dan Riddiford got Periodic Detention for laying the groundwork for a paua farm on HIS property? While thousands of home-owners were told what colour they could paint their own houses? While thousands of farm-owners had huge tracts of THEIR land locked up as "Significant Natural Areas"? While the Adrian Chisholm saga unfolded?

National will "fix" it, says Dr Smith, after all these years. How? Wow! - this gets radical, so brace yourselves: National would have the Environment Court rather than politicians violating your property rights (how will we notice - it's usually the Court, not politicians, who do it now). No mention of REPEALING the RMA, or of instating property rights into it (which would have the same effect); no mention of overturning "intrinsic value," "sustainability," kaitiakitanga & deference to the Treaty of Waitangi - the sources of the act's viciousness. Some fix!

Oh yes, it's the same Nick Smith, all right - only the fork in his tongue has gotten big enough to hug a tree with.

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