Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Political correctness getting out of hand
This week’s announcement by Transit New Zealand of its intention to crack down on roadside crosses erected by family members to commemorate road deaths, is yet another example of the politically correct, bureaucratic nonsense which is increasingly crowding out the freedom and choice that Kiwis have always taken for granted.
So says Act MP Muriel Newman, who documents a whole list of recent government edicts that are changing the social landscape and culture.
Other examples include a farmer requiring a resource consent to plough his own paddock, and government plans to make trespassing on private property legal.
She notes that the Prime Minister was willing to send 76 public servants to France to bring home the Unknown Warrior, but wasn’t willing to send any more than 20 veterans to Monte Cassino to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle.
"I could go on and on, but in spite of that I will finish on a note of optimism: the problems we have had with taniwhas now appears to be being brought under control. If you recall, it was a taniwha that held up the construction of State Highway One near Mercer, at a cost to the taxpayer of some millions of dollars. Well, that problem looks like it may have been solved. It now appears that the real problem is not with the taniwha – which we now know live under any bridge or in any bend of any waterway – at all, but with their keeper. If the keeper is paid the going rate of around $20,000, he is able to keep his taniwha happy, and happy taniwhas do not object to developments!
"It is no wonder that potential investors look at New Zealand and shake their heads!"
This week’s announcement by Transit New Zealand of its intention to crack down on roadside crosses erected by family members to commemorate road deaths, is yet another example of the politically correct, bureaucratic nonsense which is increasingly crowding out the freedom and choice that Kiwis have always taken for granted.
So says Act MP Muriel Newman, who documents a whole list of recent government edicts that are changing the social landscape and culture.
Other examples include a farmer requiring a resource consent to plough his own paddock, and government plans to make trespassing on private property legal.
She notes that the Prime Minister was willing to send 76 public servants to France to bring home the Unknown Warrior, but wasn’t willing to send any more than 20 veterans to Monte Cassino to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle.
"I could go on and on, but in spite of that I will finish on a note of optimism: the problems we have had with taniwhas now appears to be being brought under control. If you recall, it was a taniwha that held up the construction of State Highway One near Mercer, at a cost to the taxpayer of some millions of dollars. Well, that problem looks like it may have been solved. It now appears that the real problem is not with the taniwha – which we now know live under any bridge or in any bend of any waterway – at all, but with their keeper. If the keeper is paid the going rate of around $20,000, he is able to keep his taniwha happy, and happy taniwhas do not object to developments!
"It is no wonder that potential investors look at New Zealand and shake their heads!"
