In an opinion piece in today's online edition of The Dominion Post, Karl du Fresne has a little rant about whether National has a mandate to partially sell New Zealand's state-owned assets.
The article reads like a psychologists notes on a schizophrenic patient, and makes me wonder if du Fresne had to meet a certain word count and therefore went off on unrelated tangents... but perhaps he's just naturally all over the place:
Come on Dominion Post... surely you can do better?
The main thing du Fresne ignores in his sarcastic diatribe is that the majority of eligible voters do not want asset sales... but more importantly the overwhelming majority of New Zealander's did not give National a mandate for MOM asset sales.
If we count everybody who legitimately owns our state owned assets, (including the estimated 600 thousands Kiwi's living overseas) National's so called mandate to sell drops to only 21%. Keep in mind that many of these National voters don't want privatisation either.
Karl du Fresne sounds like a thief trying to justify crime… and completely ignores the fact that all Kiwi's own those assets. Therefore there should be a referendum on the issue.
The article reads like a psychologists notes on a schizophrenic patient, and makes me wonder if du Fresne had to meet a certain word count and therefore went off on unrelated tangents... but perhaps he's just naturally all over the place:
The truth is, of course, that it's mightily difficult for any party to secure an absolute majority under the MMP system. If National can't even do it with 59 seats to the combined 48 seats won by the two main Centre-Left parties, chances are that no party will ever pull it off. This is the very reason so many anti-MMP campaigners complain that it can lead to political paralysis.
[...]
Of course, it suits the Left to argue, now that we have a Centre-Right government, that it has no mandate. It must be a bitter disappointment that MMP, which the Left saw as a way of weakening the National Party's traditional dominance in New Zealand politics, has let them down. The exquisite irony is that Mr Saxby was one of the original promoters of MMP, but cries "unfair!" when the system delivers a Centre-Right coalition. Well, he asked for it. ARE GREYING rock fans being played for a bunch of suckers?
Come on Dominion Post... surely you can do better?
The main thing du Fresne ignores in his sarcastic diatribe is that the majority of eligible voters do not want asset sales... but more importantly the overwhelming majority of New Zealander's did not give National a mandate for MOM asset sales.If we count everybody who legitimately owns our state owned assets, (including the estimated 600 thousands Kiwi's living overseas) National's so called mandate to sell drops to only 21%. Keep in mind that many of these National voters don't want privatisation either.
Karl du Fresne sounds like a thief trying to justify crime… and completely ignores the fact that all Kiwi's own those assets. Therefore there should be a referendum on the issue.
