As Transport Minister, Brown’s obsession with scrapping Labour’s evidence based and sensible policies led to a string of easily avoidable failures. His decision to raise speed limits for instance, including around schools, which ignored a mountain of global evidence that lower speeds save lives, was correctly branded as a “political suicide note” by critics. National even tried to dismiss basic physics while promoting their increased speed limits insanity, physics that show increased speeds will result in worse accidents and more injuries, a reality that Brown dismissed as somehow being “woke.” I guess that makes Galileo Galilei, the “Father of Physics" woke then.
The result? A policy that endangers kids and communities, driven by a need to save impatient motorists a few seconds travel time rather than prioritize people's safety. His claim that drugs and alcohol, not speed, cause crashes is a half-truth at best, conveniently sidestepping how speed significantly amplifies harm. Meanwhile, Brown and his elitist party are quietly pushing a mass surveillance roading network, to increase revenue, dressing it up as a required safety measure.
Then there’s the Three Waters debacle. Brown and his cohorts gleefully scrapped Labour’s plan to fix our crumbling water infrastructure, dishonestly demonizing it as “Māori stealing water” to whip up fear among the racists and easily misled. What’s his alternative? A passive-aggressive email to Wellington councils, berating them for leaks he’s done nothing to address. No real plan, no extra funding, just misrepresenting the facts and an unending blame Labour game. Wellington’s pipes lose nearly 50% of their water, but Brown’s more interested in scoring cheap political points or getting photo ops about dobbing in potholes or road cones than finding any real-world solutions.
As Energy Minister, Brown’s slowdown of numerous renewable energy projects that could have stabilized electricity supply was a masterstroke of shortsightedness. Just so incomprehensibly stupid it's hard to fathom how Simeon reached his retarded decisions. Where the hell does National find these idiots? When power prices spiked, Brown blamed Labour’s oil and gas ban, despite briefings categorically showing it had little to no effect and warning him that the ban’s repeal wouldn’t fix supply issues anyway.
Simeon again ignored his officials by personally appointing his mate, John Carnegie, a prominent pro oil and gas lobbyist to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. Talk about nepotism. If Labour had ever been so blatant about jobs for the boys, the mainstream media would've had conniptions. But because it's National, that type of corruption is somehow acceptable.
Obviously selling our gas reserves to private interests, a lack of infrastructure investment and disproportionate demands for higher and higher dividends for investors after partial privatization is to blame (thanks John Key) for our ever increasing power prices and dilapidated electricity grid. But once again National had no plan. Scrapping renewable solutions without any alternative is peak Simeon Brown: ideologically driven, factually shonky, and dangerously out of touch with his own official's advice and the climate realities that are set to cost New Zealand dearly.
Now, as Health Minister, Brown’s inherited another crisis of National’s own making. The miserly 2.9% health budget increase...below inflation and population growth cost pressures...is starving the health system for much needed resources, forcing 5,000 senior doctors to now strike.
Yesterday, RNZ reported:
'Made-up number': Doctors dispute Simeon Brown's pay claim
Dalton also challenged claims by Health Minister Simeon Brown that senior doctors were paid an average salary of $343,500.
"I've had a deluge of e-mails from our members saying if they earned that much money there would be no strike action," she said.
"I'm not sure where he's found the numbers that he's citing."
Brown made his numbers up, which is so often the case with arrogant National Party MPs.
How many times do health professionals have to point out the numerous problems caused by an under-funded health system, austerity that is endangering people's lives, just to have Brown dismiss their concerns with his obfuscations and outright lies? Brown’s response to the justified doctors strike? Smear the unions and quietly push for even more privatization, all the while National erodes public capacity through funding cuts and funneling extreme amounts of taxpayer money to their mates in private health. How else do you expect National to cut public hospital wait times while freezing budgets and staff numbers? However, shifting patients sideways into private hospitals at huge additional cost to massage their numbers isn't going to work long-term.
Brown’s failures stem from a toxic mix of inexperience, ideological rigidity, and a Messiah complex fueled by his fundamentalist beliefs. He’s not just a liability for National; he’s a danger to New Zealanders who deserve better than an ideologically driven evidence free minister who prioritizes his mates, dogma and penny-pinching over people's lives. The good people of Aotearoa will hopefully wake up before Brown’s next blunder costs us more than we can afford.
