Lindsay Perigo: What Did Anzacs Fight For?

Lindsay Perigo and his troublemaking libertarian ideas are broadcast weekdays, midday to 2 PM, on New Zealand's Radio Pacific, and on-line at http://www.freeradical.co.nz

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Lindsay Perigo: What Were The Anzacs Fighting For?

I didn't attend any Anzac Day ceremonies yesterday. Listening to clergymen & politicians prattling on about the very freedom they have destroyed is more than I can stomach. Did our forefathers lay down their lives so that we might become slaves to the government, working for it for half the year? I doubt it. Did they lay down their lives so that compulsorily extracted money might be used to pay Wellington City Council staff bonuses for speaking Maori? I doubt it. Did they lay down their lives so that you would have to pay bureaucrats for permission to trim a tree on your own property under the RMA? I doubt it. Instead, I did my own thing for freedom by composing a speech for this Saturday's Free Radical Foundation function. It's a dinner that you're all invited to - 7 pm at the Waipuna Conference Centre, $59 a head with a discount if you bring a guest. You can register on 0800 254729.

Speaking of the RMA, it is, as you know, something against which I've campaigned long & hard. I've often pointed out that ACT politicians created it, ACT-supporting consultants make money from it, & ACT therefore refuses to countenance proposing its abolition. Thus it was with qualified delight that I read yesterday the following press release from ACT MP Gerry Eckhoff:

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MP Gerry Eckhoff today called on the National Party to join ACT New Zealand in committing itself to ending the costly, bureaucratic nightmares caused by the Resource Management Act.

"The RMA cannot be tinkered with, or just tweaked," the ACT New Zealand Conservation Spokesman said.

"We need a fundamental rethink.

"With Labour and Alliance committed to backward, preservationist dogma, ACT New Zealand and National have an obligation to clean up the mess.

"We must do everything we can to dump the RMA and replace it with something which works."

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I say "qualified" delight because, while finally calling for the repeal of this Hitlerian legislation, Mr Eckhoff still talks about replacing it "with something which works." How about not replacing it at all, Mr Eckhoff, & simply enshrining private property rights in the Bill of Rights instead? That way, pollution, if that's what you're concerned about, can be dealt with as a property rights violation, in a way that REALLY "works" & really WOULD constitute a "fundamental rethink" - but somehow I doubt that's what you have in mind.

Still, in the name of applauding people when they get it right, or encouraging them when they come close, I want to go on record as giving Mr Eckhoff the benefit of the doubt at this point, urging him to keep "fundamentally rethinking" - & bestowing upon him half a Free Radical Award.

[Half FreeRad Award!]

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