Dunne: “Commonsense” Brownlee an oxymoron

United Future leader Peter Dunne today described National’s local government spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, as living proof that National has become increasingly irrelevant to Parliament and the voting public.

“Mr Brownlee has seen fit to launch a remarkably ignorant tirade against United Future for its very successful efforts to reshape the Local Government Bill so that it better meets the needs of New Zealand local bodies,” said Mr Dunne.

“Mr Brownlee seems to think that the only way to oppose any government measure is to vote against everything, regardless of commonsense or rational debate. If we had followed that senseless logic, United Future could have voted against the Bill in select committee, meaning many hundreds of hours of submissions and committee consideration would have been utterly wasted, leading to even more hundreds of hours of House time being wasted passing the Bill through amendments to every clause.

“If Mr Brownlee and the National Party think that Gotterdammerung attitude is what New Zealanders want from their Parliamentarians, then it becomes even more obvious why the voters dumped the party into the dustbin of history at the last election,” said Mr Dunne.

“Sensible government means achieving what is possible today, not aiming for the impossible and then whining like a petulant brat when you don’t get everything you want.

“If commonsense means a choice between Gerry Brownlee and me, I’m happy to let the voters of New Zealand make up their own minds,” concluded Mr Dunne.

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