Privilege? Who Needs Privilege?

Responding to Pete Hodgson's challenge to Deborah Coddington to repeat her accusations of Industry New Zealand cronyism outside the house, Libertarianz leader Russell Watkins says, "It doesn't take much courage to call benefiaries of taxpayer loot crony scum! Who needs parliamentary privilege?"

"Libertarianz are right behind Deborah's attacks on cronyism, patronage and special privilege," he says, noting that "so-called public-private partnerships are a confederation of gamekeepers and poachers - an out and out recipe for corruption. Once again we see that state and business must be separated, in the same way and for the same reasons as state and church."

Responding to questioners who ask why he slams the ACT party one day and praises them another, Watkins answers that his policy is to even-handedly applaud the actions of all those who deserve it - "after all, last week I could be heard praising the Labour party for their stand on free trade!" He says of Coddington today that "it is good to see a former freedom-fighter remember her roots. Now all she has to do as a member of 'a party of principle' is to call for the resignation of ACT MP Donna Awatere Huata, for her and her husbands trough-dive into the purse of the taxpayer-funded Industry New Zealand."

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