BANANAS are stifling progress says Owen McShane this morning on Newstalk ZB (see here), and its BANANAS who are responsible for the cancellation of the Wellington street race, he says.
People who are BANANAS -- "which stands for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone" -- have caused a problem for the nice men and women who put the Resource Management Act (RMA) together, says Owen (you can see some of them here). It's not the fault of these nice people, says Owen. It's the fault of those nasty NIMBYs * who have 'misinterpreted' the nice RMA.
"It is not the RMA that causes the problems," he says, "but people abusing the consent process and using it to slow progress...There seem to be those who want people to go back and live in caves, and the RMA is not bulletproof against them."
But you see, here's where Owen and I part company. As I've said many times before to Owen, if the legislation is that bad that only he and his friends can interpret it 'correctly' -- that is, if judges, get it 'wrong' -- if politicians get it 'wrong' -- if planners, activists, bureaucrats, BANANAS and consultants all get it 'wrong' -- then surely the problem is inherent in the Act, if not in Owen and his friends. Maybe its them that is wrong.
Maybe, in fact, the RMA is not 'bulletproof' against them all because the RMA itself is bollocks. How's them apples, Owen?
If an Act is so open to interpretation that it is commonly interpreted in precisely the opposite way in which Owen says it was intended it should be, then who's really bananas here? If for example in all its 456 pages of excrement the RMA fails to even mention property rights (as it doesn't), then why should we be surprised that courts and district plans and council planners fail to give a flying fruitloop about them either (as they don't).
Owen and other ACT Party-supporting consultants such as he would prefer the RMA not be consigned to the ash-heap of history as many other forms of twentieth-century petty fascism thankfully already have been. Why would a 'consultant' like Owen want to see the RMA abolished when -- if it stays around and gets suitably 'rewritten' -- the gravy train that's provided a living for the last twelve years or so can keep going, and keep delivering.
Those of you who have wondered why I call Owen a 'twit' in the piece I link to below, which many of you will have read in this shortened version, will hopefully now understand why I did.
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*NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard
2 comments:
No wonder as to why you called Owen a "twit". Isn't name calling, insults and rudeness a Libertarianz tradition?
Might I refer you sir/madam to the NZ parliament -- a 'cuddly bear' pit if ever there was one.
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