Who's holding the gun, Mr Brownlee?

[Guest Post by Julian]

Transpower continues to seek access to farm properties with the debate now moving to the South Island. Says Temuka farmer Jeremy Talbot, "There is to be no more access given to allow [...] work to be finished until we finally do get the settlement we've been seeking." Seems fair enough to me. Let him and Transpower negotiate in a civilised way as many people around this country do every day. I thought we had already dealt with this issue here at Not PC a few week ago.

Yet the South Island farmers’ attitude has annoyed Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee. Speaking on Morning Report this morning, he states his annoyance that some farmers are holding a gun to the head of government.  "Holding a gun to the head of government is simply not going to work," he whines. Excuse me, Mr Brownlee, but that is not what these farmers are doing. They are exercising their property rights. It is their land, their property.

If Mr Brownlee objects to the holding of guns at people's heads, then I suggest that he show equal disdain for his own government, a government that routinely bullies New Zealand taxpayers and property owners, using the threat of a gun to the head as its means of persuasion.