DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: Public servants and pine trees

Libertarianz leader Dr Richard McGrath ransacks the newspapers for headlines and stories on issues affecting our freedom—giving a firm jab in the posterior to pustalunt state-worshippers everywhere.

This week: Public servants and pine trees

• DOMPOST: Public servant admits accepting $160,000 bribe – A senior public servant pleads guilty to bribery and corruption charges…

THE DOCTOR SAYS: So, career bureaucrat Michael Mason, 50, of Mirimar, who spent two thirds of his life slurping at the public trough, was rumbled accepting bribes which included a $160k backhander and seats at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. His squealing face was quite rightly pulled away from the trough last March and he could be looking at three and a half years of porridge.
    It is important that no-one in public service be put in the position in which Michael Mason of Mirimar found himself, open to the temptation of bribes from unscrupulous contractors and private businessmen. Just another reason why ACC should be opened up to competition. Currently we, the productive, are forced to fund the excessive remuneration of recidivist troughers like Michael Mason of Mirimar. If we had the option of being able to choose our accident insurer, we would be able to show our disdain for corrupt state officials (or private insurance companies, for that matter) by shifting our dollars elsewhere.
    But we still can’t do this. Another problem John-Boy and Billy Bob have failed to address in the two years since their Blue Labour Party were swept into office by a public full of high hopes. A public that must be disappointed with the lack of any meaningful change in the way they are governed
    And does anyone out there really think that Michael Mason of Mirimar is an isolated rogue bureaucrat in a public service stacked with altruistic angels?
    Incidentally, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, attended by Michael Mason of Mirimar, was historic in many ways – the 800^th Formula One World Championship race was the first held at night, and the first F1 race held in the Lion City.

• DOMPOST: Attacks may seal heritage pine’s fate – A pine tree is damaged in Wellington…

THE DOCTOR SAYS: Oh, the humanity! No, wait, it’s only a tree. Hot on the heels of revelations of a $317,000 pumpkin in the Far North, news of a $31,000 (so far) Norfolk pine in Khandallah. On a property that is privately owned. And that the owners want to remove. But can’t, because of the property-rights-destroying Resource Management Abomination.
    Another absurd chapter in the Orwellian nightmare that is land “ownership” in New Zealand. Another problem that the Smiling Assassin and Dipton Double-Dipper have had two years to address, and about which they have done squat.
    Are you really any better off than you were two and a bit years ago during the long years of the Clark junta? No? Then why would you even consider voting for Blue Labour this coming November? There is, after all, a party of principled New Zealanders who want to roll back fascist legislation such as the RMA and revert back to common law solutions to civil disputes. In the case of the Norfolk pine, the question of who owns it and therefore has control over its fate would not even be an issue. If bleeding hearts, the sort who value vegetation above human life, really want to save the tree, they should put their own money on the table and buy it off the owners, who would be happy to see it go. Win-win.

Corruptisima republica plurimae leges.
(The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.)
- Tacitus