Ralston this week

Oh I had forgotten how good a columnist Ralston is, with his having become a suit for so many years. First his take on the pan-Christian party:

What lunatic thought it was possible to unite a religion that’s been riven with rifts for 2000 years?

Let’s take a conservative Catholic like Copeland, lump him in with a charismatic Pentecostal pulpit-pounder like Tamaki, biff in the Sallies, the Anglicans, and some of the Pacific Island churches, and form one, single united Christian political vehicle.

Most of these believers have been burning each other at the stake for centuries and it would be like expecting Sunnis and Shiites to form a coalition.

And then on ACC:

Of course, nuttiness is not confined to the minor parties. It seems to have spread through the Government and into its departments. National MP Anne Tolley raised the case of meat company Affco owing ACC a million bucks because one of its off-duty freezing workers was having a smoke in the company car park and was promptly shot by a gang member.

Unbelievably, ACC regards this as a work-related injury and wants the freezing company to fork out the loot.

Where in the wounded man’s job description was the clause saying, “As directed, you will be required to wander off site and get blown away by a bunch of passing criminals”?

Believe it or not, the minister in charge, Ruth Dyson, staunchly defended the lunacy from ACC, and Affco has wearily resigned itself to going back into meditation knowing it would not get any sense out of Government.

Dyson should have told ACC to pull their head in, and/or change the regulation so that gang related shootings in car parks are clearly not work related injuries.