Joyce on attack

Audrey Young reports at the Herald:

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce made a stinging attack today on Labour and the Greens accusing them of being “snake oil salesmen” and by pretending they could stop development and still have more jobs.

“It’s fairy tale stuff,” he told delegates to the National Party conference in Auckland.
They had to be called out for their “intellectual dishonesty”. …

Mr Joyce said the greatest risk for New Zealand was that it could “ankle-tap” itself by not developing because of small vocal minority who hated change and hated progress.

“It’s about the mitigation of the risk, it’s not about saying no. Every time you say no, it’s less jobs.”

He said Labour behaved different in Opposition to Government. It opposed the part sales of State owned enterprises but in Government had supported the privatisation of SOE subsidiaries which was only a subtle difference.

This is absolutely true. In fact Labour Ministers approved the sale of a mine from Solid Energy to the private sector.

It had also encouraged oil and gas exploration and celebrated the building of the Sky City casino.

“Those people are beneath contempt because they want to slow down New Zealand’s development for their own political ends.”

Good to see Ministers willing to hit back.