MP calls opponent a Nazi

Stuff reports:

MP Marama Fox walked off the set of The Nation this morning after calling a spokesman for big tobacco a “peddler of death”.

She told Imperial Tobacco spokesman Dr Axel Gietz: “You make billions of dollars every year profiting off misery and death. You are a peddler of death.”

Before getting up and walking out, she said: “I’m not going to listen to you. I think you should crawl back into the hole that is reserved for corporate executioners.”

During the debate, Fox likened Gietz to “Dr Goebbels” – referring to Joseph Goebbels, the head of propaganda during Adolf Hitler’s rule in Nazi Germany.

Gietz – who is German – said the attack was a first for him.

“I get called a lot of names,” he said. “What happened to me this morning, that was a first.”

“Yes, I get called names, but you know what, my experience is it doesn’t help to do a tit for tat. I try to do the voice of reason. I try to put forward my arguments.”

If you are incapable of making a sound argument, you call your opponent a Nazi. Very embarrassing that an MP thinks this is acceptable.