This has just arrived in our in box - very interesting
From: Hon. Max Bradford
Sent: Wednesday, 10 September 2008 11:30 a.m.
To: winston.peters@parliament.govt.nz
Subject: Doing the Right Thing at a Late Stage
Winston
I appreciate the extraordinary pressure you must be under at the present time. It appears the Prime Minister is about to use the axe on you, if the kites being flown by the 9th floor at the media are any guide.
Can I make a suggestion to you?
I am sure the country would think far better of you if you were to withdraw NZ First’s support for the Emissions Trading legislation at the Third Reading stage. It is a terrible piece of proposed law with far reaching impacts on New Zealanders, and in particular on your support base, the elderly.
It isn’t that NZ doesn’t need a well thought-out policy on climate change. But the Bill before Parliament, which your Party is currently supporting, isn’t it.
For Labour to expect that the legislation will work for ordinary Kiwis when they have to introduce 785 amendments at the Committee stages of the bill, after hundreds following the Select Committee examination, is mind boggling proof that the government is going to get it wrong. It’ll be ordinary people who suffer, not the Labour ministers and their supporters who’ll have departed the scene by then.
So I urge you, even at this late stage, to withdraw support for the Bill . Let Parliament have a more rational and considered look at the best policy for NZ in the early stages of the next Parliament – perhaps you’ll be part of that process too.
If you do so, the public will think better of you when – or should I say if - Helen Clark wields the axe in the next few days.
Her action will then look like a vindictive response to your principled withdrawal of support for legislation that is inimical to everybody’s interests in this country.
Regards
Max
Hon. Max Bradford
Director
Bradford & Associates Ltd
Level 8, 90 The Terrace
P O Box 8040
Wellington 6145
NEW ZEALAND
