Don Nicolsons foray into politics from a Federated Farmers background is not new, as many well known politicans have started their political career via this way.
Just how successful he will be only time will tell, but it is interesting to note that Bruce Wills the new president has already stated that his style will be less divisive. Is the political following by farmers changing, and are they moving further to the right and away from ther traditional National Party roots?
Certainly this weeks capital gains tax will not endure them to the left, and the ETS policies of Labour and the Greens will win little support from agriculture.
But Nationals middle of the road approach to these issues will have not upset too many of their faithful, and Don Nicolsons radical approach will alienate some of the traditionally conservative farming voters.
How did you rate Don Nicolsons term as the Feds president, and will Bruce Wills proposed more concilatory style, bring more success as a lobbyist?
An Opinion piece in the Nelson Mail: Don Nicolson's emergence as another key player for ACT is less of a surprise than southern storms at lambing time. In standing down last week as president of Federated Farmers, he made it clear that he felt he still had a role in the corridors of power. His declaration – unnecessary for anyone with any interest in politics – that he aligns himself with "where National used to be" made it clear that he was angling for a prime spot on the ACT list.
Right-wing blogger David Farrar speculates that Mr Nicolson might feature as high as four on the Don Brash-led party's list. If this proves correct, only one of the top four ACT politicians were even party members three months ago. This illustrates the extent of the cleanout, starting with Dr Brash's extraordinary and swift campaign to depose then leader Rodney Hide in April.
Mr Nicolson makes no bones about his loathing of the radical Left, both locally and internationally. He has been quoted as seeing climate change and measures to combat it – such as the emissions trading scheme – as a massive con. "I have to say the Green movement has done a great job of getting into the hearts and minds of the international population. They have infiltrated everywhere," he told the Timaru Herald last week.
He further theorised that the ETS is part of a United Nations' effort to move resources from developed to developing countries to grow them out of the poverty trap – "creating jobs to prevent anarchy". His antipathy towards radicalism, then, will seem strange to those at the other end of the political pendulum – for his newly adopted party is every bit as extreme as they are. Despite the inclusiveness Dr Brash claims to seek, his method is deliberate and divisive. And he well knows that the so-called Maori privilege he targets is a myth – but one he happily exploits, and the segment of the voting public he appeals to is just as keen to believe in. It is the same drum that New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has been thumping throughout his political career – and Dr Brash has outplayed him.
MMP's main purpose is to bring a more representative voice to Parliament – including the white, conservative race-based segment that NZ First and ACT most appeal to. That does not mean that the wider electorate still buys into these outdated racial views. The emergence of the Maori Party as a competent and reasonable voice for Maori should have helped to dispel some of the fears that Dr Brash tapped in his ground-changing Orewa speech in January 2004.
13 Comments
I would vote for a "free market " party but not a party that puts up candidates such as Don Nicholson or John Banks.
Nicholson's total denial of the possibility of climate change and refusal to acknowledge that farming should be environmentally sustainable demonstrates someone who is only interested in short-term personal gain.
Federated Farmers had no credibility with the Government as a lobby group during his tenure.
But at least he could provide some balance to the present Parliament which is 95% centrist or rabid socialist. Hes not alone in his distrust of enviro fundamentalism either - look at the fun Ms Gillard is having in Oz trying to get the public to swallow the ETS nonsense !
I have never read anywhere proof of the shocking things that will happen if we don't go along with an Emmissions Trading Scheme or Carbon Tax. There is no proof . No Scientists or men or women of great wisdom can proove we are responsble for any dire outcome.The climate changes each year no two years are the same.
So why are folk so het up about it they would be better going out and doing some constructive work or making a contribution to a good cause than festering about such unproven pies in the sky. ideas foisting such nonsense on the public world wide.
"No Scientists or men or women of great wisdom can proove we are responsble for any dire outcome." This is what the IPCC 2007 document is, a bringing together of many such ppl showing their proofs.
If you leave it until "proven", your decendants in about 100 years will be no more....kind of late then.
regards
Spot on V - anybody can fiddle climate graphs to prove their point. But look at todays Dompost front page babbling on about all kinds of climate past and future horror stories quoting 'experts' and you can see the momentum - helps soften up the peasants for more carbon taxes I guess
How much more proof of anthropogenic climate change do people need? It's pretty hard to find fault with the research even though there are a lot of people trying. You can't "fiddle climate graphs", it's all peer reviewed.
Whether our ETS will actually help reduce greenhouse gases is another matter entirely.
Again the brainwash job has worked a treat for those who benefit most from the ETF style schemes.
Those who have sold it are using it as a Global Tax. What might they then use such a global tax for I wonder ? Not saving the environment that's for certain! Who would administer a global tax ? Why does the word global keep appearing , what does it really mean.
Big polluters need to stop, we must stop environmental terrorism , & nz is not in that club on a global level. But hang on, Nz was the first country to have an ETF , and we were used as an experiment for globalization , as I have pointed out here earlier.
NO it can't be ...
Lets separate out the bulldust from the hogwash.
The planet once had no oxygen in it's atmosphere, and couldn't have supported us. Not surprisingly, the organisms which evolved thrived in those conditions. They released oxygen. After millenia, that transfomed the atmosphere, and either they died, or they adapted - architects of their own limits-to-growth demise.
They died, sank, got compressed and covered, ended up as oil. Same way trees end up as coal. All the climate change in recent millenia has beem ex that locked-up carbon. We are now releasing it. So all bets are off, and none of the denial history (surprise surprise) goes back far enough to encompass the first phase.
Release it all, and you could argue that it will only lead to a planet as it was - no oxygen.
Why is it that folk think their photo-flash-long lives are the permanent state of affairs?
And the big question is: Will everything that may 'cost someone money' be trashed, twisted, disingenuised, spun and discredited as this one was?
Interesting that it all comes from the extremists at Don's end - I wonder sometimes if it's all based on personal insecurity. That those types need their 'wealth' or their Beamers or whatever - McMansions - to feel good about themselves. Too scared to admit something that might take away the security blanket.
How uninspiring of Don Nicholson joining ACT.
I read an article in the Farmers Weekly a year or so ago, by Alan Emerson arguing for the creation of a rural party, advocating for rural issues not exclusively farming issues. Given MMP, what a great idea. Minority patrties such as Greens, Maori, ACT and United Future have been served well by MMP.
NZ is a rural based economy, and we therefore need more political influence so as not to be dominated by urban voters who have a different set of viewpoints. Personally as a farmer I think climate change needs to be debated and maybe there is place for some sort of fair and sensible ETS. Likewise capital gains tax, as there is no reason Mr Nicholsons generation has exclusive rights to speculate with our land.
The recent clean out of farming leaders at Federated Farmers, is a good opportunity to discuss the merits or otherwise of forming a rural party. As for Don Nicholson, how uninspiring. He obviously represents an extreme right viewpoint, wether in the interests of rural NZ or not. Aren't ACT merely lacky's for Chicago economic think tanks?
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