...but it's not a bad thing to be in a minority (even of one) when it comes to doing the right thing...
...as he most definitely has vis-a-vis the long-running sore of the shocking state of our (that is, Aotearoa-New Zealand's) freshwater lakes, which, 'as we all know', were indeed once fit for swimming in...
Not cowardly resiling from appearing upon yesterday avo's Newstalk ZB 'Country Show', and fronting up - or so I gather - anywhere and everywhere where his presence was requested and desired on the Government's river cleanup proposals...
Minister Parker has acquitted himself admirably, even managing to hold his own, in an eminently forthright, considered and thoughtful fashion, not only upon said weekday farming programme but elsewhere, revealing that rarest of ministerial qualities, being willing and prepared to do the right thing come torrent of abuse and all the rest...
...calmly and in a dignified, reasonable manner listening to vehement, vociferous, and arguably eminently unreasonable, even unreasoning opponents and answering them without any bs and in a way which evidenced he had a full grasp of all the complexities - in all their variegated manifestations - surrounding the issue...
Yes, the fella's *somewhat of an ignoramus when it comes to the ongoing and proposed 'upping' of the present widespread (yet still somewhat limited) mass medication of our community water supplies throughout the length and breadth of this fair land - and **his own nephew might well be an ape (he himself being a 'monkey's uncle') - but as arguably the brightest and most clear-thinking, incisive - and well-respected, even in mainstream Opposition circles - member of Jacinda Ardern's cabinet, he certainly leaves many other politicians (whether in or out of government) in the dust...
...when it comes to his eminent integrity, sensibleness, reasonableness and level-headedness and 'unrufflability', that's for sure...
*/** From, respectively, the Minister's speech around a year or so/two ago following upon the Government's proposed water supplies regulations (following Havelock North), though in this case dealing with taking the decision about fluoridation of local water supplies out of the hands of local councils and reassigning them to local and regional health authorities/boards - making it harder for folk like Yours Truly, for instance, to oppose and prevent said mass medication of the life-sustaining substance with a highly toxic chemical long banned throughout pretty well the length and breadth of Europe.
Minister Parker made a rather snide, sneering reference to those he clearly considered rather loopy for daring to oppose something which dental (and even many medical authorities) either champion or see little harm in; in selfsame speech - or on another occasion, he referenced his own unquestioning belief in the mantra of our age, Darwin's ***theory of evolution, about which I will one day write at length, in terms of how those good folk generally championing said theory of the 'survival of the fittest' tend to hold an inherently contradictory notion of how societies themselves ought to work, vis-a-vis the unfairness of an economic system which allows the top canine to win and just lets others scoop up any leftover crumbs...
***About which 'theory' my own seventh-form biology teacher, Mr Reid, had the eminent honesty to say that it was indeed only a theory, never having been proven - which of course it hasn't been...
Parker's quip of course related to his - 'our' - own supposed pre-human ancestry...
...as he most definitely has vis-a-vis the long-running sore of the shocking state of our (that is, Aotearoa-New Zealand's) freshwater lakes, which, 'as we all know', were indeed once fit for swimming in...
Not cowardly resiling from appearing upon yesterday avo's Newstalk ZB 'Country Show', and fronting up - or so I gather - anywhere and everywhere where his presence was requested and desired on the Government's river cleanup proposals...
Minister Parker has acquitted himself admirably, even managing to hold his own, in an eminently forthright, considered and thoughtful fashion, not only upon said weekday farming programme but elsewhere, revealing that rarest of ministerial qualities, being willing and prepared to do the right thing come torrent of abuse and all the rest...
...calmly and in a dignified, reasonable manner listening to vehement, vociferous, and arguably eminently unreasonable, even unreasoning opponents and answering them without any bs and in a way which evidenced he had a full grasp of all the complexities - in all their variegated manifestations - surrounding the issue...
Yes, the fella's *somewhat of an ignoramus when it comes to the ongoing and proposed 'upping' of the present widespread (yet still somewhat limited) mass medication of our community water supplies throughout the length and breadth of this fair land - and **his own nephew might well be an ape (he himself being a 'monkey's uncle') - but as arguably the brightest and most clear-thinking, incisive - and well-respected, even in mainstream Opposition circles - member of Jacinda Ardern's cabinet, he certainly leaves many other politicians (whether in or out of government) in the dust...
...when it comes to his eminent integrity, sensibleness, reasonableness and level-headedness and 'unrufflability', that's for sure...
*/** From, respectively, the Minister's speech around a year or so/two ago following upon the Government's proposed water supplies regulations (following Havelock North), though in this case dealing with taking the decision about fluoridation of local water supplies out of the hands of local councils and reassigning them to local and regional health authorities/boards - making it harder for folk like Yours Truly, for instance, to oppose and prevent said mass medication of the life-sustaining substance with a highly toxic chemical long banned throughout pretty well the length and breadth of Europe.
Minister Parker made a rather snide, sneering reference to those he clearly considered rather loopy for daring to oppose something which dental (and even many medical authorities) either champion or see little harm in; in selfsame speech - or on another occasion, he referenced his own unquestioning belief in the mantra of our age, Darwin's ***theory of evolution, about which I will one day write at length, in terms of how those good folk generally championing said theory of the 'survival of the fittest' tend to hold an inherently contradictory notion of how societies themselves ought to work, vis-a-vis the unfairness of an economic system which allows the top canine to win and just lets others scoop up any leftover crumbs...
***About which 'theory' my own seventh-form biology teacher, Mr Reid, had the eminent honesty to say that it was indeed only a theory, never having been proven - which of course it hasn't been...
Parker's quip of course related to his - 'our' - own supposed pre-human ancestry...
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