The Eradicator

So we have an eradicator. National's political correctness eradicator, Wayne Mapp, was chosen because, according to Don Brash, he is "married to a Maori person". Now how PC is that? Married to a person! Why not make Judith Collins the liaison person for Pacific Islanders because her husband was born in Samoa. Oh, that's right, she is the liaison for Pacific Islanders.

Hey, if Tim Barnett was a National MP he may have been Associate spokesperson for Maori Affairs.

Now given Nationals tendancy to pick portfolios due to the ethnicity of an MP's partner on occasion, why then can't Don Brash be the Asian liaison, given the ethnicity of his wife - or even the spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, perhaps, given the nature of their original courtship. That will then free up the aptly named Pansy Wong to run the gay wing of the National Party. But now that National has its first openly gay MP, perhaps he is more suited to that job, even if he does not see the necessity for civil unions.

Now onto more serious matters. Mapp considers that political correctness is a matter of minorities forcing their will on the majority, and cites civil unions and prostitution laws as examples. Jordan Carter considers the eradicator aims to shut down debate and stunt the progress of the liberal agenda to the point of the anti-PC brigade forcing their views on others.

The "Liberal Agenda" of equal respect for minorities and so on is not about forcing anyone to do anything; it is not about forcing views on people and it does not shut down debate. It simply says that everyone's point of view has some relevance and should be listened to - not just the white elite's views.
The people seeking to shut down debate are the right wingers who are trying to force their frame onto life in New Zealand.

Now, I can think of several people, even Labour MPs, who would love to force their frame of life on New Zealanders. They frame the debate in their own terms, and although they do not attempt to shut down debate, they make sure that dissenting voices are silenced. They will call people who disagree with them bigots, racists and fascists, (and if the discussion is around gays, homopohobic) but when other people disagree with them and want to address what they see as political correctness, they are accused of shutting down debate.

Now we have an eradicator, the debate can hardly be described as "shut down". In fact it has opened up. And that’s the point. The portfolio is the most talked about portfolio in government at the moment. I wonder which Minister Wayne Mapp will question in Parliament as part of his role as the eradicator, given that the role is not a shadow portfolio.