Prebble Supports Commissioner

act-new-zealand

Wed Dec 04 2002 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Prebble Supports Commissioner

Wednesday, 4 December 2002, 2:12 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

ACT Leader Richard Prebble said today that the new Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres and his imaginative claim that white settlers were like the Taleban had exceeded even his expectations.

"I have great hopes for Mr de Bres. I believe he is going to make an important contribution to the nation's humour. Here is a man who selected the University of East Berlin when it was part of Communist East Germany for his post-graduate degree. A good choice, since the degree was on the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin.

"I was expecting his first speech to be explaining how Maori had been the victims of some imperialist class war. To liken settlers to the Taleban shows an imagination which I don't think any of us had expected.

"I can't wait for the next speech.

"It's my view that if we are going to have a ridiculous position like `Race Relations Commissioner', then we may as well have a man holding that office who is going to keep us all amused. The only thing funnier than Mr de Bres is the politicians who are taking his pronouncements seriously," Mr Prebble said.

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