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Tim Dower: Parliament's smartest man is leaving

Author
Tim Dower,
Publish Date
Wed, 19 Dec 2018, 8:08AM
Chris Finlayson. Photo / NZ Herald

Tim Dower: Parliament's smartest man is leaving

Author
Tim Dower,
Publish Date
Wed, 19 Dec 2018, 8:08AM

The funniest and probably the smartest man in Parliament is leaving.

Chris Finlayson has served 13 years, most notably as Attorney General and Treaty Negotiations Minister.

In his valedictory speech, he delivered a parting shot to New Zealand First.

He even had the grace to say the media aren't the enemy...which is true.

There's a nice piece on the Herald site, which has a video of him driving around his constituency with Claire Trevett.

Did you know his first job was as a school cleaner?

So goodbye and good luck Mr Finlayson.

And I hope one day, your suggestion that we move to four-year terms of office comes to pass.

It would make a huge difference to the way we function, and I think we'd get better government.

The three-year system only works to encourage short-term thinking.

Governments desperately want to remain in power, so they focus far too much on playing to the crowd, and working to twist the system in such a way as to treat their core support base.

Of course, when the Government is NOT the bunch you voted for, you'd probably rather they only got three years.

But that being the case...isn't it more likely that they'll do more harm to your interests in the time they have...because they need to please the people that voted them in.

Four-year terms I believe would give us better government.

Simple as that

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