New Zealand not for sale

I don't know how I missed this when the news broke a few days ago, but in case you missed it too, it's official, New Zealand is not for sale.

Last week, some unnamed Aussie larrikin listed New Zealand for sale on Australian EBay. Habloodyha. The starting price, apparently, was 1 cent. Cheeky blighter. Still, on the plus side, there were 22 bids and the price had gone up to $2,300 by the time it was pulled by EBay Australia.

Like all ridiculous and vaguely embarrassing news stories involving New Zealand, this one was picked up by just about every news outlet under the sun.

Thankfully, most of them just regurgitated the AP newswire story word for word, meaning they didn't report what New Zealand's ridiculous and very embarrassing foreign minister, Winston Peters, had to say on the matter. You had to go to a New Zealand site to get his insightful input:

I don't think it's fun. I think that kind of nonsensical stupidity, I'll leave to the tabloid media.

If you're at all familiar with Winston Peters and his populist, uncomfortably nationalist politics, you'll know just how funny that is. For well over a decade, good old Winnie has made "nonsensical stupidity" one of the maintstays of his political career. Sadly, the voters of Tauranga, have lapped it up and re-elected him time and time again, allowing him to remain a blot on New Zealand's political landscape for far, far too long. As for the decision to appoint him as foriegn minister, well ...

Tags:
New Zealand; EBay; Winston Peters