Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: Overreacting to the UN again

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Andrew Dickens: Overreacting to the UN again · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: I'm always amazed at how much credence the United Nations
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  Speaker 1: has given in domestic New Zealand politics. So look, the
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  Speaker 1: left loves the UN's pronouncements on where New Zealand stands
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  Speaker 1: because it reinforces the of you that we've got a
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  Speaker 1: lot to feel guilty about. We should do something about it.
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  Speaker 1: The right, meanwhile, believes that the UN can supersede our
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  Speaker 1: sovereignty and is an enemy to be repelled at all costs.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not the truth. Here's the truth. The UN
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  Speaker 1: is an ineffectual bureaucracy. It's a giant global virtue signal,
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  Speaker 1: judging its signatories to an idealistic standard that is often
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  Speaker 1: unachievable in the modern world. But it makes us all
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  Speaker 1: feel good. There's nothing wrong with the UN writing these
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  Speaker 1: sorts of reports because it might be nice to live
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  Speaker 1: in a world full of unicorns. But they're still just words,
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  Speaker 1: and they have no deep context and no significance. So
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  Speaker 1: David Seymour. David Seymour obviously took offense at one such report,
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  Speaker 1: and in a fitted Peak Lake one night, drunk on
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  Speaker 1: the power of being Deputy Prime Minister, fired off an
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  Speaker 1: angry letter signed Grumpy of Ebsom to the UN. That's
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  Speaker 1: obviously not his job, and it's right that he's been
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  Speaker 1: told off about it, But that is about that in
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  Speaker 1: the story. It's caused a minutor amongst the coalition partners
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  Speaker 1: because of process and pecking order, but it's not the
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  Speaker 1: major crack in the coalition that some claim, And don't
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  Speaker 1: worry about the so called international embarrassment because the world
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  Speaker 1: has a lot more to be embarrassed and worried about,
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  Speaker 1: rather than some that will report by an arm of
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  Speaker 1: the UN that criticizes one piece of legislation in a
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  Speaker 1: very small country globally. So chill out about the UN
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  Speaker 1: other than how much it costs us. But chill out
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  Speaker 1: about them. They're not the boss of us. They're not
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  Speaker 1: the boss of anyone, and that is their biggest problem
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  Speaker 1: in getting anything tangible done. For more from early edition
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  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it Be
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  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.