ACT Party leader Don Brash has labelled some local-government officials as "little Hitlers" in his speech to the Federated Farmers annual conference.
Addressing the conference on Thursday, Dr Brash told delegates that the Resource Management Act created extraordinary obstacles to progress.
He says he constantly hears horror stories of what he calls the "little Hitlers" populating the lower levels of local and regional government.
[image:2013:third:right]Dr Brash says such officials throw their weight around and refuse to grant consents on the most flimsy excuses.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says the Nazi analogy is offensive and inappropriate.
"Hitler was someone who mass-murdered people based on their ethnicity and so to compare local-government officials to Hitler because they implement RMA rules that some people don't like I just think is absurd, and a bit offensive."
In his speech Dr Brash also suggested global warming isn't necessarily a bad thing, as plant life thrives on an atmosphere high in carbon dioxide.
And he says human societies thrive both in Singapore and in Finland, though average temperatures in the two places could hardly be more different.
