By Dan Satherley / RadioLIVE
Anger is mounting over Gerry Brownlee's comments about Finland and its people.
Last week said the country has worse unemployment than New Zealand, has a high homicide rate, low education and no respect for women.
Mr Brownlee made the comments after Labour leader David Shearer called on New Zealand to follow in the Scandinavians' footsteps, through "innovation and talent".
But Mr Brownlee replied, saying: "I think we need to understand a few things about Finland. It's unbelievable isn't it, that you'd ... make a speech saying, 'I want New Zealand to be like Finland,' which has worse unemployment than us, can hardly feed the people who live there, has a terrible homicide rate, hardly educates their people and has no respect for women."
A Finnish talk show host has come out swinging against not only Mr Brownlee, but New Zealand as a whole.
Tuomas Enbuske broke into English on his show last night, addressing Mr Brownlee directly.
"I’m not sure what time it is over there… so I don't know if you're eating your third breakfast or your fifth dinner right now. But looking at the pictures we've seen here in Finland, we're pretty sure you're eating something."
He goes on to say that, "looking at Gerry Brownlee, you can see New Zealand has a very strong culture. An extremely strong barbecue, beer and car driving culture."
Enbuske goes on to list many of Finland's achievements, saying New Zealand's only invention is "the game for white men called swindle the land from the Maori and then f**k them in the ass."
And he goes on.
"We have Kimi Raikkonen, you have sheep. We have Linus Torvalds, you have sheep. We have the Angry Birds game. You have sheep. We have Alvar Aalto, you have sheep. We have Nokia, you have sheep… the list is long, because there's a f**king enormous number of famous Finns, and you're sheeps [sic]. Thankyou, greetings from Finland."
Minister-Counsellor for the Embassy of Finland Juha Parikka says the comments are ridiculous, especially those about women.
"As far as we know, Finland is one of the world leaders in what comes to women's rights, and has been that for the past 100 years."
Mr Parikka has yet to receive a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Christian Science Monitor also looked at Mr Brownlee's claims, and found them wanting.
He said Finland's unemployment rate was higher, but "the difference is hardly dramatic". Finland also has had much stronger economic growth, not only recently but over the last decade.
Finland's GDP is around 20 percent higher than New Zealand's, and there are no food shortages.
It's homicide rate is 2.0 per 100,000 people, barely higher than New Zealand's 1.76.
Mr Karlsson also claims international comparisons show Finland's education system to be stronger than New Zealand's, and that women in Finland have equal rights.
"Brownlee's assertions about Finland are in other words all completely untrue except for the ones about unemployment and homicides, but even in those cases he exaggerates the difference," writes Mr Karlsson.
3 News / RadioLIVE