Don Brash - Early Adopter of Feminism

Left-wing commentators and Labour MPs had a great time quoting passages from Don Brash's biography about corned beef and vacuumed garages. Now it's time for a little revenge - here is a quote from Graham Perrin, who worked under Don Brash at Broadbank in the 1970s and 1980s about a woman who worked for Brash. It illustrates how there was no 'glass ceiling' with Don.

Don had hired an American, Linda Poor, now the head of a large company in Australia, who had been doing a great job. But he thought he had lost her one day when she'd been offered a job at a rival bank. They arranged a function for her to go and meet people at this other bank, but she came back and said to Don, 'I've turned it down.' Don said, 'Why?' She said she had turned up at the function and the MD had brought his wife along to talk to her, 'so she wouldn't feel out of it.' She concluded that if that reflected their attitude to women, she would hot-foot it back to Broadbank. Linda seemed genuinely surprised the others weren't the same as Don. He was naturally even-handed. Another time he was asked if he employed any Maori. He said no. Then people pointed out that in fact he did - he simply hadn't noticed they were Maori. He just employed good people, regardless of who they were.