in march 2012, brownlee made controversial comments about finland, after he suggested during a parliamentary session that finns are uneducated, unemployed murderers who don't respect women. with his comments brownlee rejected new zealand labour party's plans to model the economy on finland, and added that finland "has worse unemployment than us, has less growth than us, can hardly feed the people who live there, has a terrible homicide rate, hardly educates its people, and has no respect for women" - claims that were clearly unfounded. brownlee's comments were addressed in finnish media by foreign minister erkki tuomioja, stating that finland would not take any action as the comments were clearly a device for internal politics rather than an attack on finland. he continued to say: "i doubt he even knows where finland is."