It’s the end of our first week on air for 2024 and Friday tradition demands that I attempt to wrap the week with at least some degree of thought or insight. This is typically delivered in the form of the on-air segment known as Holier than Thou – the segment where I try in endless vanity to spur on some public accountability from those in roles where it is often utterly vacant.
That segment is now also available here in written form to read at your convenience:
Despite only being back for a week there is no shortage of things to talk about! Of course, the big scandal this week has been the resignation of Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who’s allegedly expensive and ultimately career limiting trip to Scottie’s boutique in Ponsonby landed her in the hottest of waters and probably ruined her holiday as well.
Although I want to spend relatively little time on this, I would say that the vigorous clutching of pearls over her ethnicity and gender since these allegations came to light, while not overly surprising, has been utterly excruciating.
The largest culprit in terms that has not been Golriz herself either, she made a statement that admitted full responsibility and announced an immediate abdication of her Ministerial responsibilities, albeit drawing the mental health card firmly from the deck - which again is not surprising and not at all exclusive to her - this has been the go-to for MP’s caught in the act for some time now.
No, the painful and slightly depressing evaluations of her behaviour as regards her gender, which surely drew collective groans from hardworking women in high stress jobs all over the country who manage not to nick stuff, largely came from the media. Particularly the Spin Off by the way whose opinion piece entitled ‘the dramatic exodus of brown women from Parliament is no surprise” will leave you fighting to keep your lunch down if you don’t read it carefully.
But that matter is being dealt with and in typical contrarian fashion, the great spotlight of Holier than Thou will not be Shone on the former Green MP who has exited public life. Instead, I thought why not focus on water…
Water is essential to life, to hygiene and good health and to the prosperity of any large city or town, and right now there are several Olympic swimming pools worth of it spilling out on to the street below our very own studio. It has been like this for over 12 months, and no one has even been to look at it.
I use this example for effect, but it is not the only one. Over the past few months hundreds of leaks like this one have been discovered throughout Wellington, with an estimated 45% of the city's drinking water being lost through leaks that simply pour it down the drain.
At the exact same time, the city council is constantly warning ratepayers of the potential for level four water restrictions, under which outdoor water use is forbidden and residents will be encouraged to take shorter showers.
Hilarious! And, to add to the frustration, we tried to get hold of Wellington Water this week to discuss the leak in Manners Street and were told basically that it hadn’t been done yet because it was a bit tricky. Busses pass through that street so it would be such a pain.
Well, I would suggest maybe doing it at night or rerouting the busses, but I suppose we could all just shower for two minutes and let our grass die as well…
In any case, to allow a right of reply and to try and get to the bottom of how we could be literally tipping almost half our drinking water down the drain while debating whether to impose water restrictions, I contacted Wellington Water and asked them if they wanted to come on the show.
Well, they didn’t. They said no, and that Wellington Water’s CEO Tonia Haskell ‘wasn’t available’. I went back and said something along the lines of “is there a better time for her? Or is this simply a refusal to appear?” I have received nothing back.
A very bad look for Wellington Water at a time where one of its engineers has recently been pinged bragging about not doing any work on the internet. “Do nothing and keep getting salary, yay!” is, I believe, the quote that was going around.
So holier than thou it is for Tonia Haskell and Wellington Water who will not front to explain what on earth is happening with our water, or why it should be Wellington residents that pay the price for their incompetence, laziness, lack of resources or whatever it is that has resulted in this immensely undesirable outcome for Wellington ratepayers right in the middle of summer.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
Although I want to spend relatively little time on this, I would say that the vigorous clutching of pearls over her ethnicity and gender since these allegations came to light, while not overly surprising, has been utterly excruciating.
The largest culprit in terms that has not been Golriz herself either, she made a statement that admitted full responsibility and announced an immediate abdication of her Ministerial responsibilities, albeit drawing the mental health card firmly from the deck - which again is not surprising and not at all exclusive to her - this has been the go-to for MP’s caught in the act for some time now.
No, the painful and slightly depressing evaluations of her behaviour as regards her gender, which surely drew collective groans from hardworking women in high stress jobs all over the country who manage not to nick stuff, largely came from the media. Particularly the Spin Off by the way whose opinion piece entitled ‘the dramatic exodus of brown women from Parliament is no surprise” will leave you fighting to keep your lunch down if you don’t read it carefully.
But that matter is being dealt with and in typical contrarian fashion, the great spotlight of Holier than Thou will not be Shone on the former Green MP who has exited public life. Instead, I thought why not focus on water…
Water is essential to life, to hygiene and good health and to the prosperity of any large city or town, and right now there are several Olympic swimming pools worth of it spilling out on to the street below our very own studio. It has been like this for over 12 months, and no one has even been to look at it.
I use this example for effect, but it is not the only one. Over the past few months hundreds of leaks like this one have been discovered throughout Wellington, with an estimated 45% of the city's drinking water being lost through leaks that simply pour it down the drain.
At the exact same time, the city council is constantly warning ratepayers of the potential for level four water restrictions, under which outdoor water use is forbidden and residents will be encouraged to take shorter showers.
Hilarious! And, to add to the frustration, we tried to get hold of Wellington Water this week to discuss the leak in Manners Street and were told basically that it hadn’t been done yet because it was a bit tricky. Busses pass through that street so it would be such a pain.
Well, I would suggest maybe doing it at night or rerouting the busses, but I suppose we could all just shower for two minutes and let our grass die as well…
In any case, to allow a right of reply and to try and get to the bottom of how we could be literally tipping almost half our drinking water down the drain while debating whether to impose water restrictions, I contacted Wellington Water and asked them if they wanted to come on the show.
Well, they didn’t. They said no, and that Wellington Water’s CEO Tonia Haskell ‘wasn’t available’. I went back and said something along the lines of “is there a better time for her? Or is this simply a refusal to appear?” I have received nothing back.
A very bad look for Wellington Water at a time where one of its engineers has recently been pinged bragging about not doing any work on the internet. “Do nothing and keep getting salary, yay!” is, I believe, the quote that was going around.
So holier than thou it is for Tonia Haskell and Wellington Water who will not front to explain what on earth is happening with our water, or why it should be Wellington residents that pay the price for their incompetence, laziness, lack of resources or whatever it is that has resulted in this immensely undesirable outcome for Wellington ratepayers right in the middle of summer.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
3 comments:
Well done Ben, keep up the good work, its sad for NZ that no one in the left wing bias MSM seems to hold these people to account. I suppose those that voted for these councilors and mayor are getting what they deserve, the real shame is the rest of us have to put up with it as well.
Yes indeed Ben. Although from Wellington water it is less a holier than thou attitude than a two finger salute.
Heads, indeed quite a number and some limbs need to be cut from that body and some regain(tm) applied to see if some reaction to fixing the problem might occur.
Excellent Ben, and I do hope it will be a regular feature?
I also hope it won't be too long until you have Iona Holsted in your sights. With a continuing decline in school education outcomes and her at the helm coming up eight years and milking way more than half a million each year in income, it's long past overdue she stumped-up and explained why this is acceptable and why we should continue to put up with it for a moment longer?
And, as something of a continuing theme, how about pursuing all corporate and Govt'big wigs' who earn the big bucks and/or are paid by the taxpayer, but hide behind the veil of corporate web sites and call centres, but nary a direct email address or phone number of anyone in the corporate head office in sight? It's time we called this practice out. They either stump up with some transparency and treat the public with respect, or they don't deserve their generous pay-packets and certainly not our support.
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