It's being made by Julie Christie, who’s produced lots of great television in the past, particularly reality TV.
There are camera crews following police officers and being given access - if you want to call it that - behind the scenes, the kind of access that the average media crew can't get.
Now, personally, I think this documentary needs to be killed off immediately.
I do not blame the police for saying yes to this documentary in the first place.
If it hadn't ended this way - with Tom Phillips trying to kill a police officer and then being shot dead in response in front of his daughter - it might have actually been a good idea to do this documentary.
It might have shown the efforts that the police have gone to over the last four years to track him down, the consideration that they've put into it, the care that they've taken. It might actually have been really good PR for the police.
But now, what it is, is mainly just a threat to these kids' future.
It is going to be hard enough for these children to find a way to be normal in a country that is obsessed with what has happened to them over the last four years.
By the time that this documentary comes out - it might be two years, five years, ten years, who knows, because documentaries aren’t put together fast - who knows?
Hopefully, we will have moved on as a country and be interested in other things.
And all a documentary like this is going to do is remind us - and the world, who are fascinated by what happened to the Phillips kids - about this case all over again.
And we will hit Google and we will remind ourselves of what the kids looked like and what their names are and what happened to them in the bush.
Children should never be punished and tortured for the stupid things that their parents do and the bad decisions that their parents make. They deserve the right to as much anonymity as possible and just the chance to live a life free of what their parents have done.
I don't think that the media, that I belong to, should publish their photos anymore.
No one should take a photo of them as they look right now, having come out of the bush, and this documentary needs to be called off.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
You are quite right Heather. Continually bringing it all back to life will be to the detriment of the children and wider family.
I agree with Heather. However, I am not that confident about OT. I would also like to know that those who broke the law and assisted Tom Philips are held to account.
How about a in-depth documentary on police’s bungling in trying to arrest and charge one of three only available choices, apparently, for the killing of baby ruthless empire two years ago?
Interviews could include solicitor-general una jagose, the Maori party, the greens, tamatha Paul on defunding the police, assorted psychologists , gang bosses …. The kapa-kingis …. The works.
Totally agree with you, Heather. It is a big pity the Police have agreed to this publicity of death, serious physical and mental wounding and estrangement, especially with children involved. I hope the Police Commisssioner, who seems a very sensible person, will reverse that decision.
If what is stated here as being "possible action", then to me it "smells of an organization wanting to cover their tracks".
There is more to this "saga" than will ever be release and sadly because of that "speculation" along with misinformation/disinformation that already prevails, will not solve this crisis, nor offer clarity to what has happened and why it took place.
Nor help when wishing to put in place remedial actions into the future, to prevent a similar incident.
To overcome that either Oranga Tamariki & the Police, once the "dust" has settled - explain to the NZ Public the 'real truth', not a shade version or version that has elements redacted due to "sensitivity issues".
Failure to do that, will across the years create further speculation along with added mis & dis information - and when the children at a later age, are recognized and confronted, what ever they say then - 'will not be believed'.
Sadly Heather, your comment re "children & parents bad decisions" has been a prevalent issue that has longevity for New Zealand.
Reality drama queen Dame Julie Christie wants you to believe the Tom Phillips story is the documentary New Zealand needs. Exclusive access, behind the police cordons, shadowing detectives as they deal with a father who wanted to keep his children close. Christie calls it “really important to me,” yet not a single journalist, not even Shayne Currie of the Herald, thought to ask the obvious: important how? Spiritually? Commercially? Or just because Netflix buyers don’t do toddlers bludgeoned in Taitā lounges?
Important? Why? Because the story is marketable? Because the footage sells offshore? Because nothing tickles the international buyers like a Kiwi backblock drama with police and family at the centre? Christie has been in reality TV long enough to know that the messier the human wreckage, the juicier the product. But no one on the ground — not Currie, not the other media whispering about “exclusive access” — pressed her on why this story was suddenly the centre of her universe, while others rot in obscurity.
Two years ago a baby known as Ruthless Empire was killed. The file is still unsolved. Police say there are only three suspects, yet nothing moves. No cordon passes for the camera crew. No reality drama queen pitching the global streamers on a documentary about the slaughter of Māori infants in their own homes. That subject, it seems, is too real, too raw, too close to the bone.
The silence is deafening. Where is Solicitor-General Una Jagose, who signs off prosecutions? Where is Commissioner Richard Chambers, quick to defend the PR value of embedding TV crews but unable to close a two-year-old child homicide? Where are the Māori Party MPs who posture about tino rangatiratanga yet say nothing about the killing fields in their own whakapapa? The Greens can summon fury to defund the police or to wave Palestinian flags, but not a word when Māori babies are beaten to death in Auckland flats or starved in Southland baches. Child charities turn the other way, academics write another paper on colonial trauma, and the cycle grinds on.
This is the story Christie could be telling: the needless dying of Maori children in violent ways, and the institutional cowardice that allows it to continue. Instead we get Christie’s cameras rolling on a story that attracts clicks, distribution deals and glossy headlines. And journalist Shayne Currie? He reports the access, the photos, the “exclusive” behind the cordon — but fails to poke, prod or challenge her on the very claim that made the story worth filming. Reality drama queen gets the red carpet; the rest of us get a shrug and a byline.
Baby Ru’s death is not an outlier — it is part of a pattern. According to Stats NZ, Māori children make up just over 20 percent of the child population, yet they account for more than half of all child homicides recorded since 2006. Year after year, the roll call of tiny graves grows longer, while politicians change the subject, academics rationalise, and the media looks away. That’s the real national scandal. Not a story that streams well internationally, but a country unable — or unwilling — to stop its own children being buried before they’ve even started school. Until that story is told with the same urgency, all we’re doing is curating tragedy for export while ignoring the a major tribal issue at home.
100% agree. With the top ranked police huge media involvement brings to mind the comment "methinks they doth protest too much' Sad case and none of anyone's business. The fact that the children were both well and cared for, unlike the daily reports of children that are not, says it all.
Heather! Of all people.
Freedom of the press. I'm shocked you dont know that this documentary is about selling advertising time by whoever screens it. Surely you would know that given your career? Yes let's pretend it never happened and everyone can feel better.
Post a Comment