The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
We've lost the plot in this country - and we wonder why we have gang problems.
The coverage looked like a recruitment drive or a PR video for the gangs. We got so ill served as viewers, the real news was not what a great man other gang members or whānau thought he was, it was not to display endlessly all their patches and motorbikes and burnouts like they're some kind of heroes, it was not to run glowing commentary on how they saw off their leader.
That must’ve been a really cool experience for our officers, providing an escort to a bunch of people who probably deserve to see the inside of a jail cell, rather than getting waved through like VIPs or dignitaries.
But that is exactly what happened today.
Opposition player of the weekend goes to Dr Shane Reti, who has exposed the Mongrel Mob meth $2.75 million for what it is.
It's a soft Labour Party sop surrounded by no checks, balances, and certainly no rigour around expenditure of other people's money.
This is the programme personally signed off by the Prime Minister because among other things, according to her, of its success rate.
Because Reti has got some medical background and a brain he asked a few pertinent questions.
Questions that should been stock standard of any government programme involving taxpayers' money.
How much testing was done on those before they entered the programme?
One lives in hope that former radio talkback shock jock Willie Jackson would have matured since his elevation to Cabinet.
Remember when he and his fellow Mediaworks shocker, former Labour Cabinet Minister John Tamihere, landed themselves in hot water when at the height of the despicable Roast Busters sex scandal when they interviewed a friend of one of the teenage victims.
The hosts talked about teenage drinking and why the girl victims were at parties without their parents' consent. "Girls shouldn't be drinking anyway, should they?" their caller going by the name of Amy was asked. "How free and easy are you kids these days?"
Jackson later apologised for the tenor of the interview.
On the revelation the chief Human Rights Commissioner gave a $200 koha to the Mighty Mongrel Mob Kingdom when he went to their hui - as I’ve said before, I don’t have a problem with him going to the hui. I think conversation’s good. And $200 is not a lot of money in the scheme of things.
But it’s the principle. What is he doing giving any taxpayer money to the Mongrel Mob? Did that not set off any alarm bells for him, giving money to an organisation, with some members of which profit off infringing on other people’s human rights?
He’s refusing to give interviews but in statement appears completely unapologetic, essentially saying he did nothing wrong.
“I was doing my job” he said. “The provision of koha is entirely culturally appropriate. To not offer koha at that pōwhiri would have been extremely disrespectful. “
