We’re here to help film review
South Pacific Pictures kindly invited me to an advance media screening of the movie “We’re here to help“, which was on Monday night this week.
The movie is based in the true life story of Dave Henderson from Christchurch who fought and survived a five year battle with the IRD. After he threatened to “kick the fat arse” of an IRD officer who had insulted his girlfriend, his $64,000 refund turned into a $920,000 debt. It is a classic David vs Goliath battle.
The film is highly enjoyable. They turn the story into a humourous, but with serious undertones, depiction of refusing to back down to bullies. Little gags like turning up the air conditioning in the IRD building got the audience smiling.
What I really liked was that they didn’t turn the IRD officials into one dimensional “bad” guys. Yes they were smarmy and lacking empathy, but they genuinely convinced themselves Henderson was dodgy and hence in their own minds justified everything they did to him.
The main characters are all well cast. Michael Hurst does a good Rodney Hide, even though he doesn’t feature as much as I expected. Miriama Smith nailed her part as girlfriend Kath Harper and Erik Thompson made Henderson a likeable rogue.
They have some nice features which resonate with anyone who deals with the IRD. The opening credits are all done by way of filling in IRD forms. And there is a particularly good section where Henderson tries to locate the IRD problem resolution service and gets bounced from office to office.
Overall it is a very good easy to watch film. About 80 minutes. The cast all perform their roles well, and the plot moves along at just the right pace. My biggest criticism would be that they could have handled better the IRD decision to back down. I would have had a couple of scenes showing the Commissioner reading the full report, being briefed on the latest questions in Parliament, and realising how badly exposed the Department was. It was not quite an anti-climax, but didn’t quite make its dramatic potential.
It wasn’t really an anti IRD film. They showed some good guys from the IRD also. It was a film really about bullies, and abuse of power. At times a sad film as Henderson is bankrupted and his partner leaves him. And finally a film with a wicked ending as we see the IRD Head Office in Christchurch renamed Henderson House.
Definitely worth going to.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Hopefully it’ll come out on video for us expats. Personally the IRD and their attitude is one of the main deterrents to ever considering coming back home.
That really struck a chord when I read it. The IRD, the Police, the “Justice” Department… I’ve seen public “servants” from these and many other arms of government develop this same mindset with anyone who’s ever challenged them. Worse if it’s done in such a way that they can’t simply swat it away. And far, far worse if you actually ever win.
Henderson’s case was one of the more extreme but I suspect there are thousands of others. I’d be personally aware of around 40 such instances (across government agencies generally, not just the IRD) where essentially what’s being pursued is a personal vendetta.
In such instances we ought to have recourse to various failsafes, up to and including the relevant Minister. But Ministers unfailing believe their Departments to be right, and the petitioner to be a nutter. And some are driven to become so, as all they can do is rail powerlessly against their oppressors.
Another failure in the system that everyone agrees is horrific (and will no doubt be discussed at length now the film is released) but about which we seem too lethargic to act.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
when is the film released?
October 17th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Well according to the link DPF posted, “In cinemas November 8, 2007″.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
It’s released November 8. By the way, which party was in power the whole time this movie takes place? Oh, that’s right – NATIONAL!! I wouldn’t have thought you’d have wanted to expose the incompetence of National, DPF.
[DPF: Sigh, you really don't know me very well do you]
October 17th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
The makers of this film will need to watch themselves; IRD revenge seems to be a common thread out there.
The Police are similarly afflicted.
There’s something about a powerful uppity State…………
October 17th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Mike. Top be fair to National, the IRD at that time and certainly before then
where tyrants and a law unto themselves.
I think they may have thaken there model from the IRS in the good ol” US of A, there was many a story about the tyranical approach they took.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I would think, basic film making techniques aside, this is probably one, if not the most, importantly social commentaries of modern times in years.
There is just no underestimating how important this film is as a political, social and cultural dynamic of public adversity in high places.
The timing of this movie is so significant to the EFB but sadly the public is still not aware or comprehended this insidious and corrupt bill.
More importantly though, could this movie move peoples thinking.
It should certainly be more than just a talking piece in academic circles,,
it should be included in cirriculims as Shrty St is.
I must say too, Kudos to Rodney Hide. This should do him no end of good
for his career.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Many are questioning the latest terrorist attempts by those in the Hawkes Bay. I would suggest the IRD and the government should fear more a backlash from middle NZ if the present parasites contiune their habbit of taking all they can get. The IRD are arseholes and deserve the shit they get. As a taxpayer I’m required to estimate my income within 10% each year.Being a farmer this is very difficult and if I get it wrong, boy do I pay. Why am I as a private citizen of this country fucked over if I’m wrong. The arsehole government can not get it surpluses right, always saying they are much more then excepted but God help if the poor peasant screws up.Fucking laws for us and laws for Dear Leader and assorted tossers that make up the socialist suckhole government.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
side show: clearly if you’re a farmer you’re not a peasant.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
yeh cheer up sideshow go see the movie. you really owe it to yourself to take a break from your hard work and as the movie was funded by NZ on air you’ve paid for it anyway.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
AAhhh. Thats right Tane. Perpetuate the “all farmers are filthy rich landowners” bollocks. You blinkered cardie wearers are doing very well out of primary producers who are supporting your government through over taxing.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
hmm, yeah,
Saw that coming Tane
October 17th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
You should have heard Rodney Hide rip Cullen’s guts out at Question Time today.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
OOOhhh,
Do tell tell Adolf,,
any outstanding anecdotes ??
October 17th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
over taxing
Well done Bill, you’ve picked up the line and you’re running with it. Seriously, that’s why you Tories do so well – you’ve got your key messages down and you run them hard. Labour, on the other hand, is bloody miserable at it.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Just as well Aust is so close… so ‘ol Tane can get some perspective on tax.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Very interesting analogy about the way bureaucrats can get tunnel vision.
Once you are tarred with a negative (anti the ruling)Govt. brush you case is fixed.
More often than not it is seen in Govt dept’s because a lot of the staff have never ever worked in the real world and therefore they do not have any concept of what public relations are or any concept of respecting other peoples rights.
This phenomenon is particularly apparent in Govt depts and it is given more weight when it falls into unchecked hands.
Power corrupts and absolute power………!
One obvious case that comes to mind is the Hon Taito Philip Field.
I’m sorry his case has all the hallmarks of bureaucratic power corrupting an innocent victim.
The worst possible offence I can see having studied this case a little is that a Minister Of the Crown with the best of intentions tried to help a disadvantaged immigrant who afterwards turned nasty when in actual fact the immigrant was crooked as dogs hind leg anyway.
Taito’s trumped up charges have all the hallmarks of power corrupting and they completely pail against the dear leaders ones Grand Public Theft !!
Taito was OK with the weight of the Politburo behind him ( they needed him) even though they didn’t agree with his deeply held conservative views on issues.
And most of the Nats missed it even though I can understand them using it to score against Labour but the simple fact is that Lockwood missed it and is still missing it.
This was a boil that finally breached the Armor plated sheild of the Dear leaders enclave and therefore had to be publically lanced.
All’s well until he spoke out against the Dear Leader and her team of scoundrels then it was hell to pay.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
“blinkered cardie wearers”
When comments like that were made about the Brethren you were one of the first screaming “It’s Nazi Germany all over again”
It has been instructive watching the New Right (John Key Provisional Wing) lose their bearimgs over this.
Free speech for all (unless they are smelly hippies of course)_
October 17th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Sonic,
Is it wrong to think that all whining, hypocritical people wear cardies?
October 17th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Well I don’t..
Oh hold on.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Thanks for the review, DPF.
The movie title “We’re here to help” has a *very* familiar ring to it. Was that the IRD slogan from 15+ years ago? Can anyone remember exactly? Stumped.
It sounds like one of those ‘warm and fuzzy’ governmental department communications blurbs – often deliberately totally at odds with the subject matter.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Sonic: Crikey, you’re laughing at yourself. I’m impressed. Clearly you are evolving. Or somebody else is on the shift tonight.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
The scenario could be replicated in 100’s of cases.
Just an example of what I wrote in my EFB submission: “When the course of justice is perverted once, it means that the course of justice must by its nature, lead to further and further perversion. It is a slippery downhill path that always winds up in complete disorder and political and economic instability”.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Audio of question time can be found here:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/parl/parl-20071017-1400-Question_Time_for_17_October-064.mp3
Rodney’s question was question 11 (of 12) so it will be somewhere near the end.
A transcript is available on his blog here:
http://www.act.org.nz/government_policy_and_were_here_to_help
October 18th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Back in the late 80s/early 90s I worked for a bloke who came under the eye of the IRD. They decided to do an audit on him which seemed to us to be mainly a form of harrassment. An example of just one of their tactics is the GST claims that started arriving. Suddenly he started receiving a literal avalanche of claims for unpaid GST. He was receiving numerous of these claims a week. On some days there would be 10 or more GST claims in the post. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to these claims. They were all for different amounts from ridculously small to ridiculously large. The largest was an unpaid GST claim of one million dollars. It would have been nice to think his business had sales of ten million or more but the reality was the business was close to closing down and he was living on the bones of his arse.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:22 am
No Tane, Labour are just bloody miserable. But you’re right on one thing farmers aren’t quite peasants yet despite the vagaries of markets and weather. But if your mob and the greens had their way, they would be.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Jim, it was “It’s our job to be fair.” Yeah Right.
I have some experience of this also – not nearly as bad as Dave Henderson but equally unfair.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Imagine if everyone who had anecdotal evidence got together and proved how much IRD has harrassed them.
It would be totally worth it for the social commentary in itself.
But most interesting would be how far the media would pursue the story.
And being none political (which is why we can’t really blame which govt was in power) the EFB could not touch it.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:33 am
1. The terrorist raids were in Bay of Plenty not Hawkes Bay (as far as I have seen anyway) Ruatoki is just out of Whakatane
2. Not all farmers are well off – particularly drystock in places such as Hawkes Bay.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:37 am
oh – forgot to say – the movie sounds really interesting and i will definitely be along to see it.
i have heard that you need to be careful of the acct you choose to do your books. If you choose one who is known to the IRD as one who takes everything REALLY close to the line then you are much more likely to be investigated yourself.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Well guys sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but I have not had much of a problem with IRD. These days IRD staff are better educated and I have not found an aggressive one yet.
For background I’m a Chartered Accountant specialising in tax compliance, so in my job I deal with IRD via phone or internet several times a week on behalf of my clients. Granted I know more about tax than 99% of IRD employees – so its fairly easy for me to get my point across if I think the IRD has made a mistake (as they do fairly often).
Two of my clients have had audits. The 1st was a GST audit of a GST period prior to them becoming my client. I simply sent the IRD every bit of paper they asked for & they agreed with my calculations. The 2nd is an income tax audit currently in progress, but also from income tax years prior to them becoming my client. I have just sent IRD a large envelope of the papers they requested.
Can I suggest if anyone has a problem with IRD you deal with it quickly by mail or phone. If you have the name of a person who wrote you a letter get that person on the phone & explain. If you have been honest with your tax returns and paid your taxes, there should not be any problem which cannot be fixed.
(If you have been lying & dodging tax or slack & don’t have any paperwork to back up your numbers – that is your problem not a result of IRD harassment.)
If none of this works then get yourself a chartered accountant, give them every bit of paper & pay them $100++ per hour to deal with IRD on your behalf. They will fix the problem, unless it was your fault to begin with. Even so they may be able to get you off some of the penalties.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:07 am
My IRD experiences mirror ManakauMum but I’ve heard plenty of horror stories. You have to be proactive and when a company I was a director of had a tricky large GST refund issue, we hired an ex-IRD staffer (who knew all the brass locally) and it all was resolved with no drama.
Henderson was treated shabbily there is no denying it and I knew people who were advisors to Henderson and so got some of the inside goss on the IRD tactics and he was most undeniably shafted. That said I once had professional dealings with Henderson and he was an arrogant prat – did not like to have his version of events challenged. His political views are far right (having been a member of Zenith Applied Philosphy – ZAP in his younger years) and he refused to brook public criticism of his particular political cronies. He backed former broadcaster George Bellani for Christchurch Mayor but Bellani’s polling plummetted when local media revealed that he was in part ownership with the interests of the notorious brothel owner Terry Brown in a proposed strip club in Chancery Arcade. Henderson had peripheral involvement in this proposal and was by all reports furious at media treatment of Bellani over this issue.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Is it true that , as Dr Cullen claims, the film carries the disclaimer “This film does not purport to be an accurate account of the events involving Mr Henderson and the IRD.” ?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Hey, my first world premiere. The invite arrived today. Funny thing is, I never gave SPP my address. I wonder where they got it from? IRD perhaps?
Concerning what ManukauMum and kiwi in ameica said, I know of an income tax audit coming up to 10 years old in March and still going. The taxpayer concerned did everything properly, fully co-operated with the investigation and had a chartered accound who had worked for the IRD for many years. The taxpayer is basically just an average person, they weren’t even in business. They’ve been automatically reg’d for GST as well.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 am
I just did a post on the Ian Lee Mutton story – someone who was not so successful against the IRD. Go check it out: http://jesuscrux.blogspot.com/2007/10/because-story-needs-to-be-told-over-and.html