Trotter on Bennett
Chris Trotter applauds Paula Bennett:
When Paula Bennett waded, alone, into an ugly West Auckland brawl physically separating the teenage combatants she defined herself in a way the public will long remember.
The minister’s actions demonstrated not only her considerable personal courage, but a rare willingness to act decisively when confronted with a critical set of circumstances.
Indeed. You could spend ages thinking about what happens if I try to intervene, can I call for help, is this unseemly. But Paula went off instinct – and in this case good instinct.
What makes this incident even more of a “good news story” is that Ms Bennett is a politician (a Cabinet minister, no less) and a National Party member to boot. We are accustomed to depicting our political leaders as all talk and no action: moral cowards who will consent to “do something” only after exhaustive polling and focus-group research has reassured them that more than half the electorate will approve.
But this 39-year-old woman acted without political calculation, wading in to prevent a bunch of teenage girls from doing themselves harm, acting in loco parentis in the way we like to think our parents and grandparents used to do back in the good old days.
Not that they were that grateful. Did you see one of the teens the next day on the news boasting about the swear words she used at Paula? I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to ground her for a week.
Grabbing these young miscreants by the scruff of their necks, and calling them to order with a few ripe phrases, will not only commend Ms Bennett to conservative, elderly New Zealanders, but it will also deeply impress her no-nonsense Waitakere constituents confirming her forever as a true Westie.
After all, breaking up a catfight is just the sort of thing Cheryl West, the tough-as-nails yet strangely principled heroine of the TV series Outrageous Fortune, would have done: direct, strong, commonsensical action; and not a single family-group conference required.
If I may get all theoretical for a moment, I’d describe Ms Bennett’s actions as displaying a high degree of “emotional congruence” with her political constituency.
I think most Kiwis like what Paula did, but there is no doubt her direct approach was very much true Westie behaviour.
Fifty years ago, when most working-class people still went to church and subscribed to the rigid ethical code of conservative Christianity, being moralistic wasn’t a problem. And 30 years ago, when it still meant opposing the Vietnam War, apartheid sport and nuclear weapons, political correctness was actually electorally sexy. Today, however, many in Labour resemble the Protestant Political Association, that censorious and illiberal body of bigoted wowsers who struggled to restrict the electoral success of the unsuitable elements of New Zealand society (i.e. Catholics) in the years immediately following World War I.
Labour needs to loosen up and lighten up, becoming a whole lot less judgmental and a whole lot more spontaneous. In fact, until Labour starts selecting candidates a whole lot more like the people it wants to represent – rough, tough and unashamedly aspirational types like Paula Bennett – the Opposition will struggle to win another election.
One can only hope 
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Read his Independent column as well
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
DPF said:
“I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to ground her for a week.”
Jesus christ! Looks like you’ve been consumed by Bradford’s indoctrination! What you should’ve said is:
“I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to have knocked her into next week.”
Nothing a thick ear doesn’t fix!
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
You know what happened last time I tried to break up a fight and why I will never help anyone ever again?
1) Bouncer picks right with drunk
2) I step in and push them apart
3) I get knocked out by bouncer (and lost teeth)
4) Police arrive and arrest me for assault
5) Fight the charge costing me $1500 + $1500 for a new tooth
6) Police telling me not to fight it cause I can’t win
Fuck that, never again. Fuck the police too, I lost all respect for them that night.
Breaking up a fight is stupid. I know this has happened to someone else as well. let them kill each other and save yourself the time and money.
I think shes a damm fool. The only reason she has been put in the spot light is:
1) Shes a women
2) She is someone somewhat important
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Good on her, she’s shown she’s a real person, with a lot of guts.
I’d be interested to hear her thoughts on it and if she feels she would have reacted any different if she didn’t have a new found sense of responsibility.
It’s not a criticism but I recall the first time I was in a really responsible position. I caught and restrained a heavily tattooed brown fella who just broke into my neighbours house, I put him over the bonnet of my car until the cops arrived…..they pulled a sharpened screwdriver from his back pocket…..and told me how lucky I was.
I think a little bit longer these days. (just run the bastard over with my car)
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Infused – It is extremely unfortunate that you did not know how to play the Section 48 card. A person in that situation should say to the cops (with the video rolling) something along the lines of ‘I believed that X was going to get hurt and considered it my duty to intervene and save him from injury’. As long as the response was reasonable in the circumstances (ie no unreasonable or unnecessary force) the cops will think twice about laying a charge against you. IUt does cnot matter a hoot that the belief was mistaken. There is unfortunately no assurance that the police will make a reasonable decision on this, like the way a Detective Inspector dragged a poor police dog handler through the courts a few years ago. The prosecution case was a load of rubbish and the only chance of a successful prosecution was to try and hoodwink the jury. The jury took less than half an hour to chuck the case out.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
More interesting than his comments on Paula Bennett are Trotter’s comments on the Labour Party and its candidate selection processes
http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2009/01/whats-up-with-trotter.html
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Inventory2 – during and immediately following the election Trotter was like a dumped girlfriend with PMT. – No grace, no self control, really threw his toys.
Time’s a great healer for the emotionally insecure – Now he’s starting to soul search the true reasons, he just has to find the blame…..and slowly the turret turns …..eventually it will turn all the way around …..and face….. people just like him!
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I actually took “I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to ground her for a week.” as tongue in cheek.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Quite so Patrick – in fact, I do believe that he was tjhe first, or at worst second to receive a post in Keeping Stock’s “Bad loser” series – which makes today’s outpourings of honesty so much more fascinating.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Trotter is a muppet, I’ve completely given up reading his nonsense. I mean really, the toss pot couldn’t even do a good job of shooting me down on his old ‘policy’ blog.
http://www.policy.net.nz/blog/2008/09/25/i-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-curiously-unimpressive/
If you want to see him wiggle out of what he originally posted read some of his comments later in the thread….
The man’s a blithering insecure tool, don’t let his masterful use of language fool you – just under the surface is a complete idiot.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Mattyroo said: What you should’ve said is: “I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to have knocked her into next week.” Nothing a thick ear doesn’t fix!
Is the lesson is that insulting someone will only be fixed by resorting to violence?
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
“I hope her parents saw that, and care enough to ground her for a week.”
Something tells me that the parents of these children aren’t too worried about what they are doing. They wouldn’t be fighting each other and swearing at people if they were. Degenerates.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I’m sorry but sometimes Trotter does not get it.
Occasionally he is magnificent, such as his column when he said that “[w]hat led a majority of the New Zealand electorate to reject a government that has not only done it no great harm (as National-led governments are historically prone to do), but might even be said to have done it some good?” when talking about the last election result.
At other times he seems to be hell bent on being “fair”.
Bennett has possibly the second most important job in cabinet, making sure that kiwis who will fall on hard times are able to survive. She needs to show that she understands economics and law and the way that Wellington works. She also needs to show compassion.
Being stupid enough to wade into a teenage chick flight in West Auckland and persuade the protagonists to cool it is not a skill that is required.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Trotter whilst Liarbour (for old times sake) was in power was a rabid leftie. Seems now he is sucking up to who ever is in power. Mickysavage, tell me why most WINZ offices in NZ now employ security gaurds to protect the staff from the “kiwis that fall on hard times”. Originally I thought Collins would have been a better minister for this portfolio, now I think Paula is in the right person for the job.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Murray M
Paula was the PR choice, not the skills based choice. The Nats thought about Judith Collins but she was far too scary so they thought about who would look good in the media. An ex beneficiary resident in a working class area and without an obvious middle class twang was preferrable and if she was a solo mum with a teenage daughter then so much the better. An ability to do the job was not a requirement.
They then ran through the ranks of the National MPs and found only one candidate that even came close. So she became the Minister of Social Welfare. She is not bad, she talked a while ago about women on the DPB being properly transitioned off the benefit but the ranks of National supporters will bristle at the thought of any beneficiary being given the slightest amount of space or support.
You forget the early 1980s or 1990s when the unemployment rate was huge. Last year things looked so sanguine and WINZ offices looked so underutilised.
Those were the good old days …
[DPF: MS talks as expertly on National supporters as a priest does on good sex. A lot of opinions and bigotry but no experience]
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Micky I pretty much disagree with eevrything you have said above. Please answer my question. Why do WINZ offices employ security gaurds?
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
mickysavage said “Bennett has possibly the second most important job in cabinet, making sure that kiwis who will fall on hard times are able to survive. She needs to show that she understands economics and law and the way that Wellington works. She also needs to show compassion.
Being stupid enough to wade into a teenage chick flight in West Auckland and persuade the protagonists to cool it is not a skill that is required.”
Spoken like a true public servant mickysavage! “The way Wellington works” – what crap! Paula Bennet is going to redefine the way that Wellington works, which will be good news for the taxpayer. And she will lead her portfolio with the benefit of experience. As for your comment about “kiwis who will fall on hard times” – do you include DPB beneficiaries who choose solo motherhood as a career in that? Do you include the likes of Phil U who see not working as a career choice? Do you include the myriad of beneficiaries for whom taxpayer support by way of welfare benefits has become the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom?
Sorry micky; don’t buy your rationale.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
i luv bitch slapping
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
IV2, ditto on the solo parents you have described. Don’t forget the junkies and alcoholics who pick up thier sickness & invalids benefits with no responsibility to show any improvement in thier life styles. And of course there are those who are just too fucken lazy to work, you know the ones that appear in the court pages.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Good on Paula I think she should get into mud wrestling and perhaps follow Bill English into the ring that really helped him and national.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I think the coment above that said “degenerates” was spot on. I tried to stop a fight between tow bunches of school girls in Hillary Court, Naenae, two years ago. Almost immediately it became apparent that both mobs were going to turn on me so I left them to it. Another reason my kids aren’t gong to Naenae College.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Chris is bipolar. Nice every second week.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
isn’t that “angus bi-hebdomadal”?
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Chris Trotter these days to maintain any credibility has to flow with the tide.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Mickey Savage ….. (actually I thought you were dead and stuffed in some ghastly Mausoleum tendered with loving care by Jafa Pete) assuming you are not dead could I just say that your various posts give me a hugely secure feeling that we are going to be governed by a National/ACT/MP government for years to come. The drival you spout is proof positive of the ‘disconnect’ that Labour is going to have to overcome if it is ever again going to sit on the treasury benches … and the more they/you continue to spout silly little mantras like “National supporters will bristle at the thought of any beneficiary being given the slightest amount of space or support” the greater that disconnect will become. So keep it up old son.
National ACTs. Labour Squalks.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:14 am
His use of language is not mastery, it’s the effluent flow of insanity. He begins by wrongly defining National supporters, then stereotyping an older generation – one he usually writes his hate about – then dividing christianity into groups so he can hate “protestants”. Then he calls them bigots while displaying his own newly found intolerance. I bet he didnt even know what a protestant was until he spelt out the word. You can imagine him discovering it, rolling it on his tongue between bites of big mac, saying it over and over in various ways until he settles on an Irish accent, then feverishly tapping it out – punching the air in solidarity with “our fighting brothers in Ireland”.
God he’s an ill man. He always has to be hating something.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:27 am
“In fact, until Labour starts selecting candidates a whole lot more like the people it wants to represent – rough, tough and unashamedly aspirational types like Paula Bennett – the Opposition will struggle to win another election.”
Very true. And the new people they have selected are just the same, inhabiting a world remote from where middle New Zealand really is. Possibly the most damaging part of the election loss for Labour was (narrowly) losing both Damien O’Connor and Harry Duynhoven – two of the small number of Labour MPs who actually “got it”. (Fools in Labour are probably glad they are gone).
Labour’s caucus now is a long long way from understanding the real New Zealand.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Remember the Nazi supporters who, when defeated, changed their ways in order to survive the death penalty? Well Trotter, clearly a communist and great fan of his stablemate Cullen, is behaving the same way. Leopards never, never, ever change their spots and communists as old and indoctrinated as Trotter never change.
” Old poem. ” Never smile at a crocodile, don’t be taken in by his welcome grin.”
Just in case you have already forgotten what a poisonous bastard this fellow is.
Problem with all you Nat. lovers is that you are too soft. You treat your enemies with too much dignity. Finish him off along with the Liarbors who ripped the heart, soul and initiative out of our country, and the unions and their stablemates that assisted them.
But guess what, you won’t. No killer instinct.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
never mind trotter..he has no power..
it is english i am worried about..
..he is giving every appearance of not having a feckin’clue..
..either about what is coming down..
..and what is actually happening..
..his ‘greatest uncertainty’ is revealed..
..whoar..!!
http://whoar.co.nz/2009/comment-whoarum-billyour-biggest-uncertaintyhas-become-a-certaintyis-bill-englishs-intelligencereally-that-badwhoar/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
January 24th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
never mind philu .. he’s derranged.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Trotter is a dickhead. He lost all credibility when he wrote in his Sunday Star Times column that the voters got in wrong. An election by definition is a democratic process and the voters cannot “get it wrong”. This greasy opinion piece of his on Paula Bennett is pure sophistry. Pratt.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Well at least this time he gibbered a bit giving the pretence of a comment before link whoring.
David why do you hate your brain, I’ve told you, Trotter is not be taken internally.