0 Another Whale of a scoop

Cameron Slater has developed a bit of a reputation for breaking significant stories over the last couple of years. That saw him win the Canon Media Award for Best Blog earlier in the year, to the chagrin of a number of mainstream media figures.

And he's broken another story this morning which, if it is true, casts Labour leader David Cunliffe in a very poor light.

It's Slater's scoop, so we're not going to steal any of his thunder here. We simply suggest that you go and read this story, and judge it for yourself. But it certainly casts Mr Cunliffe's apology for being a man in a very different and unflattering light.

0 A lecture from Bradbury

Martyn Bradbury is in lecturing mode in his Herald on Sunday column today. With reference to David Cunliffe's astounding apology for being a man, Bradbury opines:

Pundits and talkback radio callers couldn't trip over invisible privilege fast enough this week as a knee-jerk backlash against David Cunliffe's heartfelt apology at a domestic violence symposium was turned into a "not-all-men-are-rapists" argument or a "men-get-sexually-abused-too" debate.
"I don't often say it - I'm sorry for being a man, because family and sexual violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men." This genuine statement of remorse for New Zealand's staggeringly high domestic violence rate was decried by some commentators as disingenuous. Those of us comfortable in our masculinity can look beyond the personal offence semantics and respect Cunliffe's political courage. Every man should feel sorry for the tens of thousands of women who never see justice in our courts for rapes and sexual assaults against them. Every man should feel sorry that 35 Kiwis are killed in domestic violence-related crime annually.

Every man should feel sorry that 20,000 women and children sought refuge last year. Because 84 per cent of convicted domestic violence is male on female. That isn't to diminish the men assaulted by women, but it is important to accept we have a problem of violence against women and paying lip service to that culture of violence isn't enough.
Labour's attempt to challenge that lip service via a real desire for gender equality has seen a sexist counter-narrative . "Manban" and "female dominated" have been headlines used to rob women of their platform to have their say. Who women vote for will be essential to who wins in September and Labour's strong stand on women's rights coupled with their baby bonus, extra maternity leave, donation-free schools, iPads for every student, $16 minimum wage and smaller class sizes can rally that female vote and gain Labour the 32 per cent needed to make a Parliamentary majority, if Greens gain 15 per cent and Internet Mana 3.5 per cent.

We frankly don't need lecturing and/or hectoring from Comrade Bradbury. As we have noted many times we abhor domestic violence; it is NEVER OK. And whilst we may feel sorry for those who are victims of domestic violence, we most certainly do NOT feel sorry that we were born male, and we are not sorry that we are a husband and a father.

Domestic violence needs to be stopped, but politicians making grandiose apologies for their gender will have no impact whatsoever. Nor will the hand-wringing and lecturing of the likes of Martyn Bradbury. What does need to happen is for those men who beat or psychologically abuse their partners and children to stop, and to seek help. And what also needs to happen is for those close to those people to stop making excuses for them.

As for the so-called "sexist counter-narrative" Bradbury refers to, we have been consistent in our criticism of Labour's attempts to engineer gender equality in its caucus because it is patronising and demeaning to the very women Bradbury tries to defend. Helen Clark didn't need quotas or list manipulation to become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Nor did Annette King need a quota to become Phil Goff's deputy leader. Nor for that matter did Jenny Shipley, to become New Zealand's first female Prime Minister. All three women got their own their merits, and all power to them.

Like David Cunliffe a week ago, Martyn Bradbury doesn't speak for us, or for the vast numbers of men who totally reject domestic violence. Nor should he pretend to. We're glad Martyn Bradbury is comfortable is his masculinity. So are we, and for that we make no apology whatsoever. 

0 Quote of the Day - 12 July 2014

Chris Trotter expresses his dumbfoundedness over David Cunliffe's much-discussed apology for being a man last week. He's blogged this at Bowalley Road:

“PLEASE TELL ME I’M DREAMING”, texted a friend of mine. “Please tell me that David Cunliffe didn’t just apologise for being a man.” I stared at my cell-phone in disbelief. Was he joking? Why would the leader of a political party languishing in the opinion polls alienate at least half of the voting public? Why would he hand his opponents such an enormous cudgel? As if his party wasn’t already battered enough?

 

Later that day, at the pub, the guffaws and the jokes continued. I have to confess, I contributed my fair share of them. I would also point out that although all of my drinking companions were lefties, by no means all of them were men. This was equal opportunity ridicule.

 

So what was going on here? Why were a tableful of seasoned leftists – male and female – and all of them well-versed in the facts and figures of domestic violence in New Zealand so unanimous in condemning the opening sentences of David Cunliffe’s speech to last Friday’s Women’s Refuge Symposium?

 

When even seasoned lefties such as Chris Trotter's drinking buddies are swinging between criticising David Cunliffe for his comments and laughing at him because of them, it's pretty clear that the Labour leader missed his target by some margin. But that's hardly a surprise.

0 Hey Hone; there's no "if" in sorry

Hone Harawira has apologised (in a manner of speaking) for trivialising the alleged sex assault by a Malaysian military attache on a Wellington woman. The Dom-Post reports:

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has apologised for calling the row over a sexual assault charge against a diplomat "bugger all."
The Te Tai Tokerau MP made the remarks on political panel show Backbenches last week.
Asked on the show about the political storm around alleged attacker Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail, Harawira said: "I think all of the media, their heads should roll for making a big fuss about bugger all."
The country was facing more pressing matters such as "kids starving", he said.
Harawira added: "Let's just keep it there, it's allegedly, and so until such time that this sorts its self out, let's get on with running the country in the best interests of all off the citizens."
Now Harawira says he made a "big mistake" and praised Tania Billingsley, the 22-year-old victim of the alleged attack, for speaking out about mishandling of the case. 

There's just one problem; Harawira's apology is far from unconditional; read on:

Billingsley spoke on TV3's Third Degree programme last night about the events surrounding the granting of diplomatic immunity to the diplomat.
In a Facebook post this morning, Harawira said: "I want to sincerely apologise if my comments on Backbenches may seem to have minimised the gravity of the situation regarding the young woman who asked police to investigate the complaint of sexual assault against the Malaysian diplomat.
"I have reviewed the tape and I accept that my comments were not helpful at all.
"Sexual assault IS a big deal, and I applaud Tania Rose Billingsley for her brave and courageous appearance on television last night."
Internet Party leader Laila Harre, who has formed a political alliance with Harawira, said the apology was "very sincere."
In a tweet, she added: "Kia haha [sic] to Ms Billingsley." 

Sorry Hone, but prefacing an "apology" with "I want to sincerely apologise if..." is not an apology at all in our books. Real apologies are unconditional, and leave no wiggle-room.

What Mr Harawira should have said was something like this:

"I made a comment last week that was wrong. I apologise unreservedly. Sexual assaults are never a trivial matter"

Apologies have been in the news a bit in the last week. We're far from perfect, and have made plenty of apologies of our own over the years. If any politicians need help in the language of apologies, we'd be only too happy to help! 

0 Tweet of the Day - 10 July 2014

We've just been alerted to this:

Given the way that David Cunliffe has had to back down on or clarify almost every policy announcement or statement he has made so far this year, we reckon it's only a matter of time before he declares that he's sorry for being sorry!

PS: And just so there's no confusion, domestic violence is NOT ok. Whilst we don't like what some men do, we're not sorry about the way we were born.

0 Body on Cunliffe's "hair shirt"

David Cunliffe's apology for being a man is going to continue to hog the headlines for a few days yet. And as Herald cartoonist Guy Body notes pictorially, it won't have gone without notice at Labour's election-year congress at the weekend.

Allow us to repeat our position from Friday. Domestic violence is NEVER ok, ever. But Mr Cunliffe can keep his political platitudes. If there is something he wants to apologise about, that's fine, but he does not speak for us. We make more than our share of mistakes, and when we do, we apologise. We don't need a vote-chasing politician doing it for us.

And we won't be buying a hair shirt tee-shirt any day soon.

0 Mallard's Moa

This cartoon arrived in our inbox overnight, sent to us by a keen-eyed reader:

It really has been Trevor Mallard's week. Plans to de-extinct an extinct bird and have moa wandering freely in the Wainuiomata bush have given Mallard far more profile than anyone else in the Labour Party has had, and at least he hasn't had to apologise for being what he is!

But we still believe that Trevor's staving off of extinction is merely temporary. Tracy Watkins wrote this yesterday:

Labour needed Trevor Mallard this week like it needed a hole in the head.
Mallard's blurt about bringing Moa back from the dead was a gift to National who gloried in the treasure trove of one-liners about dinosaurs and extinction.
Ironically, Mallard's grand Moa plan coincided with a morning tea shout to mark him and Annette King celebrating three decades in Parliament.
Even Mallard's Labour colleagues couldn't resist the Jurassic Park comparisons.
Bizarrely, there was also a school of thought that Mallard might actually be a genius because people were finally talking about Labour.
That must surely be the definition of clutching at straws, but it is symptomatic of the trough Labour has found itself in that generating any sort of chatter round the water cooler - even when it invites ridicule - is an improvement. 

Ouch!

0 Comments of the Day - 4 July 2014

David Cunliffe's apology "for being a man" has stolen the media limelight this afternoon. TV, radio and news websites are all reporting the apology, putting it in context. Here's Stuff's view on it:

Labour leader David Cunliffe has apologised at a Women's Refuge symposium for being a man and pledged to a invest an extra $60 million in family violence services.
Speaking to a room of mostly women in Auckland today, Cunliffe spoke of the "bullshit, deep-seated sexism" still prevalent in New Zealand.
"It needs to stop," he said .
"I don't often say it - I'm sorry for being a man," Cunliffe said, "because family and sexual violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men."
The symposium was held in response to the Government's newly announced initiatives aiming to curb family violence in New Zealand. 

The Stuff story has generated plenty of activity in its comments section, and to be fair, not much of it will please the apologetic Labour leader. But this comment stood out, from the 164 comments left so far:

Peter S is dead right; this is a dreadful blunder for a man who has been in politics for 15 years now, and ought to know better. 

And then there's this string of consecutive comments:

We wholly expected the start of Labour's election-year congress today to be overshadowed by some kind on negative story. What we didn't expect would be the leader of the Labour Party becoming the negative story himself. This is appallingly bad political management by David Cunliffe.

0 UPDATED: Tweet of the Day - 4 July 2014

We've just spotted this from 3News senior reporter Amanda Gillies:

Whatever is David Cunliffe thinking these days? Yes; some men behave appallingly towards women. But the majority do not, and have little to apologise for.

What David Cunliffe SHOULD be apologising for however is being the leader of a political party that thinks so poorly of the ability of women to progress on their merits that the party has to create a quota system. That is truly demeaning and patronising towards women.

Save your political platitudes Mr Cunliffe. We're perfectly capable and willing to apologise where necessary, and we don't need you apologising on our behalf. 

***************

UPDATE: Retiring National MP Chris Tremain puts it far better than we could:

We couldn't agree more.